A pair of Masters champions will make their debut.
A pair of Masters champions are set to make their debut at the 2024 PNC Championship.
Fred Couples and Trevor Immelman will tee it up for the first time next month at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Orlando in the silly-season event. Couples will partner with his 16-year-old stepson, Hunter Hannemann, while Immelman will pair with his 18-year-old son Jacob Immelman.
Eighteen of the 20 teams were announced Monday, and there were plenty of familiar names on the tee sheet. Lee Trevino, who has played in every edition, will be back, as will defending champions Bernhard Langer and son Jason.
However, there is one notable omission as of yet: Tiger Woods and son Charlie.
The duo has teed it up the past four years, including a runner-up finish in 2021. But with Tiger undergoing surgery for another back surgery in September, his status for the PNC, and his Hero World Challenge event in the Bahamas in two weeks, remains in the air.
The PNC features 20 major champions and their relatives competing in a two-day, 36-hole scramble for the Willie Park Trophy. To qualify, players must have won a major championship or the Players while their partner must not hold any playing status on a professional Tour.
Here’s a look at the field for the 2024 PNC Championship, which is set for Dec. 19-22:
There are three locations for the First Stage, with two of them getting underway Tuesday. The third starts next week. Final Stage is in December.
Five golfers from this year’s Q School will earn a card for 2025. Last year’s Q school winner, Cameron Percy, finished in the 36th and final spot in the Schwab standings and will return with a card next season. Shane Bertsch won a card last year and finished 31st this year, so he’ll be back in 2025 as well.
Grand Bear Golf Club, Saucier, Mississippi, Nov 12 – 15
Soboba Springs Golf Club, San Jacinto, California, Nov. 19-22
The final stage will be Dec. 3-6 at the Champions Course at TPC Scottsdale in Arizona. [Note: the WM Phoenix Open is played on the Stadium Course; the Epson Tour played on the Champions Course in 2024).
There are 198 players in the three fields of First Stage. There will be others who will advance directly to Final Stage based on various qualification criteria.
Notable names at PGA Tour Champions Q School
Buckhorn Springs Golf & CC
Todd Demsey, a former teammate of Phil Mickelson at Arizona State who likes to use persimmon clubs
Robert Gamez, who in 1990 as a 21-year-old rookie holed out for eagle on the 18th hole to beat Greg Norman by a shot at the Nestle Invitational at Bay Hill
Frank Lickliter II, the medalist at the 2007 PGA Tour Q School. He played 17 Champions events in 2020 but hasn’t had status since
John Smoltz, who won 213 games over a 21-year career as a pitcher, won a World Series ring with the Atlanta Braves in 1995, was National League Cy Young award in 1996 and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015. This is his fifth attempt at Q school.
Grand Bear Golf Club
Tag Ridings, who has two professional wins, both on the Korn Ferry Tour, which came 19 years apart
Omar Uresti, who made nearly 400 starts on the PGA Tour, where he played 11 seasons. He qualified for the PGA Championship five times between 2015 and 2021. In March, he had a cancerous lump removed from his leg.
Soboba Springs Golf Club
Jim Carter, the first individual NCAA NCAA champion at Arizona State in 1983. Has one Korn Ferry Tour win and one PGA Tour win. Joined Champions tour in 2011.
Mathew Goggin, who has five KFT wins, all coming after he lost his PGA Tour card in 2009. His mother was a golfer (she lost to Juli Inkster in the was a horse trainer
Bryan Hoops, who claims 19 holes-in-one. He’s one of 12 amateurs at First Stage.
Tommy Maddox, who was an NFL quarterback for four teams, most notably the Denver Broncos and Pittsburgh Steelers. He was the league MVP in the XFL’s only season.
“It’s not like a full-time gig or anything … It’ll be kind of fun,” Azinger told Golfweek on Monday.
Paul Azinger is returning to the broadcast booth in 2025.
Golfweek has learned that the 64-year-old former 12-time PGA Tour champion and winner of the 1993 PGA Championship will replace Lanny Wadkins, who announced his retirement on Friday, as the lead analyst on Golf Channel’s coverage of PGA Tour Champions for 10-12 tournaments next season as part of a one-year deal.
“It’s not like a full-time gig or anything, which I don’t want, but to be able to go in there and part-time some golf, some really great golf, it’ll be kind of fun,” Azinger told Golfweek in a phone interview on Monday. “I’ll just be as candid as I can and enjoy it.”
