Golf: Rain or shine, let the Sundays be fine

By BOB PEARCE

With a couple of "decent Sundays" last year, Steve Alker would still be playing with the big boys on the United States PGA tour.

Instead, the 32-year-old Hamilton-born professional will be at the New Zealand PGA championship in Christchurch next week.

In 2002 the tournament, then called the Clearwater Classic, was the start of a stunningly successful year on the second-level Nationwide Tour.

Alker finish fourth on the money list with US$247,008 in winnings and an automatic qualification for the big tour last year.

He won US$261,359 on the PGA tour last year, but that was good enough only for 163rd on the order of merit and he lost his card.

But he starts another Nationwide Tour campaign this month at Adelaide and Christchurch, confident he has the game to compete with the best.

"I certainly didn't feel out of place on the PGA tour last year, and I knew I had the game to compete.

"With a couple of decent Sundays it could have been very different," he says.

"I didn't have the consistency but I learned a heck of a lot and I know that I can compete at that level."

The "couple of decent Sundays" he needed most would have come at his most successful events.

Early in the year he finished 17th at the Buick Invitational at six under par - but his last round on Sunday was a 76.

He was 22nd at nine under par in the Chrysler Classic at Greensboro, despite a Sunday round of 73.

"I did best on the more traditional layouts, like Greensboro, and not so well on the 7500-yard resort courses," he says.

"I'm hitting it further these days but so is everyone else. But lack of length isn't the problem, you can make that up with your short game.

"In the past my short game has really helped me. But last year putting was the worst part of my game. I finished 175th in the putting statistics and I really struggled.

"It's such a mental game and I think I was trying to push things. It was very different from my putting the previous year."

Alker will play a full Nationwide Tour schedule, aiming to be one of the top 20 who win automatic promotion to the big tour.

But he will try to pace himself better. Where in the past he played four weeks and then took one off, he is likely to have a two-week break this time. And in July, when he and wife Tanya are expecting their first child, he may take a longer break at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Alker didn't play at Clearwater last year as he was committed to the PGA tour schedule.

But in 2002, after missing the cut in his first Nationwide Tour event at Adelaide, he was 13th in Christchurch.

He carried that form to the States, where he won the Louisiana Open in a playoff after a really decent Sunday.

He now represents the Clearwater club and, while he believes the course has some maturing to do, he has grown to like it the more he has played there.

"It's not overly long and it's one of those courses which doesn't really suit anyone particularly well."

It would suit Steve Alker just fine if he could have a decent Sunday there.