Similar to how the PGA Tour dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, the PGA Tour Champions combined their 2020 and 2021 campaigns into a “super season” of 36 tournaments, culminating in the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs. The three-event series over the next four weeks begins on Friday in Richmond, Virginia. 72 players are trying to work their way into the top 36 of the points list and qualify for the 2020-21 final, in which the golfers will compete against each other for the points title and an accompanying pension of $ 1 million.
Here are five things you need to know to be ready for the playoffs.
The playoff events are as follows:
22.-24. October: Dominion Energy Charity Classic, CC of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
5th-7th November: TimberTech Championship, Old Course in Broken Sound, Boca Raton, Florida.
11-14 November: Charles Schwab Cup Championship, Phoenix CC
This week, 72 golfers are playing in Richmond for a total of $ 2 million in prize money, with the winner earning $ 300,000. All money earned is doubled and converted into points that are added to the total of a player participating in the playoffs. The top 54 golfers for this event will advance to Boca Raton, where the prize pool is also $ 2 million, with the winner receiving $ 300,000. The same colon formula added to the season total applies and the top 36 players qualify for Phoenix.
In the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, players compete in a 72-hole event that awards their own title and prize money of $ 2.5 million (first place receives $ 440,000). The money earned in Phoenix is doubled and added to the season points one last time. # 1 on the points list after Phoenix earned a $ 1 million pension over 10 years. The next four players on the scoreboard also earn pensions: $ 500,000 for the second; $ 300,000 for the third; $ 200,000 for the fourth and $ 100,000 for the fifth.
Bernhard Langer has won the Charles Schwab Cup five times in his illustrious senior career, four of the last six being awarded. Suffice it to say, he’s in a good place to snap it up for the sixth time this year. The 64-year-old tops the list of points at the start of the playoffs with 2,854,999 points, 71,194 more than Jim Furyk. In third place is Jerry Kelly (297,998 behind), followed by Miguel Angel Jimenez (306,101 behind) and Ernie Els (376,554).
Langer only won once in the super season (the Cologuard Classic in March 2020), but he has an astonishing 23 top 10 finishes, seven more than the next best player on tour. With 41 senior wins, the chance that he will beat Hale Irwin’s 45 wins is dwindling, but the depreciation for the further Schwab Cup title is at your own risk.
Since his 50th birthday in June 2020, Phil Mickelson has made four starts at the PGA Tour Champions and won three times, including the 2020 Dominion Energy Event and most recently two weeks ago at Constellation Fuyrk & Friends. With Lefty’s success rate at senior events, many wonder how he would fare if he were fully committed to the 50-and-older tour.
Mickelson, 26th on the points list, is sure to qualify for Boca Raton if he chooses to play and if he gets near a sane finish in Richmond he will have a spot in the Tour Finals if he wants . The question is, does he want this? He has hinted at playing in Phoenix and has said he is debating Boca Raton. His participation would be a big boost for the PGA Tour Champions.
What could make him not play? Mickelson starts the playoffs 1,786,056 points behind Langer. Even if Mickelson swept all three playoff events – not as absurd a scenario as it appears at first glance – he would only earn 2,080,000 points. With no-cut tournaments ahead, Langer and Furyk will likely earn enough to keep Mickelson from skipping them in the total. another long shot.
He was overshadowed by Langer and the arrival of the World Golf Hall of Famers Ernie Els, Davis Love III and Jim Furyk, but Miguel Angel Jimenez has been Spaniard since he was 50 and has 10 career wins, including two this season, along with 15 top 10 placements. He’s fourth on the points list to start the playoffs and in his last six senior starts he has finished T-3 / T-8/2 / T-4/2 / P-2 with 15 of 20 rounds in the 60s. If you’re looking for a choice other than Langer or Mickelson to win the playoff title, Jimenez is a pretty solid pick.