Peter Jacobsen and John Cook will split time in the analyst chair when Azinger is off. [Cook will serve as on-site walking reporter when he’s not an analyst.]
“Paul brings a lot of credibility to that seat and has a lot of creative ideas that we think can just add to our overall telecast,” Miller Brady, president of PGA Tour Champions, said. “It’s hard to replace a Hall of Famer like Lanny week in and week out, but, I think Paul will be tremendous for us.”
Azinger was the lead golf analyst for NBC Sports’ coverage of the PGA Tour for five years until the network stunned him by electing not to renew his contract last December.
“I thought I would do at least one more year and then sign a four-year deal. They made the offer, my agent said ‘No, we’ll counteroffer the next day.’ And they said, ‘Sorry, we’re moving on.’ You know, it wasn’t a conversation with me, like, ‘What do you need Zinger? What do we need to do? Here’s our situation. You know, this is why we need you to accept this deal.’ There was no reason, it just was it’s complicated, it’s complicated. I was like, ‘How complicated can it be, bud?’ It’s money,” Azinger told Golfweek in March.
The Peacock still hasn’t hired a replacement for Azinger, instead rotating this season through a cast of veteran players including Kevin Kisner and Luke Donald, Golf Channel commentators Paul McGinley and Brandel Chamblee, who did the U.S. Open, and caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay, who has since rejoined Golf Channel as an on-course commentator.
Sep 24, 2022; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Paul Azinger holds up a fish at the lake near the 14th hole during the foursomes match play of the Presidents Cup golf tournament at Quail Hollow Club. Mandatory Credit: Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports
While Azinger will appear on Golf Channel, he isn’t employed by the network but rather by PGA Tour Entertainment, which has final say on talent for PGA Tour Champions coverage. All parties involved said that the relationship has been reconciled despite the messy parting nearly a year ago.
“I hope that that’s water under the bridge and that everyone just moves on. I know Paul wants to move on, and we want to move on,” Brady said.
“Paul has called some of golf’s biggest events and has been a part of the PGA Tour as a player or analyst for more than four decades, and we’re excited to have him bring that experience to the PGA Tour Champions telecasts on Golf Channel,” an NBC Sports spokesperson said.
During his interview with Golfweek in March, Azinger hinted that he’d be interested in calling the 50-and-over tour.
“I’d rather call the Senior Tour than the PGA Tour to tell you the truth. I’m over the PGA Tour. To call the best senior players in the world, at least they’re the best,” Azinger said, a not-so-subtle jab at the Tour’s loss of talented players to LIV Golf.
Brady said he and Greg Hopfe, the Tour’s senior vice president and executive producer of live programming, met with Azinger in February to feel out his interest in the Champions Tour.
“And, you know, he wasn’t quite sure,” Brady said. “It took a lot of time to think about it. We continued to answer questions that he had, and we said, look, at the end of the day, we’re not asking you to come do a full schedule. We’re asking you to dip your toe in the water and let’s see if you like it.”
Wadkins has been the lead analyst of Golf Channel’s coverage of the Champions Tour for the last 13 years. He told Golfweek on Friday that he would do his final broadcast in January at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship, the kickoff to the 2025 Champions Tour season, and Brady said the tour would honor Wadkins’ contributions in a special ceremony to be held before the tournament. At his newsletter, The Quadrilateral, Geoff Shackelford called Wadkins “one of the most underrated analysts in golf television history.”
Azinger, who was the winning U.S. captain at the 2008 Ryder Cup, started in television in 2005 with ABC and ESPN, sharing analyst duties with Nick Faldo in a three-man booth with Mike Tirico. When ESPN lost its right to the British Open in 2015, Azinger signed with Fox Sports as lead analyst when it outbid NBC for the U.S. Open and other USGA championships. NBC hired him in 2018 to replace Johnny Miller when he passed the baton and signed off from the 2019 WM Phoenix Open. Azinger’s final broadcast was the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome.
In January, Golfweek asked Brady about Azinger and he noted that he had seen him shortly after his departure from NBC at the World Champions Cup, which was played not far from Azinger’s home at The Concession in Bradenton, Florida. Brady wondered if he could talk Azinger into bringing his vast talents to the booth on the senior circuit.
