Fox and Alker make strong starts in bids for lucrative ranking titles
Ryan Fox and Steven Alker enjoyed successful opening days as both Kiwis bid to top their tours.
Fox reeled off five birdies and an eagle on the back nine to take the first-round lead at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa yesterday and boost his hopes of overtaking Rory McIlroy in the European Tour rankings.
Fox opened his challenge at Sun City with an eight-under 64 for a one-shot lead over England’s Luke Donald.
McIlroy is not playing in the penultimate tournament of the season in Sun City and a victory would put Fox top of the rankings ahead of next week’s season-ending World Tour Championship in Dubai.
The New Zealander made three straight birdies on Nos 9, 10 and 11, and then added an eagle at No 14, a 600-yard par five. He set himself up for that eagle with a 243-yard second shot with a seven iron to within four feet. He made two more birdies on his last two holes and is in the running for a third win on the tour this year.
His latest title came at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last month.
“I had a lot of good numbers out there, we managed to get the yardages right and I putted really nicely but it still feels a bit strange — this golf course has kicked my arse several times before, so maybe it was just nice to me and it’s going to come back and bite me,” Fox told the Weekend Herald.
Donald, the European Ryder Cup captain, enjoyed a return to form by going bogey-free in his 65.
Donald hasn’t won a tournament on either the European Tour or PGA Tour for a decade but found the Gary Player Country Club layout to his liking.
This year is the 40th time the Sun City tournament has been played. It was previously known as the Million Dollar Challenge and was born in controversy after being first held in 1981 during the height of apartheid in South Africa.
● PGA Tour Champions money leader Alker shot a bogey-free sixunder 65 yesterday to share the firstround lead at the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
Alker has to finish no worse than fifth to be sure of winning the Charles Schwab Cup and is in a good position after posting six birdies at Phoenix Country Club in Arizona.
The 51-year-old Kiwi was tied with John Huston and Stephen Ames in his bid to go from journeyman to champion.
Bernhard Langer shot 66, one shot back, as he tries to equal the PGA Tour Champions record of 45 wins. Padraig Harrington, the only player who can pass Alker for the Schwab Cup title, also shot 66. He needs to win and have Alker finish outside the top five to win the season title.
Alker didn’t have much sustained success on the PGA Tour but played his way onto the PGA Tour Champions with a string of top-10 finishes after starting as a Monday qualifier at the Boeing Classic in August 2021.
He won five times on the over-50 tour this year, has earned more than US$3.3 million and leads Harrington by more than 600,000 points in the Schwab Cub standings.
Alker got up and down for birdie on the par-five first hole, added another birdie on No 4 and got up and down from short left of the par-four fifth to reach three-under. He added a 15-foot birdie on No 10 and hit it close on the par-three 13th for another.
Alker’s tee shot at the 354-yard
16th hole hit a sprinkler head, caroming his ball to about 40 feet short of the green. He hit to two feet and tried to replace his ball, but was forced to play it when Harrington protested and a rules official was called. He made the putt anyway.
● Danny Lee is four shots off the pace after the first round of the PGA Tour’s Houston Open. The Kiwi carded four birdies and three bogeys for oneunder, trailing a quartet on fiveunder.