The Champions Tour, a golf tour run by the PGA Tour, hosts a series of events annually in the United States and the United Kingdom for golfers 50 years of age and older. Many of the PGA Tour's most successful golfers have gone on to play on the Champions Tour.
The Senior PGA Championship, founded in 1937, was for many years the only high-profile tournament for golfers over 50. The idea for a senior tour grew out of a highly successful event in 1978, the Legends of Golf, which featured competition between two-member teams of some of the greatest older golfers of that day. The tour was formally established in 1980 and was known as the Senior PGA Tour until October 2002. The original logo was based on the PGA Tour logo, with the red and blue reversed and with the golfer's profile modified to depict the wearing of a flat cap and plus fours.
Of the 26 tournaments on the 2010 schedule, all are in the United States except for the Senior British Open, a tournament in the Dominican Republic that started in 2008, and tournaments in Canada and South Korea starting in 2010. The guaranteed minimum official prize money is $51.5 million over 26 tournaments, with a record average purse of $1.98 million per event;[1] slightly higher than the 2008 prize money of $51.4 million over the same number of events.[2] The total prize money and number of events, however, are down from previous years—for example, the 2007 tour offered a total of $55.2 million over 29 events.[3]
Most of the tournaments are played over three rounds (54 holes), which is one round less than regular professional stroke play tournaments on the PGA Tour. Because of this and having smaller fields, there are generally no "cuts" between any of the rounds. However, the five senior majors have a full 72 holes (four rounds). A golfer's performances can be quite variable from one round to the next, and playing an extra round increases the likelihood that the senior majors will be won by leading players.
In 2006, the Champions Tour Division Board of the PGA Tour organization voted to allow players the option to use golf carts during most events on the tour. The five major championships and certain other events, including pro-ams, are excluded.
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The following table shows all the official money events for the 2011 season. "Date" is the ending date of the tournament. The numbers in parentheses after each winner's name is the number of wins he has had on the tour up to and including that event. Senior majors are shown in bold. Golfers winning on their Champions Tour debut will be shown in italics.
This lists the final money leaders for 2011, following the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
| Rank | Player | Country | Events | Prize money ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom Lehman | United States | 21 | 2,081,526 |
| 2 | Mark Calcavecchia | United States | 22 | 1,867,991 |
| 3 | John Cook | United States | 23 | 1,747,075 |
| 4 | Jay Don Blake | United States | 20 | 1,531,877 |
| 5 | Russ Cochran | United States | 18 | 1,503,090 |
| 6 | Jeff Sluman | United States | 24 | 1,493,672 |
| 7 | Peter Senior | Australia | 22 | 1,434,119 |
| 8 | Nick Price | Zimbabwe | 21 | 1,300,443 |
| 9 | Olin Browne | United States | 23 | 1,251,473 |
| 10 | Mark O'Meara | United States | 20 | 1,237,797 |
There is a full list on the PGA Tour's website here.
Players who lead the money list on the Champions Tour win the Arnold Palmer Award.
The following players have won more than one money list title through 2011:
The table shows the top ten career money leaders on the Champions Tour through the 2011 season.
| Rank | Player | Country | Earnings ($) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hale Irwin | United States | 26,195,615 |
| 2 | Gil Morgan | United States | 20,010,748 |
| 3 | Tom Kite | United States | 14,883,500 |
| 4 | Dana Quigley | United States | 14,782,223 |
| 5 | Bruce Fleisher | United States | 14,721,417 |
| 6 | Larry Nelson | United States | 14,035,192 |
| 7 | Jim Thorpe | United States | 13,524,329 |
| 8 | Tom Watson | United States | 13,400,115 |
| 9 | Tom Jenkins | United States | 13,370,249 |
| 10 | Allen Doyle | United States | 13,333,865 |
There is a full list on the PGA Tour's website here. The PGA Tour also publishes a list of Champions Tour players' total career earnings on its three tours here. The top player on that list is Kenny Perry, who became eligible for the Champions Tour in August 2010 and played his first event in October. Perry has won over $31.7 million on the regular PGA Tour, enough to edge out Irwin.
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