Steven Alker finished the PGA Tour Champions season atop the points standings.
A week later, he finished on top of the leaderboard in the first event of the postseason.
Alker chased down first- and second-round leader Jerry Kelly on Sunday at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic, shooting a 4-under 68 to claim the first event of the 2022 Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs by a shot.
Alker has now won four times on the senior circuit in 2022, tying Steve Stricker for the most this season. Stricker skipped the event this week and is also skipping the next one.
Alker opened with a birdie Sunday but bogeyed the eighth hole to make the turn at even par for the day. He birdied the 10th to start his back nine and then posted consecutive birdies on Nos. 15, 16 and 17 to move into the lead at 14 under.
Alker now has five wins and 24 top 10s in 31 total events on the PGA Tour Champions.
K.J. Choi shot a 5-under 67 to finish in solo second. Kelly closed with a 72 to finish tied for third with Doug Barron and Padraig Harrington at 12 under. Ernie Els and Brian Gay tied for sixth at 11 under.
The round of the day was posted by Rocco Mediate, who shot an 8-under 64 to zoom up the leaderboard and tie for eighth at 10 under.
Bernhard Langer, who was the two-time defending champion at the Dominion and is a six-time Schwab Cup Playoffs winner, finished in a tie for 14th at 8 under.
The playoffs consist of three events with the top 72 players qualified for the Dominion. Four players—Fred Couples, Stricker, Brandt Jobe and Mike Weir—chose to skip it.
Next up is the TimberTech Championship in two weeks at the Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida, Nov. 4-6. The top 54 finishers from the Dominion will advance to that event, where Alker is the defending champion.
From there, the top 36 move on to the season finale at Phoenix Country Club in Arizona for the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, Nov. 10-13. Phil Mickelson won that event a year ago.