Journeyman pros survive Senior Tour: ‘The toughest tour’

While the battle for PGA Tour qualification began last weekend at the Bank of Utah Championship, dozens of other pros were also fighting for their careers on another tour.

At the Simmons Bank Championship, 54 PGA Tour champions compete for the final chance to win a 2026 Tour card.

When the dust settled, Tag Ridings, one of the lucky few who survived, called the Senior Tour “the hardest tour to play.”

Here’s why.

Tag Ridings explains the daunting task of becoming a PGA Tour champion

While the current crop of PGA Tour champions features big-name stars like Fred Couples, Bernhard Langer and Ernie Els, not all players are legends with Hall of Fame careers (and earnings).

Most members of the tour are professional players who make a living and have been struggling in the professional golf field for decades.

Riding is one of them.

The 51-year-old rookie PGA Tour champion has played in 239 PGA Tour events during his career, making 122 cuts and earning $4,712,032 in the process.

But he put in more time on the Korn Ferry Tour, playing in 296 events and winning twice at the 2002 Permian Basin Open and the 2020 TPC Colorado Championship.

Reddings did not receive full status on the PGA Tour Champions Tour this year. He competed in 15 tournaments and sometimes had to rely on Monday qualifiers to qualify.

But he made those starts count. He got off to a good start with a second place finish at the Galleri Classic in March. But by the fall, he fell to 45th in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.

This is important because only the top 36 players in the final ranking will qualify for the 2026 Tour. This is in stark contrast to the PGA Tour, where the top 100 players in the FedEx Cup standings receive full eligibility for next season.

However, Reddings ranked well enough to qualify for the first round of the playoffs. He did this too. Two weeks ago, he tied for fifth at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic and jumped to 35th in the standings.

However, he still needs a strong finish in the second playoff event, last week’s Simmons Bank Championship at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock, Arkansas, to maintain his position and earn a full PGA Tour Championship card next season.

He did so with ease, finishing third on the season at 13 under and moving up to 22nd in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.

But in comments after Sunday’s final round, Ridings revealed there was nothing comforting about the tough pursuit of a PGA Tour winner’s card. In fact, he claims it was the hardest tour to do.

“This is the hardest tour to do, without a doubt,” said a relieved Ridings on Sunday.

He points to tournament winner Steven Alker, 54, as an example. Like Ridings, Alker spent most of his career on the Korn Ferry Tour. But since joining the PGA Tour Champions in 2020, he has won 10 times.

But as Ridings explained Sunday, Alke is the exception, not the rule.

“The last few years on the Korn Ferry Tour, people would say, ‘Oh, you’re going to be great at the tournament. Look at Alkee, he’s so good.’ “I thought, ‘Yeah, he’s going to be 10 under every time he tees it off.’ ‘I haven’t made that change yet, but maybe. “

The enormity of the task made his success all the sweeter.

“When I found out how difficult it really was, I was ecstatic and really grateful,” Ridings said.

He also compared the pressure he faced in this year’s playoff to previous efforts to get a PGA Tour card.

“Well, the pressure is very similar to the pressure I faced over the years when I was trying to keep my card and get it back through Q-school when I lost my card and now I’m fighting for 25th or 20th on the Korn Ferry Tour, which I’ve done several times and missed opportunities by one stroke a few times.”

But he discovered a key difference: elite competition.

“The pressure feels the same, unless you add in the fact that they’re Hall of Famers and you’re trying to keep up. Luckily, I didn’t think too much about it,” Ridings joked.

He also revealed that competing against the greats is one of the reasons the PGA Tour Champions experience is so special.

“Luckily, they’re all fun to play with. It’s been a great tour, honestly, playing with these guys. It’s a good, casual, great feeling. They’re all fierce competitors, don’t get me wrong, but it’s all very professional and very sportsmanlike.”

The next and final stop for Ridings and the PGA Tour Champions is the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship, which kicks off on November 13 in Phoenix, Arizona. There, the 36 surviving pros will compete for $3 million in prize money and bonuses based on their final standings in the standings.

The famous pro who lost his 2026 PGA Tour Championship card

Among the top 36 pros at the Simmons Bank Championship are many former PGA Tour stars. Miguel Angel Jimenez is second, with Grand Slam champions Stewart Cink and Ernie Els third and fourth.

Padraig Harrington was sixth, followed by 1999 U.S. Ryder Cup hero Justin Leonard in seventh.

Other major champions who advanced include Retief Goossen, Angel Cabrera, Darren Clark, Vijay Singh and Bernhard Langer.

All of them will play in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship with the Ridings.

But there were a few other notable pros who didn’t survive Sunday’s action. Dicky Pride was a bubble boy, finishing 37th in the points table after taking T30 at Simmons Bank. Ken Tanikawa ranked 38th.

Former PGA Tour pros Paul Goydos (39), Thongchai Jaidee (40), Stephen Ames (41), Robert Karlsson (43), David Duval (44), Heath Slocum (45) and Rod Pamplin Pampling, 46) also failed to win a 2026 PGA Tour Champions card.

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