The 66-year-old PGA Tour Champions stalware tore his Achilles on Feb. 1 of this year. He had already announced plans to make the 2024 Masters his last trip down Magnolia Lane but later said he’d make the 2025 one his last, after his recovery. Langer made the cut at Augusta National Golf Club as recently as 2020.
Well, his recovery is coming right along, as Langer has announced he is planning to make his Champions Tour return next week, right at the three-month mark of his injury.
In a video posted on X, Langer said recounted how he got hurt.
Two months after tearing his achilles, @BernhardLanger6 is making a return.
In the video, Langer said the Achilles tear happened when he was playing pickleball. He went in for surgery the next day and has been wearing a walking boot for several weeks since then.
But if you thought that type of injury was going to be the end of his career, think again.
“I think I can still be productive for a few more years,” he said. “I still think I have a lot of good golf in me.”
The PGA Tour Champions’ Insperity Invitational is at The Woodlands Country Club in The Woodlands, Texas, outside Houston. Two of his record-setting 46 victories on the senior circuit came in the Insperity, in 2014 and 2018.
The Insperity Invitational was inspirational for Steven Alker.
The Insperity Invitational was inspirational for Steven Alker.
Earlier this year, Alker’s caddie Sam Workman died less than three weeks removed from caddying a second-place finish in Hawaii to open the 2023 season. Workman passed away on Feb. 6 from cancer at his home in Beeville, Texas, about 100 miles south of San Antonio, a “sudden passing” according to Alker in a post on Instagram.
This week, dozens of Workman’s family and friends made their way to The Woodlands Country Club near Houston to follow Alker and root him on.
“Great support. We had a nice dinner last night,” Alker said after his round Saturday. “I think there’s some more folks from Beeville and Silsbee, so it was a good crowd out there, had good support.”
In honor of Workman this week, PGA Tour Champions players wore ribbons with the Houston Astros logo, Workman’s favorite baseball team.
A Houston Astros logo on the hat of Steven Alker in honor of his caddie Sam Workman during the final round of the 2023 Insperity Invitational at The Woodlands Golf Club in The Woodlands, Texas. (Photo: Tim Heitman/Getty Images)
The Workman gallery must have made a difference, as Alker cruised to a four-shot victory, his first in 2023.
Alker started the day at 9 under and leading by three. In his final round, he had a birdie and nine pars his first 10 holes but the field never really threatened to track him down. Steve Stricker did get it to 11 under but Alker caught fire late with birdies on Nos. 11, 12, 13, 15 and 17 to get to 15 under. He closed with a par on 18 for a final-round 66.
“It’s huge,” he said. “You can see the emotion on 18. I just saw a sea of orange today, just reminded me of Sam.”
The orange was in reference to Workman’s family and friends all wearing Houston Astros jerseys.
Workman saw first-hand Alker’s amazing late-in-golf-life run to the top of the PGA Tour Champions. He was the 2022 Charles Schwab Cup after winning four times while also notching 18 top 10s in 23 starts.
Alker, who has now won the Insperity in back-to-back seasons, had his son on the bag for the first time this week, as Ben Alker made his debut as a caddie. The duo saw immediate dividends with an opening-round 66. Alker shot a second-round 69 and closed with another 66 to cap off a memorable week.
“My son was on the bag today,” Alker added. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”
“It’s not very pleasant to watch somebody stand over the ball for half an hour,” said Jack Nicklaus.
When Jack Nicklaus says slow play is a problem, you know the topic has officially jumped the shark.
Nicklaus was asked to opine on the pace of play of professional golf during a press conference on Saturday at The Woodlands in Houston ahead of competing in the Greats of Golf, a nine-hole exhibition played during the Insperity Championship on PGA Tour Champions.
“They do have a problem on the Tour today,” Nicklaus said. “The golf ball is a part of the problem. The longer the golf ball goes, the longer the courses get, the more you have to walk, the longer it’s going to take. I don’t think it’s good for the game. (The USGA and R&A have proposed) bringing the golf ball back (and reducing the distance it can travel). I think it’s a good start. It’s the first time they’ve done that in forever. We’ll see where it goes with that.
