Golf: Steven Alker leads major championship; Dame Lydia Ko, Ryan Fox climb leaderboards
Steven Alker has made a strong start in his bid for a 10th win on the PGA Tour Champions.
The Kiwi sits in a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard of the tour's third major championship of the year, the Kaulig Companies Championship, in Ohio.
Alker backed
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NZ Herald
5 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Golf: Steven Alker leads major championship; Dame Lydia Ko, Ryan Fox climb leaderboards
Steven Alker has made a strong start in his bid for a 10th win on the PGA Tour Champions. The Kiwi sits in a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard of the tour's third major championship of the year, the Kaulig Companies Championship, in Ohio. Alker backed
RNZ News
10 hours ago
- RNZ News
Steven Alker, Tim Petrovic join lead at Kaulig Companies Championship
Steven Alker plays his shot on the fourth hole during the second round of the Kaulig Companies Championship 2025 at Firestone Country Club on 20 June 2025 in Akron, Ohio. Photo: David Berding / Getty Images / AFP Tim Petrovic fired a 66 and New Zealand's Steven Alker posted a 67 to join Ricardo Gonzalez of Argentina for the 36-hole lead at the Kaulig Companies Championship, the third major of the PGA Tour Champions season, in Akron, Ohio. Gonzalez was a first-round co-leader and shot 68 on Friday (local time) to stay in contention. The leading trio is 5-under-par 135 after two rounds, one ahead of Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez, whose 66 Friday brought him to 4 under. Sweden's Freddie Jacobson (67) is alone in fifth at 3 under. Petrovic balanced seven birdies against three bogeys Friday at Firestone Country Club, finishing by rolling in a birdie putt at the par-4 ninth to grab his share of the lead. Petrovic, 58, is the surprise of the week thus far. He has yet to win on the PGA Tour Champions and entered the week a pedestrian 38th in the Charles Schwab Cup standings. "I've been hitting it well the last few weeks and I just haven't had much to show for it because I haven't really had many putts," Petrovic said. Tim Petrovic of the US plays his shot on the sixth hole during the second round of the Kaulig Companies Championship 2025 at Firestone Country Club on 20 June 2025 in Akron, Ohio. Photo: David Berding / Getty Images / AFP "Then made a couple long putts early, I'm like, 'Oh, wait a second, maybe we've got something going here'." Alker, the 2022 and 2024 Schwab Cup winner, is hunting for his second senior major championship. He birdied four of his first six holes Friday before dropping off a bit, with two bogeys and a birdie the rest of the way. "If you get a good start around this golf course you kind of don't have to be as aggressive as you normally would be," Alker said. "Yeah, just pleased to get under par again out here." One of the rounds of the day belonged to Jimenez, the current Schwab Cup leader with three wins under his belt already in 2025. He was 5 under par through 16 holes before taking his only bogey of the round at No. 17. If not for that bogey, he'd be part of the tie at the top. "You need to have a lot of patience here," Jimenez said of Firestone. "It's a golf course that you have a couple slopes in the fairway, 4, 8, 9 ... It's a very fair golf course overall. You need to hit good, here is no luck, you need to hit good to score well." Angel Cabrera of Argentina, the PGA Tour Champions newcomer who won the first two majors of the season, is not far behind at 1 under after shooting 68 Friday. - Field Level Media
Otago Daily Times
19 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Adventures to unfold on big screen
Some of the best adventure films from across the globe will be shown in Queenstown next week. The annual NZ Mountain Film Festival, now in its 23rd year, this year received a record 294 entries — the final lineup features 64 award-winning and finalist films, including 18 by Kiwi film-makers. Being held at the Queenstown Memorial Centre next Thursday and Friday, the films will also be available to watch online from July 1 to 31. The Thursday session here, from 7pm, starts with a 'social session' before a conversation with Beth Rodden, regarded as one of the greatest rock climbers of all time, who's recently published a memoir, A Light Through the Cracks, from 7.30pm. Four films will then be shown including Trango, directed by Leo Hoorn (US), the grand prize winner this year. The film follows a team of ski mountaineers, including previous NZ Mountain Film Fest guest speaker Christina Lustenberg, of the US, who skied the first descent of the Great Trango Glacier in Pakistan, after a two-year attempt. Navigating risk, grappling with grief and facing physical danger, the team pushes the limits of human experiences, facing the unimaginable together. Other films on Thursday night are Body of a Line (Henna Taylor, US), solo award winner Far Enough (Julien Carot, France), and Alone Across Gola (Jude Kriwald, UK), the best film on adventurous sports and lifestyle. Another seven films will screen during Friday's 'Pure NZ' session, between 3pm and 6pm. They include the community spirit award-winner, Spirit of the West (Pedro Pimentel), which is set against New Zealand's West Coast and captures the spirit of the Old Ghost Ultra, All In or Nothing, directed by Gordon Duff, which won the best documentary award, and follows young athlete Matthew Fairbrother who's up against 120 riders with full support crews as he attempts to win the overall title at the NZ MTB Rally, on his own, and Waiatoto (Josh Morgan and Jasper Gibson), winner of the Hiddleston/MacQueen Award for best NZ-made film. It tells the story of a traverse across the Southern Alps through packraft, skis and tramping. Starting at the Matukituki, Gibson, Nick Pascoe and Charlie Murray travelled via Tititea, the Volta Glacier and the Waiatoto to the Tasman Sea. "We didn't set out to make a film," Pascoe says, "the focus was on a creative adventure through an incredible corner of the country, simply for the sake of it." Rounding out this year's festival is Friday night's 'Snow Show', from 7pm, which includes best snow sports film Painting the Mountains (Pierre Cadot, France), set in El Chalten, a remote Patagonian village beneath Fitz Roy, where three French skiers arrive to pioneer new lines. Tickets to Thursday's session cost $30 ($5 youth discount) and $25 for each of Friday's sessions, with youth discounts. For more info, or to buy tickets, see
