NAPA, Calif. – George McNeill knows exactly how many days until he’s eligible for PGA Tour Champions.
“Twenty-two days, but who’s counting,” he said last week on the eve of the PGA Tour’s Procore Championship at Silverado Resort.
He said he can’t wait to have the option to ride a cart, to compete in no-cut events and “play against a bunch of guys that I know who they are,” he said.
The Class of 2026 for the Champions Tour has garnered great attention predominately due to the possibility that Tiger Woods, who turns 50 on Dec. 30, might play some if his body will allow it. He’s hinted that he’s interested in having a cart at his disposal and seeing old friends such as Fred Couples, Notah Begay III and Steve Stricker. Zach Johnson, Rory Sabbatini, Ben Crane and Ryan Palmer are among the other members of next year’s rookie class, which would have also included LIV Golf’s Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson, who are currently suspended by the Tour for violating its conflicting tournament policy.
McNeill, a two-time Tour winner with more than $12 million in career earnings since joining the Tour in 2007, said he will have some conditional status based on his win total and career money. But if a vote this week by the PGA Tour Champions Board of Director goes as expected, McNeill will have one less avenue to earn his way on to the 50-and-older circuit. It has been rumored for several months, including a report by Monday Q Info, that the Champions tour is doing away with PGA Tour Champions Qualifying Tournament.
The First Stage still is slated for November with Final Stage scheduled to be held from Nov. 30-Dec. 5 at TPC Scottsdale’s Champions Course and offers a $200,000 purse. The Tour has steadily reduced the number of spots available at Q-School over the years. For the past several years, it has offered five spots while players finishing between sixth and 30th place gain entry into the weekly Monday qualifiers. Club pros Jason Caron and Rob Labritz and Tim O’Neal, have been some of the recent Q-School success stories.
“I was looking forward to that, to have a chance, not saying I was going to make it,” said McNeill, who will attempt to Monday into Furyk & Friends, the first senior tour event he’s eligible for, and the SAS Championship, which is held the following week. “I’m just going to have to play my way in.”
That’s what another recently 50-year-old journeyman pro has been doing. Tommy Gainey, a one-time Tour winner who turned 50 on Aug. 13, was a Monday qualifier into his Champions Tour debut at the Rogers Charity Classic and finished T-5 and has made three starts and more than $150,000 already. Having missed the cut at the Tour’s Procore Championship, he was planning to stick around to attempt to Monday qualify for the Pure Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach this week.
Last year, there were 198 golfers who paid $5,000 to participate in the first stage of Q-School. The list included former Tour winners Robert Gamez – Bob May, who lost a playoff to Tiger Woods at the 2000 PGA Championship – and Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz. Eliminating Q-School altogether will bring more claims that the senior circuit is a closed shop.
Golfweek has learned the policy board will officially vote this week to eliminate Q-School and change some of the categories for tournament entry. That vote is believed to be a mere formality.
“They said they’re doing it because there were some guys that never supported the PGA Tour, maybe a year or two but played in Europe or Japan, and then they come over and take a spot from the guys who played over here,” McNeill said. “We want to have something for the PGA Tour players to transition over. I get it. It’s good and bad for me. They changed a few categories so maybe I’ll get into a couple of events I wouldn’t have gotten into. We’ll see what happens.”
Jim Furyk, a member of the Champions Tour policy board, wrote in a text message to Golfweek the board has discussed the idea of doing away with Q-School but he didn’t believe it was official. “The idea is that we have quite a few players that dedicated their career to the PGA Tour, won multiple times and have very little to no access on the Champ Tour,” he said. “Those spots would be allocated to help those players.”
Asked to give examples of players this change would help, he wrote, “I always ask the Tour not to include players names. I want the data. A guy that played in over 500 events, won three times, had a solid career and struggles to get in most events. We have quite a few of those.”
Read the full article here