“At the right time, I want to go see if maybe he’ll jump in the booth here. Why not? But the money’s vastly different. He has to want to do it. So I’ve got to find the right time,” Brady said. “If I’m with him, just to say, hey, do you want to do a couple events? It’s too raw now.”
Turns out, the time is right for Azinger.
“For Paul, it’s not about the money and he’ll tell you it’s not about the money,” Brady said, “it’s about just staying involved in the game and being close to a lot of his contemporaries.”
When Azinger was reminded that if he enjoys it enough to stick around for a second year, he may have the opportunity to call Tiger Woods again, Azinger’s voice lit up.
“I hope he does,” Azinger said. “He says he will. I mean, if I could do five or six or seven of Tiger’s events, I would be thrilled. I’ll be thrilled anyway. Trust me, it’s gonna be good fun.”
PHOENIX — Steven Alker joined a select group Sunday.
Alker shot a final-round 5-under 66 to finish in a tie second place at the 2024 Charles Schwab Cup Championship, and that was enough to clinch the 2024 Charles Schwab Cup, the season-long points race on the PGA Tour Champions.
A day after shooting a 63 to tie for low round of the week, Alker carded six birdies under warm, sunny skies during the nicest day of the week at Phoenix Country Club. He battled most of the day with Richard Green for second, with Green hanging around with a shot at the season title as well. But a series of unfortunate events for Bernhard Langer on the back nine brought both men into contention for the tournament title and the points title.
Langer held a five-shot lead on the front nine but back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 10 and 11 and another on 17, after his second shot banged off a tree, brought him back to the pack.
In a span of a few minutes, Green birdied the 18th hole, Alker birdied the 17th and Langer bogeyed the 17th. Suddenly, there was a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard.
Alker says he’s not normally a scoreboard watcher but did ask about where he stood late in the day Sunday.
“The first time I asked my caddie was what has Ernie Els done today on the golf course and that was walking off 17 tee,” he said. Alker started the week in pursuit of Els in the points race. “I knew Richard was right there as well, we had to kind of fend him off as well. But with birdie on 17 and now I’m like I’m tired and trying to win a golf tournament, defend a golf tournament.”
He added that he knew standing on the 18th tee exactly where things stood.
“One of the Golf Channel guys got me and said ‘Yeah, you’re tied, Richard made a putt at the last.’ It was exciting,” he said.
On the closing hole, Alker drilled his second shot, and it rolled across the green before coming to a stop on the back fringe.
After Langer made a dramatic putt for birdie to get to 18 under, Alker faced a birdie of his own from about 10 feet to tie and force a playoff but he left it short.
“It means a lot. It’s a season-long race, so consistency, you want to try to get some wins in there as well. I’m proud of the fact that I kept that consistency over the last few years,” said Alker, who won the season opener for his lone win in 2024. “Just competing with Bernhard and everybody out here on the Champions tour, it’s just made me a better player. I’m very grateful for that.”
Alker joined a group of six golfers with more than one Cup title: Bernhard Langer, who won the 2024 Charles Schwab Cup Championship on Sunday for his 47th tournament title on the circuit, leads the way with six. Hale Irwin, Tom Lehman, Jay Haas, Tom Watson and Loren Roberts each have two. And now, so does Alker, who has won it twice in three seasons.
Alker picked up $276,000 for the week.
In addition to tournament prize money, there’s more cash on the line as part of the season-long Schwab race. The top five in the final points standings split $2.1 million that will be distributed in lump sum deposits into a Schwab brokerage accounts.
The breakdown:
1st: $1 million, Steven Alker
2nd: $500,00, Ernie Els
3rd: $300,000, Richard Green
4th: $200,000, Padraig Harrington
5th: $100,000, Stephen Ames
That money is considered bonus money and doesn’t count toward a player’s official career earnings.
How it works
Unlike the PGA Tour’s post-season – where the Tour Championship winner is declared the FedEx Cup champion – it’s possible to have someone win the final tournament while someone else captures the Schwab season title.
The winner of the tournament wins the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. The winner of the season-long race is the Charles Schwab Cup champion.
Langer won the Schwab tournament for the first time.
PHOENIX — Bernhard Langer won the 2024 Charles Schwab Cup Championship and in doing so, kept his streak alive. He also did something for the first time.
Langer made a long birdie putt on the par-5 18th hole, throwing his arms up in the air and tossing his hat to the ground in celebration to close out a final-round 66. He finished his day at 18 under and then watched as Steven Alker missed a birdie putt to end his week at 17 under, tied with Richard Green for second.
