‘Hardest tour to do’: Journeyman pro among few to survive senior tour buzzsaw

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

The Simmons Bank Championship saw 54 PGA Tour Champions players compete in what was their last chance to secure a tour card for the 2026 season.

When the dust settled, Tag Ridings, one of the lucky few to survive the cut, called the senior tour the “hardest tour to do.”

This is why.

Tag Ridings explains the difficult task of creating PGA Tour Champions

While the current PGA Tour Champions include big stars like Fred Couples, Bernhard Langer and Ernie Els, not all players are legends with Hall of Fame careers (and achievements) behind them.

Most of the tour is made up of professionals who play for a living, those who have kept up that fight in professional golf for decades.

Ridings is one of them.

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

But he spent more time on the Korn Ferry Tour, where he competed in 296 tournaments and won twice at the 2002 Permian Basin Open and the 2020 TPC Colorado Championship.

Ridings did not have full status on the PGA Tour Champions circuit this year. He played in 15 events and at times had to rely on Monday qualifying to secure a spot.

But he made those starts count. He finished second at Galleri Classic in March and got off to a good start. But by the fall he had fallen to 45th in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.

That’s important because only the top 36 players in the final rankings will earn their 2026 tour tickets. That’s in stark contrast to the PGA Tour, where the top 100 in the FedEx Cup standings earn full status for the following season.

However, Ridings were ranked well enough to qualify for the first round of the play-offs. And he made that count too. He finished T5 at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic two weeks ago, jumping to 35th in the standings.

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

He did so comfortably, going 13 under to take his second runner-up finish of the season, moving up to 22nd in the league. Charles Schwab Cup Standings.

But in the comments after the final round on Sunday, Ridings revealed there was nothing comfortable about the difficult pursuit of a PGA Tour Champions card. He even claimed that this was the most difficult tour to participate in.

“It’s definitely the hardest tour to do,” a relieved Ridings said on Sunday.

He used the tournament winner, 54-year-old Steven Alker, as an example. Like Ridings, Alker played most of his career on the Korn Ferry Tour. But since joining the PGA Tour Champions in 2020, he has racked up 10 victories.

But Alker is the exception and not the norm, as Ridings explained on Sunday.

“The last few years on the Korn Ferry Tour, people said, ‘Oh, you’re going to do great there. Look at Alker, he’s killing it.’ I’m like, ‘That’s right, he shoots about 10 under every time he saves it.’ I haven’t made that change yet, but maybe I will.”

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

“To have it come through when I know how hard it really is to do it, just ecstatic, very grateful,” Ridings said.

He also compared the pressure he faced during this year’s long run to previous attempts to earn his PGA Tour card.

“Well, the pressure is very similar to what I’ve been dealing with for years, trying to keep my card and get back through Q-School when I lost my card, while now I’m fighting for that 25th or 20th position on the Korn Ferry Tour, which I’ve done several times and missed by one shot a few times.”

But he identified one key difference: elite competition.

“It’s the same feeling of pressure, except when you add in the fact that they’re Hall of Famers you’re trying to keep up with. Luckily, I don’t think about that too much,” Ridings joked.

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

“Luckily they’re all fun to play with. Honestly, it’s a great tour to be out here playing with all these guys. It’s just a good, relaxed, great feeling out there. They’re all fierce competitors, don’t get me wrong, but it’s all very professional and very sporty.”

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 remaining pros will play for a cash prize of $3 million and bonuses based on their final position in the rankings.

Notable professionals who lost 2026 PGA Tour Champions cards

The pros who finished the Simmons Bank Championship in the top 36 include many former PGA Tour stars. Miguel Angel Jimenez is in second place, with big winners Stewart Cink and Ernie Els in third and fourth.

Padraig Harrington is in sixth place, with 1999 US Ryder Cup hero Justin Leonard close behind him in seventh.

Other Majors winners to receive prizes include Retief Goosen, Angel Cabrera, Darren Clarke, Vijay Singh and Bernhard Langer.

They will all participate in Field Ridings during the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

But there were other notable pros who didn’t survive Sunday’s buzzsaw. Dicky Pride is the bubble boy after a T30 at the Simmons Bank left him at 37th in the rankings. Ken Tanigawa is next on the list at 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 Pampling (46) also fell short of earning their full 2026 PGA Tour Champions cards.

“>