The second act nobody saw coming: Steven Alker's remarkable rise at 50

Five years ago, on a warm practice day at the PGA Tour Champions' Furyk & Friends tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, an unassuming New Zealander named Steven Alker was quietly working on the driving range. Few spectators stopped to watch. Fewer still could have imagined what was about to unfold.

But one man saw something special.

John Felice, a volunteer from Ponte Vedra Beach working the range, stood alongside a reporter and pointed toward Alker.

"You need to watch this guy," he said. "He's got the most beautiful swing."

The prediction proved remarkably prophetic.

Alker was a journeyman

At the time, Alker hardly appeared destined for stardom. He was a journeyman professional who had spent decades grinding through the highs and lows of a game that rarely rewards persistence.

He chased opportunities around the globe, trying to carve out a living while remaining largely anonymous to golf fans.

Meanwhile, the reporter was occupied tracking down more recognizable names such as quote machines Rocco Mediate and Paul Goydos, players who would eventually finish somewhere around 40th that week. Alker barely registered on anyone's radar.

That was about to change.

Making his way originally as a Monday qualifier, he finished tied for seventh, extending a remarkable streak of six consecutive top-10 finishes that season. Less than a month later, he captured his first PGA Tour Champions title, launching one of the most remarkable late-career renaissances in professional golf.

For Scott McCarron, Alker's rise remains difficult to comprehend.

"We all just wonder, where was he 20 years ago, you know what I mean?" McCarron said.

It's a fair question.

Alker's PGA Tour career was unspectacular

In 87 career starts on the PGA Tour, Alker never recorded a top-10 finish. He earned less than $1 million competing against the world's best players and appeared destined to remain one of professional golf's forgettable names.

Yet golf has a way of offering second chances, and Alker has taken full advantage of golf’s ultimate mulligan at age 50.

The New Zealander has become one of the most successful unsung players in PGA Tour Champions history. He won the 2023 Charles Schwab Cup, has amassed 14 victories on the senior circuit and continues to perform at a level few could have imagined during his PGA Tour years.

Now 55, he's showing little sign of slowing down. Alker recorded four victories and 12 top-10 finishes this season while pushing his PGA Tour Champions career earnings beyond $15 million. He enters this week's Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix ranked third in the standings.

The formula, according to his peers, isn't complicated.

It's execution.

"He possesses one of the soundest swings on Tour, and he's a great putter," McCarron said. "Once he learned how to win, there was no stopping the guy. He has no weaknesses."

Others impressed with Alker's game

David Toms has been equally impressed by Alker's ability to make difficult golf appear routine.

"He makes 6 or 7 under look easy," Toms said.

But it is on the greens where Alker may separate himself most. Toms compares Alker's mid-range putting ability to Jordan Spieth's magical 2015 season, when Spieth seemed capable of holing everything he looked at. For opponents, it's a maddening combination: a technically sound swing, elite putting, remarkable composure and an uncanny knack for keeping momentum on his side.

Even those closest to him struggle to explain it.

Troy Martin, Alker's caddie for the last several years, has witnessed the consistency, preparation and relentless production from inside the ropes. Yet when asked how Alker keeps doing it, he found himself at a loss.

"To explain it, I can't do that," Martin said.

Maybe that's the most fitting explanation of all.

For years, Alker was simply the golfer who kept showing up. He traveled, competed, persevered and waited for an opportunity that never seemed to arrive. Then, almost overnight, he became one of the players everyone else was chasing.

Five years ago, Felice spotted something special in a quiet New Zealander hitting balls on a Florida driving range. What he couldn't have known was that he was witnessing the opening chapter of one of golf's greatest second acts.

And perhaps the most remarkable part of Steven Alker's story isn't that he finally found success.

It's that, at 55, he still doesn't look finished.

Adam Schupak joined Golfweek in 2006 and covers the PGA Tour, the business of golf, and enjoys contributing to golf travel and architecture.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: The second act nobody saw coming: Steven Alker's remarkable rise at 50