For Langer, it’s his PGA Tour Champions-leading 47th victory and his first this season, giving him at least one win on the senior circuit every year since 2007, his first year on the tour.
Langer, 67, shot his age Saturday to take the 54-hole lead. In Friday’s second round, he beat his age by three after posting a 64. He turned the trick one last time on Sunday with a 66 that marked the 23rd time he has shot his age or better.
Bernhard Langer plays a tee shot on the first hole during the final round of the 2024 Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Phoenix Country Club. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Langer started the final round with four straight birdies and led by five at one point. He did run into a spot of trouble on the back nine with back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 10 and 11, which cut his lead over Steven Alker and Richard Green to three.
Langer made birdie on the par-3 13th hole to nudge his lead back to three over Green but then on 17, Langer banged his second shot out of the rough off a tree and had it come right back at him. He then put his third on the green but left himself a long putt for par. Moments later, Alker stuffed his third on 17 to less than a foot, setting up a tap-in birdie. Green then drained a long birdie on 18 to finish at 17 under and wait. Langer then made a two-footer for bogey, and suddenly there was a three-way tie for the lead.
On 18, he laid up with his second but hit his third deep, leaving himself a long putt but he made a perfect stroke on it, the ball curling right at the end before dropping in for a birdie.
“It felt like a good stroke, but from that distance you never know until it actually disappears,” he siad. “When I looked up, it looked like it was online more or less and tracking where I wanted to be and then it was just a matter of would it have the right distance and would it actually break because I played it two cups left. It did just perfectly what it needed to do and disappeared. Then all hell broke loose kind of emotionally, so it was pretty wild, yeah.”
Alker’s par at the last securd a tie for second and clinched his second Charles Schwab Cup, the tour’s the season-long points race, for a second time in three seasons.
Langer’s win at Phoenix Country Club came in the tour’s final event on the 2024 schedule. It’s also his first win in this tournament. He has won the season-long title a tour-high six times but each time did so without winning the season finale. This is the 25th different PGA Tour Champions tournament he has won.
In a career where Langer seemingly has done it all, winning in Phoenix marked a first.
“I’ve tried here a number of times and haven’t really come close. To do it on this course, I needed to putt well and I putted really well. That’s because I’m not long enough to come in with shorter irons and stop it, the greens are very firm so my ball runs out a lot. So I’m usually further away from the holes. I need to just make more putts than the other guys and I did that this week,” he said, noting that he’s proud of his ability to match his age and scorecard. “To break my age twice and shoot my age a third time three out of four rounds is pretty exceptional. The first day, if I hadn’t hit that drive out of bounds on 14, which was stupid, or 15, I would have done it all four rounds. Played some pretty incredible golf this week.”
Langer overcame a serious injury in 2024
In February, Langer suffered a ruptured Achilles and missed seven events. He’s been using a golf cart during competition and did so again this week. On Friday, he was asked if at the time did he have thoughts he might not make it back to the tour.
“I’m a very positive person, so I always thought I would be able to come back. My surgeon and PT said if everything goes somewhat well, you should be OK, just you’re probably going to lose half the season or something like that,” he said. “I was fortunate to come back after three months actually. The nice thing, we can use carts out here. Because I wasn’t able to walk 18 holes, it helped me. When people ask me how are you doing now, I’m nowhere near 100 percent, but I’m a functioning golfer.”
How the Schwab points work
Unlike the PGA Tour’s post-season – where the Tour Championship winner is declared the FedEx Cup champion – it’s possible to have someone win the final tournament while someone else captures the Schwab season title.
The winner of the tournament wins the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. The winner of the season-long race is the Charles Schwab Cup champion.
Only three golfers have won both in the same season.
The Charles Schwab Cup Championship is the biggest event on the PGA Tour Champions after the five majors. The event is the season finale where the golfer who enjoyed the most season-long success is crowned champion.
Unlike the PGA Tour’s post-season – where the Tour Championship winner is declared the FedEx Cup champion – it’s possible to have someone win the final tournament while someone else captures the Schwab season title.
The winner of the tournament wins the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. The winner of the season-long race is the Charles Schwab Cup champion.
Bernhard Langer, a 46-time winner on the PGA Tour Champions, holds a one-shot lead at the 2024 Charles Schwab Cup Challenge after a third-round 4-under 67.
