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.”
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.”