Nicklaus has long been a proponent of rolling back the golf ball but acknowledged that slow-play penalties are also overdue to be handed out.
“It’s got to be equitable,” Nicklaus added, “but they need to make an example and stay with it. It’s not very pleasant to watch somebody stand over the ball for half an hour.”
Slow play has made headlines recently after weather delays forced the Masters to go to threesomes and split tees in the final round and the glacial pace was exposed on TV. Brooks Koepka, who played in the final group, called out Patrick Cantlay, who also took his time on multiple occasions at the RBC Heritage the following week but pointed out that he was never put on the clock in either instances. Slow play has been a chronic problem in the game and rarely gets addressed in any meaningful way. But that wasn’t the case in Nicklaus’s rookie year.
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The Golden Bear always was a deliberate player but he learned early in his career that his pace of play was too slow. He was penalized two strokes during the second round at the 1962 Portland Open by PGA official Joe Black. Nicklaus still rolled to a six-stroke victory but he learned an important lesson that day.
“It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Nicklaus said, noting that Black told him, “Jack, you can take as long as you want over the golf ball to play but be ready when it’s your turn.”
“I always tried to stay out of everybody’s way,” Nicklaus continued. “I didn’t want to bother anybody lining up my putt while they were lining up their putt so I stayed back. I didn’t want to start walking my yardages off. I took a while over the golf ball but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was being ready to play. I realized after playing on the Tour for a while that it’s also a courtesy to the field. It’s not fair to do that.”
Nicklaus also blamed caddies for being part of the problem.
“By the time they get through talking, I couldn’t hit a shot anyway,” he said. “It’s a problem.”
The Greats of Golf gathered on Saturday, April 29, 2023, at the Insperity Invitational and played a nine-hole exhibition. (Courtesy Insperity Invitational)
Gary Player echoed that sentiment. “It’s just not fair to the others to be taking the amount of time,” he said. “You are allocated a certain amount of time and you have to adhere to that or you should be penalized.”
Player noted that golfers have three practice rounds and then they spend too much time around the green doing Aim Point and studying their yardage books. “You didn’t see Bobby Locke, Ben Crenshaw or Tiger Woods doing that,” Player said.
“I read the green from 50 yards,” Lee Trevino added. “Keep staring at it while you’re walking you can see every curve on that green. Before you ever get there to read that putt you know exactly the direction it’s going.”
Annika Sorenstam said the problem with pace of play starts at the junior level.
“The juniors watch the pros and they see the Masters and see how much time the pros take and do the same thing,” she said. “I know the AJGA does a good job, but then they get to college and it all goes away and then they turn pro. I think it is a root problem from the beginning.
“Nobody enjoys it and it’s not fair. We’re running out of time, time is a precious commodity, right, so I think start at the very beginning and teach them to hit when you’re ready and go. The more we think, the more complicated it gets, right, so just hit and go.”
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Winning the 2022 Insperity Invitational was special, but a repeat might hold even more sentimental value.
Pardon Steven Alker if his emotions get a hold of him at some point this week. It’s only natural.
With his son, Ben, making his debut on his bag and family members of fallen caddie Sam Workman in attendance at The Woodlands Country Club, Alker fired a 66 during Friday’s first round of the Insperity Invitational, moving to the top of a packed leaderboard alongside Justin Leonard and Colin Montgomerie.
Winning the 2022 title on this golf course was special, but considering the circumstances, a repeat might hold even more sentimental value for the native of New Zealand.
Together, they experienced Alker’s dramatic rise from grinding on the Korn Ferry Tour in his late 40s (Alker’s last event on the PGA Tour was 2017) to dominating the PGA Tour Champions in 2022 and winning the season-long Charles Schwab Cup. Alker, 51, won four events, was second in four others and had 18 top 10s in 23 starts last season, a meteoric rise in which Workman played a big part.
But earlier this year, Alker announced that Workman had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
“He was complaining about some pain and having a few problems,” Alker said in February at the Chubb Classic. Workman had liver cancer that spread to his stomach. A week later, Alker was mourning the loss of his closest mate on the course after spending most of that time by Workman’s side at his home in Beeville, Texas. Workman was 55.
