Principal Charity classic looks to set marks in charity and attendance

• The 2025 Principal Charity Classic (PCC) is expected to be more challenging than last year, with tournament chairman Ken McCullum predicting Ernie Els’s record-setting 21-under-par score won’t be repeated.
• McCullum aims to surpass last year’s $8.6 million raised for charity and attract over 50,000 spectators to the event.
• The potential participation of Tiger Woods and Zach Johnson in the 2026 PCC is generating excitement.

A month before the first ball will be officially teed up at the Principal Charity Classic (PCC), tournament chairman Ken McCullum did not predict what would happen, he predicted what wouldn’t happen.

McCullum is predicting the PGA Tour Champions event starting May 29 will not see a repeat of last year’s 21-under-par record-setting performance by Ernie Els.

The 102-year-old Wakonda Club was coming off a major renovation that was completed in the spring of 2024. As a result, tournament officials “set it up a little more friendly last year,” McCullum said, adding that this year’s track will be set up a little more challenging for this year’s field.

“I think that’s a record that will be hard to break because I don’t think the course will ever play as friendly as it did and we also had very good weather,” McCullum said.

A crowded field will be vying for the PCC title during a tour stop known by its participants for its large crowds, friendly city and huge charitable contributions. McCullum said the tournament is looking at drawing over 50,000 spectators and bettering its record of $8.6 million raised for charity. Since 2007, more than $62 million has been raised.

After the 2025 PCC champion hoists the trophy on Sunday afternoon, McCullum is eyeing a trophy of his own that he wants to bring home after the tournament.

The PCC was awarded the President’s Award in 2024 as the best event of the year on the Champions Tour. McCullum has a repeat on his mind.

“We wouldn’t mind repeating that, but that’s the bar we set. If we’re going to do this, let’s do it right,” McCullum said.

McCullum also has his sights set on boosting future attendance.

“You know, we can do better,” McCullum said of attendance, even though the PCC already outdraws most other events on the Tour Champions.

“We’re going to keep trying to build that number and I’d like to see us double the fan base that we get here for the tournament during the week, and I think that’s doable,” McCullum said.

Even though he may be focused on the 2025 tournament, McCullum can’t be blamed for looking ahead to 2026 when two current 49-year-olds, the legendary Tiger Woods and Iowa native Zach Johnson, will become eligible to play in the PCC for the first time, either of which would be a strong draw for fans.

Neither Woods nor Johnson have stated their intentions yet to play on the Tour Champions but 1996 U.S. Open Champion Tom Lehman said he would not be surprised to see Johnson compete with the seniors when he is eligible.

Johnson is a Drake University graduate and winner of two majors, the 2007 Masters and The Open in 2015.

“You know, I’m sure he’ll play. I think one of the things that is a real advantage and a real benefit is that when Zach gets out here, he’s going to be playing with a bunch of old friends,” Lehman said. “He’s going to come out here with a bunch of guys who are more his peers and who he has more in common with out here (Tour Champions) than with the guys on the PGA Tour who are in their 20s.”

In addition to the camaraderie and reconnecting with people he hasn’t competed with in a while, Lehman said Johnson, who is still competitive on the PGA Tour, will have the chance to find even greater success on the Tour Champions.

“He (Johnson) will enjoy the lifestyle out here and maybe for a little while, he will go back and forth between the two tours. But eventually, you come to the conclusion that it’s fun to be the top player on the Champions Tour. Then you have to be fully committed to it and you kind of make that decision of do I want to be partly committed to two tours and just be average at both or do I want to commit to one and be really good at that one,” Lehman said.

“That’s kind of where the guys get to and I’m sure that’s where Zach will go to and I expect him to do really well out here,” Lehman added.

Els and 78 other professional golfers 50 and older are competing in this year’s PCC. The field includes eight past champions and eight World Golf Hall of Fame members including Fred Couples, Bernhard Langer, Ratief Goosen, Padraig Harrington, Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal, Vijay Singh and Els.

Langer is currently the record holder on the Tour Champions with 47 victories.

But perhaps no golfer is coming into the PCC hotter than Angel Cabrera, the 2007 U.S. Open and 2009 Masters champion.

Cabrera is coming off back-to-back senior circuit titles at the Regions Tradition in Alabama and the Senior PGA Championship last week in Bethesda, Maryland.

Jay Haas, a three-time PCC champion, said anticipation over golfers like Woods and Johnson reflects the natural ebb and flow of the Tour as big names finally reach the age of 50. He rattles off legends of the game who pioneered the senior tour like Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Gary Player and Chi Chi Rodriguez.

“And then Jack Nicklaus turned 50 and after that it was names like Tom Watson, Jim Colbert and Hale Irwin.

“The great thing about the Champions Tour, to me, is that it kind of reinvents itself every few years,” Haas said. “You get an infusion of some guy who you’ve watched for years and years and been successful and, you know, played well into their mid to late 40s on the PGA Tour and all of a sudden, they’re 50 and they come out here maybe and don’t win as easily as everyone thought they might. To me it kind of proves the point that the guys on the Champions Tour are still pretty darn good.”

Both Haas and Lehman say the competitive fires still burn brightly for those competing on the Tour, even if the pace has slowed down from the regular tour and there is less pressure than when they were younger. The Tour Champions plays 54 holes rather than the 72 holes played on the PGA Tour.

Lehman said the fear of failing and pressure to make it on the PGA Tour is gone because players have established themselves.

“I think our perspective on the game is probably better than it was when we were in our 20s and 30s. Maybe we don’t quite live and die with every tournament and every round, you know, maybe take it as it comes a little bit better,” Lehman said.

But if in the hunt on Sunday afternoon’s final round, Lehman said the desire to win is as strong as it’s ever been even if the feeling of failing that may have haunted them as younger players is now gone.

“What I’ve observed is that guys who are in the hunt, having chances to win, they play way better than they did when we were younger, like when we were in our 30s and 40s and had a chance to win,” Lehman said. “It’s very typical to see some younger players shoot 71-72-73 in the final round, you know, trying to win a tournament because it was such a big deal then and now, in that same situation, guys tend to shoot 65-66-67 because I think they’re having more fun enjoying the process and they’re less stressed out.”

Tournament sponsor Principal Financial’s Chairman of the Board, Dan Houston, has been around the tournament all 19 years his company has sponsored it and doesn’t question for a second the players’ commitment to win.

Houston remembers a few years back attending a breakfast when Bernhard Langer was a speaker and the life of the party during tournament week.

“He (Langer) was talking about how he grew up in Germany in a very structured way. He told his parents he wanted to be a golfer and that he was going to be a great golfer. He was affable and he was telling stories, and he was, you know, just having fun,” Houston said.

That was on a Tuesday. It was a different story for Houston on Thursday.

“I went down to say hi to him on Thursday (first day of the tournament). It was a person who was absolutely, completely different than what I had seen at that breakfast club two days earlier because he was there to win a tournament.

“When the players walk out of that locker room, they want to be crowned the champion of the Principal Charity Classic 2025. That’s their goal. I don’t think any of them come out here with the idea of if I can place in the top 10, that’d be great,” Houston said.