PGA Tour Champions: Points, Calculators And White Boards Needed For Finale

Much like with the FedEx Cup race, as the PGA Tour Champions’ Charles Schwab Cup reaches its conclusion, there are a host of mathematical permutations in play

If you couldn’t get enough of the point gyrations during the Tour Championship on the PGA Tour, you’ll love this new twist to the season-ender on the PGA Tour Champions circuit. Instead of just concluding with a final tournament and awarding a large bonus to the season’s top point-getter, the PGA Tour Champions now has its own final series with the last event this weekend.

Get out the abacus and calculator, because the crazy points stuff has been reborn for the old guys.

Instead of four playoff events, the Champions’ circuit has three:  the PowerShares QQQ Championship, the Dominion Charity Classic and this weekend’s Charles Schwab Cup Championship. Like the PGA Tour, there is a cut down after each event.  The first one in the series had a field of 72 players.  The second had 54 players and this weekend, 36 senior golfers will play at the Desert Mountain Cochise Course in Scottsdale for the finale.

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Just as with the FedExCup, the regular season and the early playoff rounds of the Schwab Cup have been tossed out and a new system of points was created for places 1-36.  Then a new list of points for the last tournament was created.

The leader now has 2000 points and this week’s winner will receive 2000 points.

Just as in the FedExCup, those at the top have the best chance of winning the top Schwab Cup prize and control their own destiny, according to the PGA Tour.

Here’s how the players got to this point:

The money list for the entire season was converted to points.  Then those points doubled for money earned at the PowerShares QQQ Championship, the Dominion Charity Classic.  Now, all the points are reset with the leader after last week’s Dominion Charity Classic receiving 2000 points.

Here’s how the top five stand going into the last event:

Bernhard Langer                     2,000

Scott McCarron                      1,800

Colin Montgomerie                1,600

Joe Durant                              1,440

Miguel Angel Jimenez           1,280

The last man in the field is Esteban Toledo with 144 points.

The current points leader, Bernhard Langer, has yet to win a Charles Schwab Cup despite his success on the PGA Tour Champions Tour. Those farther down the list would need significant help from players at the top in order to jump to the top of the standings and win.

“I’ve had a great year but there’s no guarantees whatsoever that I’m going to win the Schwab Cup, not at all. I’m going to have to most likely win the tournament to win the Schwab Cup. And if I’m fortunate where nobody wins in the top five or the top 10, then I have a better chance just placing maybe third or fourth or fifth and maybe still win it,” said Langer in material released by the PGA Tour. “But that’s a big gamble when you have 36 guys and you’re hoping that none of the top 10 guys win the championship. You don’t want to go there, so I need to try to win it myself.”

The Charles Schwab Cup awards an annuity to players finishing inside the top five, with the winner receiving $1 million and all in the top five getting annuities in addition to the purse for the tournament. ( Points list courtesy PGA Tour.)

Next: PGA Championship Moving to May in 2020?

Who do you think will lift the Charles Schwab Cup? Let us know in the comments below!