Alker is especially grateful Workman was able to experience his resurgence that started with his first win on the Champions Tour, the 2021 TimberTech Championship at Broken Sound in Boca Raton.
It was the first time Workman was on the bag of a winner and Alker presented him the flag from the 18th green.
In honor of the caddie, who was a huge Houston Astros fan, each of the PGA Tour Champions players is wearing an Astros ribbon in his honor.
The first tee shots are in the air. @ChampionsTour players will be paying tribute to Sam Workman the late caddie for defending champ Steven Alker this week by wearing @astros ribbons ❤️ pic.twitter.com/1dLKdJR9Zo
— Insperity Invitational (@InsperityInvtnl) April 28, 2023
And on Friday, a number of Workman’s friends and family members made the three-hour trek from Beeville, a small town that sits less than an hour from Corpus Christi and the Gulf of Mexico.
When asked what it meant to see Workman’s crew on hand, Alker admitted it was significant.
“(It means) a whole lot. We’ve got a bunch today. We’re going to have even more tomorrow, some of the Beeville crowd,” Alker said. “The ribbons are a nice touch, and great to have some of the family out, so good support today.”
Alker, who started on the back nine, rolled in birdies on four of the first six holes to get out to a hot start. And he did so with his son making his debut, something that allowed for some quality bonding time.
“It is special. Obviously, just the time, spending the time together,” Alker said prior to Friday’s round.
And how did he fare?
“He did fantastic. This really is his first competitive round. We’ve done some fun rounds, but he was great.” Alker said. “The ball was always clean. We had some spot-on yardages. He actually did some yardages today. It was great. Yeah, he did very, very well.”
Reporter and columnist Tom D’Angelo of the Palm Beach Post contributed to this post.
“Getting into broadcasting, there’s not a whole lot that can prepare you for that outside of going to school and studying journalism.”
Justin Leonard has yet to break through with a victory on the PGA Tour Champions, but with three top-10 finishes in his five starts this season, he’s inching ever closer. Last week was a home game for Leonard, who closed with a 67 and placed 10th at the Invited Celebrity Classic in Dallas. He even slept at his parents’ house while in the DFW, a rare treat that included nightly family dinners.
And the former University of Texas star is geared up for an even better showing this week at The Woodlands Country Club, site of the Insperity Invitational.
Leonard is still adjusting to the senior grind, as he’ll make his 10th official Champions start at a course this sits just on the opposite side of Kuykendahl Road from the Club at Carlton Woods, the site of last week’s first LPGA major of the season, the Chevron Championship.
And while he’s happy to be back in the routine of practicing and playing, Leonard admitted that he loved his time on TV, which started in 2015 when he joined Golf Channel. He’ll make one TV appearance at an event he’s synonymous with this year, but will steer clear of other broadcast productions to focus on his game.
“I think the only event I’m going to do this year is the Ryder Cup. I kind of made the decision last fall. Not that I played great in the events that I played, but I felt like I did well enough or showed enough good things where if I could put all my energy into playing that I could be competitive,” he said. “So kind of stepped away from my work with TV. Again, I’ll work the Ryder Cup this year because I enjoy being a part of that event. Those are, especially Friday and Saturday, a couple of really long days for the crew.
“It’ll be fun to be a part of that and step back in that world for a little bit, but it’s been nice just focusing my energy in one place, whereas last year, certainly at least there for two or three months, I was trying to do both.”
Justin Leonard of the United States looks on from the 13th green during the pro-am prior to the PNC Championship at Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on December 16, 2022, in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Now that he’s had time to look back at his tenure on TV, one thing that sticks out for the 1997 Open Champion is how severe the learning curve was. While others might have been instantly impressed with his television prowess, it took Leonard a while to get comfortable.
“Getting into broadcasting, there’s not a whole lot that can prepare you for that outside of going to school and studying journalism, which I did not. So that’s the reason I was so awful my first couple of years trying to do it,” he said. “It’s something that fortunately the people at NBC and Golf Channel poured into me and helped me get better over time, gave me a lot of reps, and I learned a lot along the way. I think that some of watching the best players in the world, how they prepare, how they practice, playing practice rounds, and then watching them in competition, I think those are things that now I’m able to kind of apply to what I’m trying to do to get ready.
