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Sam Workman, caddie for Steven Alker, dies after battle with cancer

Sam Workman

Sam Workman, caddie for PGA Tour Champions golfer Steven Alker, died Monday less than three weeks removed from caddying a second-place finish in Hawaii to open the 2023 season.

Workman passed away Monday at his home in Beeville, Texas, about 100 miles south of San Antonio, from cancer, a “sudden passing” according to Alker in a post on Instagram.

The following is a submission from John Rathouz, a fellow caddie and good friend of Workman:

Somewhere in heaven, Sam Workman is grilling barbeque pork tenderloin on the tailgate of his pickup truck. At least that’s what I like to think our friend is up to now.

It was one of his favorite things to do, something he’d done hundreds of times in his life, and I was fortunate enough to experience it, in all its glory, one spring evening in the parking lot of a Best Western in Greenville, South Carolina.

Sam Workman, far right, works the grill on the back of his truck.

It was truly one of the most fun, best-tasting meals I’ve had in all of my years caddying. It was simple. It was life on the road. As Sam and I reminisced on a podcast last October, he said he enjoyed it because it was a chance to “hang out with your friends… cook it slow and have a couple of dirty waters and raise hell with your partnas.”

He’ll always remain as “Sam BBQ Workman” in my phone contacts.

Perhaps Sam is grilling for fellow Texans, fellow caddies, fellow professionals Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan. Always humble, maybe he’ll sprinkle in a story here or there about the spectacular run he’d just been on over the last 18 months as the looper for Steven Alker on the PGA Tour Champions: five tournament wins and the 2022 Charles Schwab Cup Champion and Player of the Year.

It’s likely my favorite streak of “flag collecting” by a caddie friend ever. A little over two weeks ago, Steven and Sam picked right up where they left off, finishing second to start the season in Hawaii.

However, as I came to find out since then, Sam wasn’t feeling well in Hawaii and hadn’t been, on and off, since the holiday season, when caddies finally get out from under the strap. So it was that he returned home from paradise to find out that he had cancer. Devastating.

When I spoke with Sam that Friday, Jan. 27, he sounded weak, nearly out of breath, but his unique South Texas drawl was still punching through the phone. Our conversation was only five minutes, and I briefly tried to chip away at his disappointment that he wouldn’t be…

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