There was a lovely anecdote in a recent profile of Steven Alker on the PGA Tour website that rather neatly summed up how the resurgent New Zealand golfer had not forgotten what got him here.
At Alker’s home in Phoenix, Arizona, he has a sort of collection bowl - for keys and the like - that is actually a golf trophy, from one of his better days on the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour.
It serves a practical purpose but it is also a reminder of the struggle, faced by so many golfers, to truly flourish at the top level.
Alker (51) is struggling no more.
After the better part of 20 years spent plugging away with moderate success, which included qualifying for the PGA Tour three times but never managing to hold on to his card, he announced his arrival on the PGA Champions Tour - for golfers aged 50 and over - with an extraordinary performance in 2022.
He won four tournaments, including one of the tour’s majors, the Senior PGA.
He led the tour in scoring average with a mark (68.27) bettered in the past 20 years only by a couple of handy blokes called Bernhard Langer and Fred Couples. And, on his way to winning the Charles Schwab Cup for highest earner, he banked a cool $NZ5.5 million.
Small wonder Alker, a modest type anyway, is still sort of wondering how to explain how it all feels.
"How many words have I got?" he told the Otago Daily Times from Phoenix.
"An amazing year, absolutely. Above my expectations.
"The titles were great, but to just hang on the way I did for 20 weeks or whatever leading the Schwab Cup was a big deal.
"It was just a dream year. That’s all I can say."
Alker’s success shocked most New Zealand sports fans who, fairly or not, had him labelled as a journeyman for most of his career.
But the Waikato native had an inkling he would do well in 2022 after making his debut on the Champions Tour late the previous year and almost immediately banking a win to secure his status.
The tour is no pensioners’ lark. Golfers on it still perform at an elite level, the field is littered with former major winners and just maintaining tour status can be tough.
Alker had to work hard for his success last year.
"The numbers showed the hard work paid off. My scoring, and putting, and greens in regulation - all those stats were very good, and they need to be if you are going to win.
"That is probably what pleased me the most. Just being so consistent and staying at top of my game.
"The thing in the back of my mind was just getting on the Champions Tour, because that can be hard enough. Even now, I don’t have the status of a lot of guys, lifelong membership or anything.
"I still have to play well and keep up my consistency and keep winning, just to stay on the tour, but that actually spurs me on."
What chance of a repeat in 2023? Well, it’s golf, and Alker is aware nothing comes easy.
He is feeling great, not just because of his recent success but due to a fitness regime that has him in tip-top shape, and he sees no reason why he cannot chase more success.
He would love to win another of the senior majors - there are five - and, thrillingly, his Senior PGA win has earned a spot in the full PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in May.
"They are back to back. That will be exciting. I’ve played the US Opens and a bunch of British Opens but never the PGA.
"It’s just really a big focus on giving myself a possibility to win every week. That won’t happen, but I just want to tee up with confidence and think, yeah, I could win this. If I feel good and play well, wins will come."
Finding genuine success on the other side of 50 has certainly made Alker think about the golfer he was in his 30s and 40s, and allowed him to reflect on what might have been.
But he is having too much fun and revelling in too much success to look back with regrets.
"It’s sad to say but I feel like more of a complete player now than when I was back then.
"I had small stretches back then where I competed well, but I just feel like my game and my fitness now are totally different.
"I’m feeling as good as I have for a very long time, and feeling like a better player all-round, and that’s a really nice feeling."
Alker is mourning the loss of his caddie, Sam Workman, who died of cancer on February 6.
Workman had become a "great friend" as well as a golfing partner.
"We worked together for four years, and that’s a long time for a player-caddie relationship.
"He was great for me on the fairways. He loved being out there.
"He just really suited me, and we worked things out.
"We’d both been through some struggles on the Korn Ferry Tour, and it was nice to do well on the Champions Tour. We got to the pinnacle and it was an amazing feeling."
Caddying for Alker at the New Zealand Open at Millbrook next week will be his wife, Tanya, while the kids stay in school back in Arizona.
The Alkers will actually celebrate their 20th anniversary, rather sweetly, on the opening day of the tournament on Thursday.
"I love having Tanya inside the ropes, and we’ve been planning this since about October.
"She hasn’t caddied for a while. I think her last time was a British or US Open, one of those small events. It’s going to be fun."
Like all Kiwis, Alker hungers to do well in his national open.
He likes Millbrook - though he is unfamiliar with the course changes - and hopes he will have the golf game to match a profile boosted by his phenomenal run on the Champions Tour.
"I’m looking forward to it. I’m going to put myself among the young players again, four rounds and a cut, and just kind of see where my game is at.
"It means a lot. I’m getting older, but hopefully I’ve got a few more left in me.
"I will always try to fit it in my schedule, though it’s been difficult in recent years with a young family at school.
"I’m excited. My dad died in 2019, and I haven’t been home since then. It’s a big deal for me.
"I want to really support the tournament and, yeah, hopefully what I have done will help lift the profile a bit."
It will also mean another chance to catch up with long-time professional and Jack’s Point general manager John Griffin.
The pair are as thick and thieves, and Alker relishes the advice and guidance he gets from Griffin.
"He’s just been everything to me. Mentor, coach, swing coach, mental coach - he was best man at my wedding.
"And just a really good friend.
"The greatest thing about John is throughout all this time, and life in general, he’s always got a great spin on life and the situations and the phases we go through.
"He always has a way to look at situations better, or provides some motivational words.
"He’s amazing, and he’s been a dear friend for a long time."
Steven Alker
An unbelievable year
• Four victories
• Won the Senior PGA Championship
• Top three in 13/23 starts
• Banked $US3.5 million ($NZ5.5 million)
• Won the season-long Charles Schwab Cup
