Steven Alker carded his lowest round on PGA TOUR Champions with 11-under 61 to take a five-stroke advantage at the Simons Bank Gold Championships in Arkansas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It matched the largest 18-hole lead in Champions Tour history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 54-year-old is seeking his 10th win on PGA TOUR Champions in 97 starts, having one the Cologuard Classic earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alker has 16 top-10 finishes, most among all players this season on the Tour this season, is projected to move to No. 1 in the Charles Schwab Cup standings after starting the week No. 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has won the the Charles Schwab Cup in two of the last three seasons (2022, 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Making his fifth appearance at the Simmons Bank Championship, he won in 2021 in Boca Raton, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former University of Arkansas golfer Tag Ridings opened with 6-under 66 to be tied in second spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 51-year-old seeks his first win on the Tour, with a best finish of second at the Galleri Classic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also on second spot is Greg Chalmers, who closed with three consecutive birdies to shoot 6-under 66.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Justin Leonard, who won last week\u2019s Dominion Energy Charity Classic, also sits T2 after eagling No. 18 en route to 66. He looks to become the first player to win back-to-back weeks since \u00c1ngel Cabrera (2025 Regions Tradition, 2025 Senior PGA Championship).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charles Schwab No. 2Stewart Cink also carded 6-under 66. The 52-year-old seeks his third win of the 2025 season, having won the Insperity Invitational and the Ally Challenge this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two-time defending champion Padraig Harrington (T18) posted 2-under 70.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charles Schwab Cup leader Miguel Angel Jim\u00e9nez (T37) opened with 1-over 73.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, three players – Thorbj\u00f8rn Olesen, Jesper Svensson and David Lipsky are tied atop rain disrupted the Bank of Utah golf championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Olesen Marks his third 18-hole lead\/co-lead on Tour and second this season. The eight-time winner on the DP World Tour seeking his first title in his 99th<\/sup> career start<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rookie Svensson makes his first 18-hole lead\/co-lead in his 26th<\/sup> career start\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eight players are tied one shot off the lead at 5-under, including eight-time Japan Golf Tour winner Takumi Kanaya, PGA TOUR rookies Frankie Capan III, Paul Peterson and Jackson Suber, as well as Ryan Gerard, one of seven players in the field who won on Tour this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alex Noren (T12\/-4) is the highest ranked player in the field at No. 17 in the Official World Golf Ranking; a 12-time winner on the DP World Tour, Noren seeking his first PGA TOUR title in his 194th<\/sup> start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Defending champion Matt McCarty sits T52 after opening with a 2-under 69<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Steven Alker carded his lowest round on PGA TOUR Champions with 11-under 61 to take a five-stroke advantage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-5156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-golf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Steven_Alker_at_the_2023_U.S._Senior_Open.jpg",800,1067,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Steven_Alker_at_the_2023_U.S._Senior_Open-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Steven_Alker_at_the_2023_U.S._Senior_Open-225x300.jpg",225,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Steven_Alker_at_the_2023_U.S._Senior_Open-768x1024.jpg",640,853,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Steven_Alker_at_the_2023_U.S._Senior_Open-768x1024.jpg",640,853,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Steven_Alker_at_the_2023_U.S._Senior_Open.jpg",800,1067,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Steven_Alker_at_the_2023_U.S._Senior_Open.jpg",800,1067,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Steven_Alker_at_the_2023_U.S._Senior_Open-800x575.jpg",800,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Steven_Alker_at_the_2023_U.S._Senior_Open-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Steven_Alker_at_the_2023_U.S._Senior_Open.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5158,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5156\/revisions\/5158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}