Tag: Harrison Frazar

After strong finish in Hawaii, this PGA Tour Champions player might be due for a big 2024

He wrestled second place away from defending champion and 2023 Player of the Year Steve Stricker.

If his first start of the new year is any indication, former University of Texas star Harrison Frazar might be in for a mighty big 2024.

The Dallas native, who captured his first PGA Tour Champions victory at the end of 2023 in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic at the Country Club of Virginia when he edged Richard Green in a playoff, picked up where he left off last week at the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.

Although New Zealander Steven Alker cruised to a four-stroke win, Frazar came through in the clutch as he needed a birdie on the tournament’s final hole to wrestle second away from defending champion and 2023 Player of the Year Steve Stricker. His reward was a handsome $200,000 check for being runner-up.

For Frazar, whose lone victory on the PGA Tour came in Memphis, the win in October has been a big boost.

“I’ve always had confidence in my ability to play, but doing that in October has given me confidence to know that I can close it when it matters,” Frazar said in Hawaii. “These guys out here, they’re called champions because they know how to win, they’re not going to make mistakes. I need to not make mistakes. So yeah, I feel like I can do it.”

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Although his PGA Tour was plagued by numerous injuries, Frazar still played in 409 events on Tour, posting 19 top-5 finishes and cracking the Top 10 on 37 occasions. Not bad for a guy who was an honorable mention All-American three different times while with Texas, but didn’t plan to pursue a pro career until fellow Longhorn Mark Brooks convinced him to do so.

Of course, playing in Hawaii also isn’t a bad way to spend a week in January.

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Steven Alker’s ‘good karma’ and 63 secures victory in memory of late caddie at Mitsubishi Electric Championship

Alker won at the course where Sam Workman caddied for him a year ago for the last time before dying of cancer.

Steven Alker picked up right where he left off, winning the PGA Tour Champions’ season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Ka’upulehu-Kona, Hawaii.

Alker, who won the Charles Schwab Championship to wrap up the 2023 season in November, fired a second straight 9-under 63 at Hualalai Golf Course on Saturday to shoot a 54-hole total of 25-under 191, and win by four strokes over Harrison Frazar and five over last year’s Charles Schwab Cup champion Steve Stricker.

“I knew Stricker and Harrison were going to come at me, so just kept the pedal to the metal,” Alker said.

It wasn’t lost on Alker, 52, that a year ago he finished tied for second on the Big Island with caddie Sam Workman on the bag. Less than three weeks later, the 55-year-old Workman died on Feb. 6 of cancer. When Alker arrived at the course on Tuesday, he was greeted by a rainbow in the sky and during the final round he was the beneficiary of a fortuitous bounce at the par-5 seventh hole when his second shot, a 4-iron from 218 yards, sailed right of the green, bounced off the cart path twice and ricocheted off lava and on to the green about 40 feet left of the hole. He proceeded to drain the putt for an unlikely eagle. Alker couldn’t see it from his vantage point but when he was shown video of the shot later, he credited “good karma.”

“Someone said it kind of kicked off the path and rolled up and went left. Just a fortunate break,” he said. “I was surprised to see it on the left side of the green. Thought it must have hit either someone or something. It could have gone anywhere.

“As I said in my speech, sometimes it goes one way and last year, a couple years ago it goes the other way, so it all kind of works out in the end,” he added. “Made that putt, which was huge.”

Said Stricker, who collected his PGA Tour Champions Player of the Year Award earlier in the week: “You get a bounce like that, and capitalize like that, it’s kind of your day.”

With veteran caddie Troy Martin ably filling the shoes of Workman on the bag, Alker followed up the eagle at seven with a birdie at eight to build a three-shot cushion and never looked back, matching the low 54-hole score in PGA Tour Champions history.

Steven Alker of New Zealand reacts as he sinks his birdie putt on the 18th green to win the PGA Tour Champions Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai Golf Course on Jan. 20, 2024 in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Among the well-wishers to congratulate the New Zealand native on his eighth career Champions Tour win in just 54 starts was Germany’s Bernhard Langer.

“Starting off the way you finished,” Langer said. “Good for you. Pretty special.”

“We’ve got the rust off anyway, Bernhard,” Alker responded.

“Well, I’ve got work to do, but you got it,” Langer said.

Alker, who has at least one win in each of his four seasons, dating back to 2021, has found that winning way.

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Harrison Frazar leads, Stewart Cink one back at Kaulig Companies Championship

Frazar is looking for his first win on the PGA Tour Champions.

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Harrison Frazar followed up his opening-round 65 with a 2-under 68 and leads the Kaulig Companies Championship at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio.

The 51-year-old, who hasn’t finished inside the top 10 since February, is still searching for his first win on the PGA Tour Champions. In his last start, Frazar tied for 32nd at the U.S. Senior Open.

Frazar’s one-shot advantage is over Stewart Cink, who has used rounds of 66-68 to get to 6 under for the tournament.

This is Cink’s second start on the senior circuit this season. The first came at the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship where he finished third.

Ernie Els is alone in third at 5 under, K.J. Choi is solo fourth at 4 under, while Steve Stricker and Scott Parel are tied for fifth at 2 under.