Golf: Alker's eyes on Tour spot

With a prestigious US PGA Tour card virtually assured, Hamilton's Steven Alker will look to finish the last second-tier competition of the season as highly ranked as possible.

Alker overcame a mid-season slump to finish second equal in the Hibernia Southern Open in Louisiana. It propelled him into 10th position on the Buy. Com secondary Tour money list.

The top 15 earn full exempt status for the PGA Tour next year.

Regardless of what happens this weekend, Alker said a good finish was still important in the season-ending Tour Championship in Alabama.

On the US Tour, there are more privileges for a player the higher they finish in the top 15.

"It's very important in terms of how many tournaments you get into. The further down you are the fewer starts you might get," Alker said yesterday.

"That's still important to me. I want to go out and do my best and try to win a tournament."

Only the top 55 players are available for the Tour Championship, in which the whole field is guaranteed to play all four rounds.

"If you're in the top 55 you've still got a chance of gaining a PGA Tour card, so there's a lot riding on this week for a lot of guys," Alker said.

He had a dream start to the season, which included a tournament win in his happy hunting ground of Louisiana in April.

A former European Tour player, Alker went nine successive tournaments without missing a cut before his fortunes swung the other way and he couldn't make a cut for six weeks.

"The last few weeks I've really forgotten about the numbers and just played my game and that's been the difference," Alker said.

Hoping to settle in as quickly as possible to the US Tour in January, Alker is unlikely to return home for the New Zealand Open at Middlemore in January.

"Being a rookie, I really have to focus here in the States, as much as I would like to play in New Zealand," he said.

- NZPA