Steven Alker carded a second consecutive bogey-free round to total 17-under 127, his lowest opening 36-hole score on PGA TOUR Champions, to carry a five-stroke lead into the final round of the Simmons Bank Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alker, who had carded a sensational 61 in his opening round, is seeking his 10th win on PGA TOUR Champions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 54-year-old, who won the Cologuard Classic earlier this year, is the only player in the field without a bogey through 36 holes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His five-stroke lead marks the largest 36-hole lead on PGA TOUR Champions since the 2024 PURE Insurance Championship (Paul Broadhurst, converted five-stroke 36-hole lead into three-stroke win)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is his 16th time leading\/co-leading after the second round on PGA TOUR Champions (5-for-15)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He Is projected to move to No. 1 in the Charles Schwab Cup standings after starting the week No. 4, having won the Charles Schwab Cup in two of the last three seasons (2022, 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former University of Arkansas golfer Tag Ridings is in second spot, having carded a second consecutive 6-under 66. The 51-year-old seeks his first win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Justin Leonard, who won last week\u2019s Dominion Energy Charity Classic, sits solo third after second-round 68. 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 Cup leader Miguel Angel Jim\u00e9nez is tied 30th<\/sup> posted 70 and enters the final round at 1-underTwo-time defending champion Padraig Harrington (T38) followed a 2-under 70 with a 2-over 74.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, at the Bank of Utah Championships Michael Brennan, playing in his first as a professional, claimed a two-stroke lead entering the final round<\/p>\n\n\n\n He carded a 64 via seven birdies and one eagle on the par-5 seventh hole against one double bogey. He is now on 17 under par 196.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Should he win in Utah, he would become the 14th<\/sup> first-time winner this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Defending champion Matt McCarty is in second spot in 15 under par and seeks to become the first player to successfully defend a title on TOUR since Scottie Scheffler (2024, 2025 Memorial Tournament).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second-year member Rico Hoey is tied third on 14-under together with Kevin Yu and Pierceson Coody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hayden Springer (T6\/-13) posted 6-under 29 on the back nine en route to a 62 for the low round of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eight-time DP World Tour winner Thorbj\u00f8rn Olesen is also tied sixth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Steven Alker carded a second consecutive bogey-free round to total 17-under 127, his lowest opening 36-hole score on<\/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-5212","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\/5212","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=5212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5213,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5212\/revisions\/5213"}],"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=5212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}