Steve Alker confirms a spot at the British Open Championship
New Zealand’s Steve Alker recorded 69 and 68 in the British Open’s qualifying tournament at West Lancashire to record a two-stroke victory over a group of four players who tied for the second place.
Alker got off to a quick start and carded five birdies over the opening seven holes of the second round. The ninth hole saw him make the first mistake of the day that caused him to suffer a bogey to end the front nine.
Thereafter, he made a great comeback with a couple of birdies on the 10th and 12th hole. However, he failed to maintain the consistency and bogeyed the 15th and 18th hole to end the round.
Yet, he was far ahead of his rivals on the course and qualified for the 2012 British Open as the only New Zealander since 2009.
He will now make the third major start of his career, as he participated in the British Open in 1998 and 2007 as well but missed the cuts on both the occasions.
Alker currently plays on the Web.com Tour and ranks 63rd on the money list. His last professional victory came in the New Zealand PGA Championship in 2009, at Clearwater in Christchurch.
Therefore, he now has the chance of earning a huge pay cheque, if he succeeds in registering a good finish in the third major event of the year.
The golf commentators believe that Alker can make his presence felt at the Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club should he make some improvements in the accuracy of his game.
American Scott Pinckney and Steven O'Hara from England were the other two players who confirmed their berths at Royal Lytham.
The venue for this year’s Open Championship is the same where Bob Charles recorded the only major victory for New Zealand in 1963.
In the meantime, Michael Campbell, the winner of 2005 US Open, failed to qualify after carding 71 and 73 to take the 16th place on the leaderboard.
He is currently experiencing the worst days of his career, as he has managed to make the cut only twice in his last 20 appearances around the world.
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