Tag: Richard Green

These 10 golfers still have a shot to win the 2024 Charles Schwab Cup

As the circuit reaches the season finale, there are 10 golfers who have a chance to win the Cup.

PHOENIX — A year ago, Steve Stricker had such a commanding lead in the Charles Schwab Cup standings that he was able to skip all three of the playoff events on the PGA Tour Champions and still claim the Cup.

This time around, as the circuit reaches the season finale at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship there are still 10 golfers who have a chance to win it.

Of those 10, four are a long shot, as they each would need to win and have a lot of other things go their way. Of the top six, if any of them win the tournament at Phoenix Country Club, they’d claim the Cup.

And of those six, it’s most likely that it’ll come down to just two golfers.

Nonetheless, there’s certainly more drama heading into the week than in recent years.

How it works

The tournament is a four-round, 72-hole, no-cut event.

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.

Format, TV, prize money | Winners in 2024 | Money in 2024

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 10 golfers in contention

If any of these players win the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, they will win the Charles Schwab Cup, regardless of where anyone else finishes:

  • Ernie Els
  • Steven Alker
  • Stephen Ames
  • Padraig Harrington
  • Y.E. Yang
  • Richard Green

Els has been atop the points standings for the last 12 tournaments.

Cup most likely comes down to two

The PGA Tour Champions stats crew reports that these are the “two most reasonable outcomes”:

Els, No. 1 in points and tied for most wins in 2024 with three, can claim the Cup by winning but it’s possible he could also clinch it by finishing second, third or fourth.

Alker can win the Cup with a win but also a second- or third-place finish but he would need Els to finish outside the top 5.

What some top contenders are saying

“For me to have led the money list for a long time is something, but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t win the Charles Schwab Cup,” Els said. “So hey, if I end up not winning it, it will sting a little bit obviously because of my consistent play throughout the year but not winning it, you know.”

Alker won the tournament last year and the Cup two years ago.

“Defending a tournament is always great, too. You come here and, as I said, you just bring those vibes forward, bring them into the week. But that’s a good feeling to come here as defending champ,” he said.

Harrington won the last PGA Tour Champions event two weeks ago to put himself in the conversation. And he knows the scenarios well.

“If I or any, I think six of us, if we win outright, we win it outright, nobody can interfere,” he said. “Which is tough for Ernie [Els]. Ernie’s had a great year, he’s No. 1 and he hasn’t really got. … I won’t say he wasn’t got rewarded, but he needs to win as well this week. He’s not going to get away with not winning.”

Don’t count these guys out

Green is the lone golfer among the contenders without a tournament win in 2024.

These golfers have a chance at the Cup but each needs to win this week and have the contenders finish well down the leaderboard:

  • K.J. Choi
  • Ricardo Gonzalez
  • Paul Broadhurst
  • Jerry Kelly

The math is not working here

These golfers cannot mathematically win the Cup:

  • Stewart Cink
  • Doug Barron
  • Tim O’Neal
  • Retief Goosen
  • Thomas Bjorn
  • Darren Clarke
  • Ken Tanigawa
  • Alex Cejka
  • Rocco Mediate
  • Bob Estes
  • Bernhard Langer
  • Miguel Angel Jimenez
  • Ken Duke
  • Joe Durant
  • Tim Petrovic
  • Thongchai Jaidee
  • Greg Chalmers
  • Mark Hensby
  • Vijay Singh
  • Shane Bertsch
  • Hiroyuki Fujita
  • Rod Pampling
  • Stuart Appleby
  • Jason Caron
  • Cameron Percy

The top 36 qualified for Phoenix but there’s only 35 in the field, as Steve Stricker, No. 8 in the points ahead of the finale, is skipping the tournament.

As for Harrington, he won the tournament two years ago but this may be his best chance to claim the Cup.

“I know with the Charles Schwab Cup, I’m not getting any younger,” Harrington said. “You want to take it when you get a chance. There’s more good players coming out every year, so whatever advantage you have when you’re young, that’s being eroded. Yeah, you want to take it when you get the chance.”

Steve Stricker wins 2024 Sanford International in a playoff, makes it a double three-peat

No one has ever three-peated on the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. Until now.

No one has ever three-peated on both the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. Until now.

Steve Stricker became a notable first Sunday with his third straight victory in the 2024 Sanford International. Coupled with his three straight wins at the John Deere Classic from 2009 to 2011, and he now holds a unique place in the PGA Tour history books.

Stricker started the final round at at Minnehaha Country Club in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, three shots back of the lead of Michael Wright.

Stricker was up two shots late but he bogeyed the par-4 closing hole and then watched Richard Green birdie the last and so off to a playoff they went.

