Padraig Harrington seems at a putt on the 2024 SAS Championship.
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Whereas the PGA Tour is within the midst of the FedEx Cup fall sequence, a time when most of the sport’s greatest stars relaxation up at house, the PGA Tour Champions is the alternative: the senior tour is grinding out the ultimate two regular-season occasions earlier than the yr’s finale, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, during which solely the highest 36 gamers qualify to compete.
These 36 gamers are additionally the one gamers who safe their playing cards for the next yr. That quantity stands in stark distinction to the variety of gamers who preserve their playing cards on different worldwide excursions. On the PGA Tour, it’s 125 gamers. On the DP World Tour, it’s 110, and on the Korn Ferry Tour, it’s 75.
One participant who’s keenly conscious of what’s at stake for the 50-and-over circuit this week and subsequent is Padraig Harrington, who described the PGA Tour Champions as “the toughest tour to maintain your card on this planet” whereas talking on the vary on the Dominion Vitality Charity Basic in Virginia on Wednesday.
“We’re within the playoffs and I’m solely on the tour just a few years, and I’m solely beginning to notice, this has obtained to be the toughest, tightest tour to maintain your card on on this planet,” Harrington mentioned. “Thirty-six guys preserve their card. And even when you win, you solely get one-year exemption.
“Firstly, I didn’t know. However now I’m seeing individuals I’m taking part in with, they usually’ve had a very good yr, after which the next yr they only play common, common, they usually’re gone,” he continued. “And a few of them won’t ever get a second likelihood.”
For gamers who don’t make the top-36 cutoff, Monday qualifiers and sponsor’s exemptions are choices. However even the annual PGA Tour Champions Q-Faculty is not any assure, because it solely admits the highest 5 finishers.
“That is actually cut-throat,” Harrington mentioned. “Thirty-six to maintain your card may be very, very tight. It doesn’t take a lot so that you can drop out of that 36. In order that’s why you see the blokes out right here training. And when you’re not one of many guys training, any individual else will do it for you. And meaning you’ll slip out of your place.
The right way to bridge PGA Tour, LIV divide? Padraig Harrington has intelligent answer
“Guys follow identical to they practiced on tour. They really perhaps even work somewhat bit more durable out right here.”
Why do gamers on the senior tour grind so exhausting? Harrington supplied yet one more considerate reply.
“I feel they really feel like there’s a restricted life out right here,” he mentioned. “I feel you get to the PGA Tour. You assume every part is rosy and also you’re all the time going to be on the PGA Tour. However while you get to the Champions Tour, you notice that you just’re getting previous, you’ve just a few years and it’ll, you already know, you may get three, 4 years earlier than you’re gone, since you’re not going to be as aggressive at 56, 57 years of age as you had been at 50. So that they perceive that they get this one alternative they usually’ve obtained to profit from it as fast as they will as quickly as they will.”
As Harrington famous, time marches on. And annually, the participant pool widens to welcome the following crop of eligible 50-year-olds.
“There’s all the time new guys, all the time contemporary guys popping out,” Harrington mentioned. “I feel I counted seven rookies within the high 36. In order that’s seven guys who’re gone.
“So yeah, it actually, actually is cut-throat out right here. Very, very tough.”
The Dominion Vitality Charity Basic kicks off on Friday, adopted by the ultimate regular-season occasion on the PGA Tour Champions, the Simmons Financial institution Championship, in Little Rock, Ark., subsequent week. The Charles Schwab Cup Championship will likely be performed November 7-10 at Phoenix Nation Membership in Arizona.