Langer, 67, entered the week ranked 22nd in the Charles Schwab Cup points list, but is projected to end the season at No. 7 if he goes on to win at Phoenix Country Club in Arizona.
The German has done everything but win in 2024. In 15 starts, Langer finished inside the top-25 11 times, inside the top-10 seven times and was the runner-up at the Ascension Charity Classic.
The two-time Masters champion is looking for his first win since the 2023 U.S. Senior Open.
As for the points race, Steven Alker, who entered the week ranked No. 2 behind Ernie Els, has taken over the top spot. He’s shot rounds of 70-68-63 and is 12-under total, alone is second.
Els hasn’t played his best golf this week, sitting at 3 under after rounds of 69-70-71. Stewart Cink, the 36-hole leader, struggled throughout the day, eventually signing for a 4-over 75. He’s solo sixth at 8 under, five back.
The shot of the day went to Langer, who used this beauty on the 16th to make his fifth birdie on the round.
First place at the Schwab is good for $528,000, with $300,000 going to the runner-up, $252,000 for third place, $210,000 for fourth and $180,000 to fifth place. Everyone in the field earns a paycheck, with 35th place getting $17,250.
The winner of the tournament wins the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. The winner of the season-long race is the Charles Schwab Cup champion.
The shortest golf course on the 2024 calendar sits along the Southern California coast. The longest is in the Middle East. Fifteen of the 28 are longer than 7,000 yards.
Check out the full list of 28 golf courses from longest to shortest:
Royal Golf Dar Es Salam, Rabat, Morocco – 7,638 yards (Trophy Hassan II)
Two down, two to go, a second lucky break and a new No. 1.
PHOENIX — Two down, two to go, a second lucky break and a new No. 1.
Stewart Cink shot a 5-under 66 to maintain his three-shot lead on the 35-man field in the 2024 Charles Schwab Cup Championship. For the second day in a row, he avoided disaster on the par-5 18th hole.
On Thursday, a shot out of a bunker hit the flagstick dead on and stopped two feet away, setting up a closing birdie. On Friday, his second shot was well short of the green, hitting the bank that slopes down towards a lake. But his ball managed to stay hung up in the rough and not get wet. He then chipped on and two-putted for par.
“It was just a little bit of a lazy swing there on 18. This is going to happen, but obviously it was a little further right than I meant for it to be, but we had plenty of distance to make sure we had kind of a wide space to give ourselves a little forgiveness there,” Cink said. “That bank actually does have some grass over there on 18. When you get back in towards the middle of the green, there’s no grass. So that part of the hole will hold a golf ball. Still, very glad it stayed up.”
Cink avoided bogey on Friday and has just one over 36 holes. He’s seeking his second PGA Tour Champions victory in 2024.
67-year-old Langer shoots 64
Bernhard Langer had the round of the day, a 7-under 64. It’s his best round in this event and it’s three shots better than his age. It’s also the 21st time the ageless wonder has shot his age or better.
“Every once in a while I look back at my career and have to almost pinch myself and say, man, that’s pretty amazing what you’ve done the last whatever, so many years,” he said. “Like a day today, to shoot 64, 3 under my age, not a whole lot of people can do that.”
On the par-4 17th, Langer drained a long putt of about 25 feet for his eighth birdie of the day. He said a slight putter alignment adjustment is paying dividends.
“I moved the ball a little bit further away from me. Started to look better, ball was rolling online and so far, so good. It’s worked two days in a row,” he said.
Langer had plans to make the 2024 Masters his final trip down Magnolia Lane, but a ruptured Achilles in February scuttled that. He later said 2025 would be his last time competing at Augusta National and he confirmed that again Friday.
Bernhard Langer takes a club from his bag on the ninth hole during the second round of the 2024 Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Phoenix Country Club. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
“It will be, no doubt about it. That course is just so long,” he said. “The last five or 10 years when I played there, it’s just playing very long. It’s not much fun hitting 3-woods into par 4s and 2-hybrids and all that kind of stuff. The holes are made for 7-, 8-, 9-irons and I’m coming in with some metal and other things.”
New No. 1 in Schwab points
As for the tournament within the tournament, the season-long points race, there’s a new leader in the projected standings. Steven Alker, who came into the week in the No. 2 spot, has overtaken Ernie Els, who has been No. 1 for the last 12 tournaments.