“It’s been a fun process. I would say that the transition going from being a player in 2015 and ’16 to doing TV was not easy. It’s a little easier transitioning back into this because at least I’ve done this before, but it’s been a while. I didn’t really play tournament golf for about six years, and there for about four years of that or so, I played very little golf.”
Getting back into the swing of things on tour has meant stirring old memories, as Leonard did during his PGA Tour Champions debut in the 2022 Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. Leonard recalled a night in 2003 when Phil Mickelson threw batting practice to the then-Double-A Akron Aeros, reportedly offering three $100 bills to any player who could hit a home run off him. None did.
Leonard overheard Mickelson discussing the plan with his then-caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay and he brought buddies Davis Love III and Fred Couples along to heckle Mickelson.
“He pulls in and we’re all sitting there, and Bones is kind of like, ‘Oh, I don’t know how this is going to go over,’” Leonard recalled. “Phil pulls in and goes, ‘Hey, guys, what are you all doing?’ I said, ‘We’re coming to cheer you on, big guy.’
“We went down and watched that whole scene. And Phil was all proud that nobody hit a home run off of him. And our kind of argument, ‘Well, you have to at least throw a ball 50 miles an hour to create enough velocity so it can get out of the park.’
Stirring up memories is great, but getting into the winner’s circle would be, as well. Leonard has improved this year over last and he feels he’s trending in the right direction as the season heats up.
But more importantly, he’s happy to be working on the craft that helped him win a dozen times on the PGA Tour.
“It’s a lot of fun. I knew how competitive it was from covering the Senior PGA a couple times with NBC, and it’s been fun like pouring myself back into my own game rather than 150 other players’ games, as I did with television. It’s been fun,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed putting the work in and trying to be competitive against these guys and playing on some golf courses like this week that I have a sense of history on. I played here five times in amateur golf, a bunch of Houston Opens here, so it’s nice to be back.”
If you’re looking to spend a day watching 16 legends of the game tee it up in the same event, you’re in luck.
This year’s Folds of Honor Greats of Golf exhibition at The Woodlands in Texas is loaded with some of the best players of all time. During the second round of the Insperity Invitational on the PGA Tour Champions, Jack Nicklaus, Annika Sorentam, Gary Player, Lee Trevino and 12 others will play in a nine-hole four-team scramble.
“We feel very privileged to have the opportunity to bring the greatest names in the game of golf back to the Houston area thanks to the support of our new partner, Folds of Honor, during this milestone celebration for our tournament. This collection of legends are true ambassadors and role models in our sport,” said Bryan Naugle, Executive Director, Insperity Invitational, in a press release. “Not only is this a great group of golfers, they are incredible people and special role models for all of us. Reuniting these extraordinary ambassadors of our game has become a staple of tournament week. They provide hours of entertainment and a lifetime of memories for our fans each year.”
Team 1: Sorenstam, Nicklaus, Player, Trevino Team 2: Pat Bradley, David Graham, Tony Jacklin, Tom Kite Team 3: Nancy Lopez, Dave Stockton, Larry Nelson, Hale Irwin Team 4: Juli Inkster, Ben Crenshaw, Bill Rodgers, Fuzzy Zoeller
In all, the group of 16 players accounts for 234 PGA Tour wins, 156 LPGA wins and 77 major championships. Thirteen of the participants are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Alker has two wins and a tie for second in his last three starts on the Champions tour.
Steve Stricker, in his first competitive round of golf in almost six months after being struck with an illness that remains a mystery, was trying to write a storybook ending to his week at The Woodlands outside Houston.
Stricker opened with a 67 to tie for the 2022 Insperity Invitational lead after 18 holes. He then backed that up with a 65 on Saturday to remain tied atop the leaderboard. He was tied for the lead halfway through Sunday’s round but couldn’t maintain the pace.
There was simply no stopping Steven Alker.
