New Zealand’s Steven Alker carded a 5-under-par 67 on Saturday to tie first-round co-leader Mike Weir atop the leaderboard after 36 holes of the Pure Insurance Championship in Monterrey, Calif.
Both the Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill par-72 courses are being used for the tournament, which has a purse of $2.4 million. Alker fired a 67 at each to get to 10-under 134, while Canadian Weir followed a 66 at Pebble Beach with a 68 at Spyglass Hill.
Alker recorded six birdies playing Pebble Beach Golf Links at Nos. 1, 2, 8, 10, 11 and 13, and gave a stroke back with a bogey at the par-5, 543-yard No. 6 when he left a putt well short of the hole.
“I got some birdies in the middle and just kept some momentum,” said Alker, 54. “After bogey on 6, kind of thinking that’s a birdie hole, keep my round going but it slowed it down. I think I birdied 8, which was a great birdie, and 10, 11 and 13, so that little patch was great. It wasn’t easy coming in. We had some wind holes straight into it, you know, 12, 13, 14, 15. So yeah, just pleased to get in at 10.”
Alker, who is third in the Charles Schwab Cup standings, has nine career wins on the PGA Tour Champions, including in March at the Cologuard Classic.
He said the course has gotten firmer since the practice rounds.
“The ball’s starting to bounce, and you can see the fairways are bouncing a little bit more,” Alker said. “You’ve just got to be careful off the tee, just kind of think a little bit more into the greens, allow for a bit of a bounce. And then, obviously, it cools down. The later it gets, it cools down, the ball’s not flying. So all those things you have to take into account here at Pebble Beach; that’s the beauty of this place.”
Weir lost a stroke with a bogey at the par-4 No. 4 at Spyglass, then rebounded with consecutive birdies at Nos. 6 through 8. Weir went birdie-bogey at Nos. 11 and 12 but finished strong with birdies at Nos. 17 and 18, both par-4 holes.
Stewart Cink rose 20 spots to a tie for third with Vijay Singh at 8 under after his 66 on Saturday at Spyglass Hill. Starting on the back nine, Cink carded birdies at Nos. 11 and 13, only to bogey Nos. 15 and 16, followed by a birdie at No. 17. The front nine wasn’t quite the adventure, as he notched five birdies at Nos. 1, 5, 6, 7 and 9 without a blemish to go out in 31.
Fiji’s Singh played Pebble Beach at 3-under 69, with five birdies and two bogeys.
First-round co-leader Cameron Percy fell six places to a tie for seventh when he followed a 66 at Pebble Beach with an even-par 72 at Spyglass Hill, bringing his total to 6-under 138.