Alker, who won the Cup two years ago and then this tournament last season, shot a 3-under 68 Friday at Phoenix Country Club and is tied for fourth. Meanwhile Els shot a 70 and is 3 under overall this week, tied for ninth. Els is seeking his first Schwab Cup points title.
Back to Cink. While he can’t win the season title, there are scenarios where he could finish as high as second.
How it works
The Charles Schwab Cup Championship is a four-round, 72-hole, no-cut tournament.
Unlike the PGA Tour’s post-season – where the Tour Championship winner is declared the FedEx Cup champion – it’s possible to have someone win this event while someone else captures the Schwab season title.
The winner of the tournament wins the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. The winner of the season-long race is the Charles Schwab Cup champion.
“Someone said ‘You’re playing with house money’ and that’s kinda how I looked at it.”
PHOENIX — Who knew how important a tie for 32nd place could be?
Jason Caron can tell you. That finish he posted at the 2023 Senior PGA Professional Championship earned him a spot in the 2024 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.
He then went out and shot 69-70-67 before closing with a 66 to finish tied for fourth. That earned him a payday of $154,000, but more important, gained him access into more PGA Tour Champions events. Caron, 52, has played eight in all, missing just one cut and earning three top fours.
His most recent outing was a tie for third in the penultimate tournament in the Charles Schwab Cup playoffs and that punched his ticket to the season finale at Phoenix Country Club. Even better, by making the final 36, he earned a tour card on the Champions tour for 2025.
What a out-of-nowhere season for a guy who played 168 Korn Ferry Tour events and 65 PGA Tour events – his last full season there was 2003 – before deciding on a different path, moving on from competitive golf to be the head pro at Mill River in Oyster Bay, New York.
“Someone said ‘You’re playing with house money’ and that’s kinda how I looked at it,” Caron said after an even-par first round at the 2024 Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
Back in his days as a pro golfer, there was always the pressure to succeed because, after all, everyone needs a steady paycheck. But he’s had a great job for a while now and when discussing the sequence of events, Caron makes it clear that he’s found a perspective that lets him swing freely. Reaching the final stop of the year and earning playing status next year is just the cherry on top.
“It sounds, you know, really stupid, but it really didn’t matter to me because I have a job. Mill River is where I’m supposed to be so this was all kind of an added bonus this year. Never in my wildest dreams had I thought about being here [in Phoenix]. It didn’t cross my mind,” he said. “I can honestly tell you I really didn’t think about the consequences, I just played golf and I mean, the checks, like I said, are pretty cool when you play well and to be here is like, ridiculous.”
Caron owns the golf shop at Mill River, which he said will open around May 15. That frees him up to play from January up till the season starts on Long Island. He said he’ll play the majors during the summer then ramp it up again down the stretch in the fall. Without hesitation he said there was never a thought of leaving his club to play full-time.
“No chance, because I know that … listen, when you’re playing great, everything is amazing,” he said. “I’ve had when it’s not so good and it stinks and I know that.”
Steven Alker is familiar with Caron’s play but also his ascension. Alker won the Cup series title two years ago after coming out of nowhere himself. He Monday qualified into an event in 2021 where he finished top 10. Eight more top 10s later and he was a mainstay on the tour.
“I know he’s got good game because I played with him out on Tour,” Alker said. “He’s done the hard yards, he’s been around, he’s done Korn Ferry, he’s been on and off the PGA Tour. I think where he was and what he was doing as a club pro and to come out here, it’s exciting.”
Caron remembers battling to hang on to status with Alker back in the day.
“When we were playing, we weren’t world-beaters,” Caron said. “We were good and we played and kept cards and stuff like that but we weren’t the guys that were at the top and playing the PGA Tour and playing super well.
“It’s been awesome to watch, a guy that hasn’t had huge success in his early golf life but now he’s killing it.”
Will Caron follow the same path? Only time will tell. If not, he’ll be content to go back to his full-time gig on Long Island, where most people are fans of the New York sports teams.
Caron, though, grew up in Massachusetts and is a lifelong fan of the Patriots, Bruins and Red Sox.
“So I was not disappointed when the Yankees lost,” he quipped.
How it works
The Charles Schwab Cup Championship is a four-round, 72-hole, no-cut tournament.
Unlike the PGA Tour’s post-season – where the Tour Championship winner is declared the FedEx Cup champion – it’s possible to have someone win this event while someone else captures the Schwab season title.
The winner of the tournament wins the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. The winner of the season-long race is the Charles Schwab Cup champion.
