Multi award winning Alker the man to beat in Hawaii
Steve Alker – outstanding record in this event
Steve Alker, Rod Pampling and Mark Hensby are the three Australasians in the field for the opening event of the 2025 PGA Tour Champions schedule at Hualulai on the Big Island in Hawaii.
The US$2 million Mitsubishi Electric Championship brings together a field of 42 of the leading available players on the PGA Tour Champions and, if previous years are anything to go by, New Zealand’s Steve Alker is the man to beat.
Alker is playing the event for the third occasion, but with a win and two runner-up finishes in those starts and as the 2024 Charles Schwab Cup Champion, the Player of the Year, the Arnold Palmer Award for being the leading money winner and Ben Hogan Award winner for the leading scoring average, then provided he has not overindulged during the off-season, he is surely the man to beat.
“Yeah, it doesn’t get old coming here,” said Alker. “This is my fourth year and it’s a pretty special place. I’ve just got my wife here this year. We’re just relaxing, meeting up with people, old friends.
“Yeah, big week. It’s a hard week because you don’t want it to be too much vacation, but at the same time you’ve got a golf tournament to play and you’ve got to get that nice balance. Yeah, I’m defending champ, I’ve come here to try to win again. I’ll be doing my best, for sure.
“It’s a Nicklaus course so second shot’s always very important. Just coming here and just being so relaxed and having a start to the year, it’s always — you don’t quite know what your game is like when you come out the first one after a bit of a break.
“I tend to do a little bit more preparation offseason for the whole season, so I’m kind of, I like to think I’m ready for the tournament. So I just like the golf course, I love the place. That’s a good combination for being relaxed and having a good week.”
Alker will face his regular adversaries, Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer and Steve Stricker in addition to other high quality Champions Tour players.
Hensby has played the event once for a 12th place finish last year while Pampling is teeing it up for the 4th time with a best of 28th.
