NAPLES, FLORIDA | It’s not as if Steven Alker never has taken adversity head on in his lifetime. He once played a season on what is now the Korn Ferry Tour, teed it up 21 weeks across the globe, and failed to make a single cut.
Not one.
You want to talk about something to test one’s character and resolve? Just think what it was like jiggling the house key into the front door late on Friday nights, having endured one more fruitless week that failed to cover the electric bill.
Amazing, then, to see where the 51-year-old Alker stands today. The trim bomber from New Zealand has become the newest sensation on the PGA Tour Champions. Last season was nothing but magic: four PGA Tour Champions victories, including his first senior major (KitchenAid Senior PGA); 18 top 10s; $3.5 million in earnings; a Charles Schwab Cup title; and to cap it off, Player of the Year honors.
How “Texas” was Sam? Shoot, the man used a homemade bag strap carved from a leather saddle.
Everywhere Alker turned, success. Birdies. Eagles. Trophies. The hits just kept on coming. He contended constantly.
And then came the start of a new season, which so cruelly stopped all the momentum by delivering an unfathomable gut punch. Alker’s caddie, Sam Workman, who’d been on the bag for four seasons, tracing to Korn Ferry days, was looping to open the new year in postcard-perfect Hawaii in late January. Admittedly, Workman wasn’t feeling great while there, but he was Texas tough, and loyal, and old school, and all those gritty things that would get him through and eventually home to Texas.
How “Texas” was Sam? Shoot, the man used a homemade bag strap carved from a leather saddle.
When Workman returned home, tests revealed this: He had inoperable, terminal cancer of the liver, which spread quickly to his stomach. Just weeks after being at Alker’s side in Hawaii, Workman was gone. Dead at age 55.
Just as Workman had been at Alker’s side, Alker was there for Workman. He spent time at Workman’s bedside with Sam’s family in Beeville, and the following week, sadly enough, flew back with his wife and children for Workman’s service. The tour was playing in Morocco before Naples, and as the charter touched down in Florida, the overwhelming emotion was disbelief that one of their own would not be there.
Alker returned to compete, his mind whirring like a tornado, but it was, well, different. He was missing out on all the little things Workman brought to their two-man team.
“It’s been four years. You become friends and you get to know each other, and how each other works,” Alker said when he finished his first pro-am round. He had difficulty discussing Workman in anything but the present tense, as if he were still there, next to him.
“Sam is just so very loyal, and so even-keeled, and even-tempered. That was just great for my game. We just went out and played. It didn’t matter if I shot a high number or a low number. Nothing changed. That’s what I liked about Sam the most.”
In Naples, most caddies and a handful of players honored Workman by wearing Houston Astros hats. Houston was Sam’s beloved team. When the Astros were on the way to a World Series victory last autumn, the PGA Tour Champions circus was pitched in Boca Raton, and Workman did anything he could to get himself in front of a television to watch and holler for his club. Alker actually played his first round at Chubb wearing a “World Series Champions” hat that had belonged to Sam.
Champions player Alex Cejka was one of the competitors in the field who honored Workman by wearing an Astros hat. He wanted to do something, anything, to help. Clichéd as it sounds, any golf tour really does become a family, and the Champions, with its smaller 78-player fields, cultivates a family closer than most.
“I got paired with Sam a lot of times, and he was such a great guy,” Cejka said. “I wanted to be one of the guys to think about him this week, to honor him. Nobody had any idea (he was that sick), and 10 days later, it was over. I wear this hat proudly. Life goes on, yes, but this is so sad.”
Caddie Troy Martin, who had been on Stephen Ames’ winning bag in Morocco, carried Alker’s bag for the week in Naples. Alker was headed from Naples to New Zealand to play the New Zealand Open for the first time in four years. Being home for nine days would allow him to clear his head a little. His wife, Tanya, will caddie for him one week, his trainer another. Alker said he is covered into late April, when he might make a permanent hire. He hopes he is as lucky next time as he was with Sam.
“Nobody had any idea (he was that sick), and 10 days later, it was over.” – Alex Cejka
After shooting a second-round 63 at Chubb, Alker played his way into the mix on Sunday, but two bad swings on the back nine led to a pair of double bogeys, and he faded as Bernhard Langer captured his record-tying 45th Champions title. Alker finished T8.
It was the type of opportunity Alker had cashed a year earlier, when he transformed from a lifetime journeyman to being a force of nature among the 50-and-older set. Phil Tataurangi, a former pro who now broadcasts for Sky Sports in New Zealand, told Alker it was as if he “stepped out of a phone box and was wearing a cape.”
How does Alker best explain his sudden prowess? Simple: He cites a change in environment. He transitioned from competing against the young bucks on the Korn Ferry Tour, where he tried to stay in shape and be ready once his 50th birthday arrived July 28, 2021, to being on a tour where he really wanted to be. His previous option was something of a grind; his new option was an invitation to joy.
“I don’t think it was physical so much,” Alker said of his burst of success. “I’m psyched to play. I feel more complete as a player than I’ve ever felt.”
Alker said Workman’s service in Beeville was just right, understated and filled with quiet class. They had food and a few drinks at Workman’s golf club, told some Sam stories, and headed on home. Workman made a lot of friends in quick time on the PGA Tour Champions.
When Alker was closing in on that 50th birthday and competing on courses probably too long for him on the KFT, he and Workman just sort of muddled through. Workman, he said, could have left him for a more lucrative job. But the two made a good team, and Workman was loyal. Patience paid for both. In 2022, player and looper had the seasons of their lives. It was magical. Workman was integral in keeping Alker on track, and steaming ahead.
“I’ve never met a single person who had something bad to say about Sam,” said Marvin King, Ken Duke’s caddie and one of the caddies closest to Workman. He and Workman met when Workman was with fellow Texan Brad Elder and King worked for Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey. King is from Texas, too.
“Player and caddie alike, you are always looking for that one year, that one big year,” said King, who has caddied for Duke for about five years. “That’s why you are out here. The excitement, the adrenaline, the crowds … people you have never met are cheering you on.
“Steven and Sam had such an unbelievable year. A year and a half ago, Steven had no status out here, and two years later, he’s the best player on this tour, hands down. And Sam … if you are going to pick a way to finish your career, and your life, I guess, that would have to be up there.”
King and Workman had planned to get together in Texas shortly after the new year. The weather was bad, and they decided they would just get together after Hawaii. And just like that, Sam Workman was gone.
Workman always had talked about getting a winner’s pin flag from the 18th hole when he finally broke through to win with someone. With Alker, he collected five. It was the best year of his life.
“The guy I knew 15 years ago was the same guy who was winning the money title last year with Steven Alker,” King said of his friend. “I think about Sam working the Hawaii event, and it just shows you the size of his heart. Man, I’m going to really miss that guy.”