Alker birdied the second hole but otherwise had all pars on his front nine. After a nearly two-hour weather delay because of lightning, Alker came back charged up. He posted three straight birdies on Nos. 11, 12 and 13 and then eagled the 15th for the second day in a row.
He tacked on another birdie at No. 16 and that put him four ahead with three to go. He cruised home from there to shoot a final-round 66 to finish 18 under to earn his third PGA Tour Champions victory. Alker now has two wins and a tie for second in his last three starts. Since joining the senior circuit in August of 2021, Alker has 13 top-10s and nine top-5s in just 16 starts. He has also pushed his career earnings above the $2 million mark on the senior circuit.
Brandt Jobe closed with 70 to finish 14 under. Stricker, a 12-time PGA Tour winner and seven-time PGA Tour Champions winner, also shot a 70 to finish at 14 under. Alex Cejka nabbed solo fourth at 11 under. Retief Goosen and Ken Duke tied for fifth at 10 under. Bernhard Langer finished tied for eighth at 8 under. Defending Insperity champ Mike Weir tied for 17th at 5 under.
Next up is the Mitsubishi Electric Classic at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, Georgia.
“No. Still don’t know to this day,” he said Friday after his first round at the Insperity Invitational. “There’s a couple theories out there that it was a virus of some sort that they weren’t able to put a name to it.”
On Saturday, during Stricker’s second round, he kept the good time rolling.
After opening birdie-birdie, the 55-year-old would add three more circles to his card after nine holes to go out with a 5-under 31.
He added three more birdies on the back before bogeying his final hole to shoot a 7-under 65.
“It was a good day. Played really solid, a lot better today than I did yesterday except for a couple shots coming in,” Stricker said Saturday afternoon, “but overall it was much better. Hit it a little bit better and made some good putts.”
Despite his good effort, he admittedly didn’t feel 100 percent.
“There’s times where I just don’t feel like I’m — no one’s going to feel sorry for me, Al, let me put it that way, but yeah, like I told Nicki today, when I woke up today, if this is the way I’m going to feel, I won’t play next week kind of thing just because I don’t feel like my energy is there,” he said.
Stricker’s last PGA Tour Champions win came at the 2021 Bridgestone Senior Players Championship.
Brandt Jobe, one of the co-leaders, has been impressed with Stricker so far this week.
“He’s just got his game in a spot where he can turn it on and turn it off and not many people have been able to do that,” he said after his round Saturday. “Obviously we’re very envious of that because I can’t do that, but he’s got his swing and everything just in a spot where he goes out, he puts the work in, he comes back and it’s like he hasn’t missed a beat.”
Jobe made five straight birdies on Nos. 12-16 on his back nine to get into contention, then added one more at the last to sign for an 8-under 64. Jobe hasn’t won on the PGA Tour Champions since the 2019 Boeing Classic.
Steven Alker, the third and final co-leader, has been on quite the run since the start of the season. His six starts so far in 2022: 2, T-5, T-20, T-15, 1, T-2.
“I was just trying to keep up with Steve Stricker. That’s basically it,” Alker said. ”
After making birdies on 8 and 9, Alker went full psycho-scorecard mode on the back. Birdies on 11 and 12, an eagle on 13, a bogey on 14, an eagle on 15, a birdie on 16, and a bogey on 17 for a grand total 7-under 65. It’s the first time he’s had two eagles in one round on the Champions tour.
“I was just staying aggressive and Steve was playing great. You know he’s not going to make mistakes. Just kept at it and yeah, just pleased to make those couple eagles.”
Alker said he and Stricker found plenty to talk about throughout the day.
“Just about kids really, college, his girls, college and golf. And yeah, it was cool. I haven’t played with Ernie or Steve since I’ve been out here, so it was fun. A little bit kind of nervous, but it was fun, I enjoyed it.”
“I’m pretty pathetic. I can’t shoot my age. Not even close,” said Jack Nicklaus, 82, the winner of a record 18 majors.
Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lee Trevino reunited for the first time in three years to play in the 3M Greats of Golf, a team-scramble exhibition that highlighted Saturday’s second round of the Insperity Invitational at The Woodlands near Houston.
