Two of the PGA Tour Champions best 'out of nowhere' stories face off in playoff in Tucson
Two of the PGA Tour Champions best "out of nowhere" stories rallied late Sunday to force a playoff.
Steven Alker's journey is well-known by now. He Monday'd into a Champions event in Seattle, parlayed that into a top 10, and before you knew it, he had nine top-10s and a win during his breakout 2021 season. He later won the Charles Schwab Cup in 2022 and 2024.
Club pro Jason Caron hasn't yet accrued Alker's level of success but his path has been similar.
In the 2023 Senior PGA Professional Championship, he finished tied for 32nd, which was good enough to earn him a spot in the 2024 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. He would tie for fourth there, which got him into several Champions events. In 2024, he would play in eight of then, make the cut at seven of them, including three top fours.
He would go on to reach the Champions tour season finale in Phoenix last November, which also guaranteed him his tour card in 2025. "I'm not really supposed to be here," he said then at Phoenix Country Club, but he keeps doing his best to prove that to be untrue.
So that's their backstories. Sunday at La Paloma Country Club in Tucson, Alker and Caron each posted 66s to finish tied at 12 under after regulation, forcing a playoff in the 2025 Cologuard Classic.
Caron birdied the 16th, 17th and 18th holes to get there. Alker birdied the 15th, 16th and 17th, as each man tracked down Greg Chalmers, the 18- and 36-hole leader. On Sunday, Chalmers bogeyed two of his final seven holes and settled for a 71 to finish at 11 under, tied with fellow Aussie Rod Pampling, both men a shot short of bonus golf.
The playoff between Alker and Caron didn't last long. They went back to the 18th hole and Alker birdied it while Caron made par.
It's Alker's ninth win and 58th top-10 in 78 starts on the Champions tour.
"It's huge. It's been, what, 13, 14 months since my last win. Just to get over that hurdle and get that one," he said. "The game's just been feeling good, just consistent week in and week out. This is what I want, just to give myself chances. Moving forward, I've got a Schwab Cup to defend, so I've got to get it going."
Alker had two bogeys in his first seven holes but responded with four birdies and an eagle over his last 10.
"It's a lot of fun. And the competition's just getting so good. The Aussies coming out and the new blood, so it's getting good.
"You've just got to keep getting better."
Stewart Cink celebrates gender reveal with shirt color
Stewart Cink was in Tucson as well this week and before the final round, he did an on-camera gender reveal.
His son (and one-time caddie) Reagan and his wife Olivia are due in September and before Sunday's action got underway, Cink had a pink and a blue polo shirt on his bed, then opened an envelope to announce boy or girl.
Spoiler alert if for those who didn't watch the video: it's going to be a boy.
Winners on the PGA Tour Champions in 2025
Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai
Ernie Els
Trophy Hassan II
Miguel Angel Jimenez
Chubb Classic
Justin Leonard
Cologuard Classic
Steven Alker
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