On the fourth extra hole, Stricker’s approach rolled up and hit the flagstick.

Stricker shot 67-68-67 for the week. The victory was his fourth in the seven-year history of the tournament and his 18th Champions win. He won 12 times on the PGA Tour.

Making a Sunday charge but coming up just short was Bernhard Langer. He shot a Sunday 67 to finish at 7 under. Just a week ago, he lost in a playoff, so this gives him consecutive runner-up finishes. Langer tied for second along with Green. Ernie Els, the leader in the Charles Schwab Cup points, also tied for third at 7 under.

Steven Alker and Wright tied for fifth at 6 under. Wright, 50 and a PGA Tour Champions rookie, was one of five to earn his  way on tour this season via Q school last November, was the 36-hole leader but after rounds of 67 and 65.

Harrison Frazar wins first PGA Tour Champions event; Rocco Mediate plays his way into next round

The 2023 Dominion Energy Charity Classic produced a first-time winner on the PGA Tour Champions.

The sudden-death playoff at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic on Sunday produced a first-time winner on the PGA Tour Champions. The tournament also saw four golfers play their way into the next round.

Richard Green and Harrison Frazar finished tied at 11 under after 54 holes at the Country Club of Virginia in the first of three Charles Schwab Cup playoff events to force a playoff.

Green has three professional wins on the DP World Tour. Frazar’s lone win came in 2011 in the Callaway Golf Pebble Beach Invitational, an event that featured golfers from the PGA Tour, LPGA, Champions and the then-Nationwide Tour.

A left-hander from Australia, Green shot rounds of 67-69-69 and reached the clubhouse first. He then played the waiting game. Frazar went 65-71-69, missing an eagle try on the par-5 18th that would’ve won it outright. He made the ensuing birdie putt from about three feet to force the extra golf.

In the playoff, Frazar drained an 10-footer for birdie on the 18th hole, pumping his fist in celebration.

“It’s been a long time, long time coming,” an emotional Frazar said after his victory. “You think your career’s over and, you know, through faith and through friends and through people who believe in you, you know, you decide to pick it up again because you feel like there’s a void. And the void is this: The void is competing, the void is missing that win. It’s the nerves, it’s all the stuff. It’s scary, but it’s fun. You can never replace it. So yeah, it’s emotional. You just don’t know if you’re ever going to get there again, and when you do, it feels good.”

Frazar was 33rd and jumped to 13th in the points race among the 72 who made the postseason. Green was 24th and improved 10 spots to 14th. Both golfers, however, are too far back to win the season-long title. Steve Stricker, who skipped the Dominion, has a commanding lead in the points, so much so that only five others have a mathematical chance at catching him for the season title: Steven Alker, Bernhard Langer, Stephen Ames, David Toms and Ernie Els.

Els had the best finish Sunday among that group, tying for seventh. Ames tied for 20th, Alker and Langer tied for 25th and Toms tied for 35th.

Who’s in, who’s out?

Only the top 54 advance to the TimberTech Championship in two weeks.

Shane Bertsch (56 to 50), John Huston (55 to 52), Rocco Mediate (59 to 53) and Charli Wi (57 to 54) played their win in but the season is now over for Matt Gogel (51 to 55), David Branshaw (52 to 57), Woody Austin (54 to 58),  Kirk Triplett (53 to 59).

Other notables not advancing: Fred Couples, who was 63rd in the points and chose to skip the Dominion, slipped to 64th; David Duval, who rallied in the regular-season finale to get the 71st spot, climbed to No. 66 but it wasn’t enough to advance; Jim Furyk, who started the week in the 72nd and final position, shot a first-round 76 before withdrawing due to injury.

What’s next?

There’s a week off on the circuit before the 54-hole TimberTech Championship, Nov. 3-5, at the Old Course at Broken Sound Club in Boca Raton, Florida.

From there, the top 36 move on to the 72-hole, no-cut, season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship, Nov. 9-12, at Phoenix Country Club.

Meet the 5 players who earned their 2023 PGA Tour Champions tour cards

Hard work payed off for these five players.

Five players earned their way onto the PGA Tour Champions this week at the Final Qualifying Tournament at TPC Scottsdale in Arizona. Some have loads of experience on the tour to thank, others will have to work out the kinks as they continue their journey.

For starters, Richard Green, the man who won the event Friday, has just two PGA Tour Champions starts to his name. However, he’s won multiple times on the now DP World Tour.

David McKenzie, one of the players to finish T-3 and make it through, has made over 100 starts on the senior circuit, finishing runner-up twice.

Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee failed to qualify, but had an adventurous 4-under third round. PGA champion Shaun Micheel and Bob May fell short.

Meet the five players who earned PGA Tour Champions cards below.