During a pre-round news conference, they were asked to describe how much golf they are playing these days and the differences in their responses were telling.
“I’m pretty pathetic,” said Nicklaus, 82, the winner of a record 18 majors. “I can’t shoot my age. Not even close.”
But Nicklaus was happy to get the invite from the tournament’s executive director, Bryan Naugle.
“I said, ‘You really want me to come back? I’m not playing golf.’ Naugs said, ‘I want you to be here.’ That was a nice compliment to me,” Nicklaus said. “It’s fun to be back with these guys.”
Trevino, 82 and winner of six majors during his Hall of Fame career, hardly allows a day to pass without hitting balls. But he claimed he had only played nine holes this year before playing in a pro-am on Friday.
“I don’t play, I hit balls,” he explained. “This is what I do, honestly, I hit five shots with every club and then I go home.”
Player, 86, who claimed nine majors including the career Grand Slam, said he likes to play every day. Nicklaus noted that in back-to-back rounds Player had shot a remarkable 19 and 20 strokes better than his age recently. That would be rounds of 66 and 67, which is none too shabby, no matter the tees.
“At age 86, he’s playing better than he did at age 66,” Nicklaus boasted. “I don’t know why he’s not out here playing. He’d be dusting this field this week…unless he choked!”
About five months ago, Steve Stricker came down with an illness that he says his doctors still aren’t sure what it was.
Steve Stricker captained the U.S. team to a 19-9 victory over Europe at Whistling Straits, in his home state of Wisconsin, to capture the 43rd Ryder Cup last September.
A couple weeks before Thanksgiving, he was struck with an illness that is still a mystery to him and his doctors.
On Friday at The Woodlands outside Houston, Stricker fired a 7-under 65 in his return to competitive golf to tie for the lead with Ernie Els and Steve Alker after the first round of the PGA Tour Champions Insperity Invitational.
It’s been a rough few months for Stricker, who was asked Thursday if his doctors ever determined what the illness was.
“No. Still don’t know to this day,” he said. “There’s a couple theories out there that it was a virus of some sort that they weren’t able to put a name to it or a reaction to the vaccine potentially. Yeah, I had the shot about four weeks prior to me starting to feel kind of crappy and then it went from there. I’m really not sure what it was. I’m over it really and I’ve kind of moved on and I don’t really care what it was really. At this point I’m just trying to focus on moving ahead and I’m feeling better and just hope it doesn’t happen again.”
Stricker, 55, said he lost considerable weight while suffering from a condition that caused inflammation around his heart. He spent 11 days at UW Hospital with an ailment that simply started as a cough. He shared further details with pgatour.com:
A pain in his side was soon a temperature of 103, a “jacked up” white blood cell count, and inflammation around his heart. Hospitalized two weeks before Thanksgiving, he began having problems with his liver. That turned into jaundice, and before long, he said, he was peeing what looked like Pepsi. He didn’t eat for two weeks; he lost 25 pounds.
His cardiologist originally said it could be six months before he could return to competition, but Stricker managed to speed up that timeline by a few weeks. He said it felt good to be back between the ropes.
“It was more emotional right away at the start. Getting some hugs from players that I hadn’t seen for six months, Freddie [Couples] and Mark [O’Meara] on the first tee saying how nice it was for me to be back. You get all this outpouring of support from people,” Stricker said.
Stricker also has family nearby. His wife is working as his caddie and his daughters were in the gallery.
“You know, a lot of the pressure was really off me today I feel like just because I hadn’t been out here for so long and I didn’t put a lot of pressure on myself to perform and shoot a good round. That helped today, too,” he said. “I just kind of went with the flow and didn’t expect a lot and just kept putting my head down and trying to hit a shot. So I kind of downplayed all this in my own mind to just kind of go out and have fun with it. I’m thankful to be here, I’m lucky to be here and I’m happy to be back out here.”
The Insperity is his first Champions event since October when he played in the Constellation Furyk & Friends in Jacksonville. His last Champions victory was at the Senior Players Championship last June. He has seven wins on the senior circuit and 12 on the PGA Tour.
