Charles Schwab Cup bubble watch: Arkansas’ Glen Day eyes spot in hometown Simmons Bank Championship

Not everything lasts forever. Glen Day knows that, and he’s at peace with the idea that his professional golf career could be reaching its sunset.

But he’d sure love to extend it one more week.

Day enters this week’s Dominion Energy Charity Classic, the first leg of the three-event Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs, at No. 65 on the season-long Charles Schwab Cup standings. The top 54 will advance to next week’s Simmons Bank Championship, with Day needing a top-12 finish at minimum for a chance to move inside the top 54, which also retains conditional Champions Tour status at minimum for 2025.

Day has made 766 career starts across the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions and Korn Ferry Tour. He has won on the PGA TOUR (1999 RBC Heritage), and he has overcome various injuries to remain competitive into his late 50s. He doesn’t have much left to prove in the game – but the fire burns bright to compete next week.

That’s because the Simmons Bank Championship, a first-year Champions Tour event, is being contested at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock, Arkansas. It’s the city Day has called home for more than 30 years – he hails from Mississippi and starred collegiately at the University of Oklahoma, but he met his wife Jennifer while in Little Rock for the 1988 Arkansas Open, the same year he turned pro.

Day won that Arkansas Open, contested at Burns Park – where Jennifer was helping her uncle, club pro Steve Ralston, during the tournament. They reconnected the following year and began dating, eventually leading to marriage and a family (the Days have two daughters, Whitney and Christina).

The area means a lot to Day, a Simmons Bank ambassador who has played a crucial role in the evolution of the inaugural Simmons Bank Championship, which was announced in August 2023. It will mark the first TOUR-sanctioned event in Arkansas since the Korn Ferry Tour’s Fort Smith Classic, which ran from 1998 to 2010 (Day competed three times).

Whether or not he qualifies, it will be a memorable week for Day. He’s excited for his Champions Tour family to experience the Arkansas hospitality that he has experienced for most of his life, and he’ll be on-site throughout the week. The question is just whether he’ll be inside or outside the ropes.

As the ultimatum to determine his 2025 Champions Tour status approaches, with a spot in his home event in the balance, Day turned reflective.

"I didn't have a Hall of Fame career, but I've had a career," Day said Wednesday. "I've enjoyed it. It's been great. Growing up in south Mississippi, where I grew up, a nine-hole golf course is what I learned how to play golf on, there is no way in the world I should be in the position I'm in today, other than ... God reached down, touched me and said, 'I'm giving you the ability to play golf.' There's no other way to say it."

To advance, Day needs a big week at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic, contested at The Country Club of Virginia, but the good news is that his game is trending upward. He has recorded just three top-25 finishes this season, but two have occurred in his last three starts, including a T17 at last week’s SAS Championship that lifted him from No. 68 to No. 65 on the Charles Schwab Cup standings.

He'll need something a bit better to qualify for the Simmons Bank Championship, but he'll give it everything he has. There's no doubt about that.

"Glen Day is 59 years old. Glen Day knows this doesn't last forever," Day said. "I'm playing pretty good right now; I didn't play good enough earlier in the year. If I play less tournaments next year, that's fine.

"Who knows, I may win this week, may go out next year somewhere and qualify and win a tournament. You never know. But if I left tomorrow, I will leave with my head held high."

Bubble watch

Note: Before the start of the Playoffs, the season-long Money List is converted to the Charles Schwab Cup Points List. All three Playoff events will provide double points ($1 = 2 points).

Here’s a look at the top-54 bubble heading into the Dominion Energy Charity Classic:

No. 52 Kenny Perry (402,794 points): The affable Kentuckian has played a light schedule in 2024, but he has made his time count with six top 25s in nine starts.

No. 53 Kirk Triplett (395,102 points): After all these years, Triplett still rocks the signature bucket hat, and he has notched seven top 25s in 21 starts this season.

No. 54 Angel Cabrera (388,258 points): The two-time major champion has recorded five top 25s in 11 starts this season.

No. 55 Tim O’Neal (379,865 points): The Savannah, Georgia, native has notched five top 25s in 23 starts, highlighted by a T7 at the Sanford International in September.

No. 56 David Bransdon (359,174 points): The Australia native earned status via Q-School last fall and has accrued three top 10s in 19 starts, highlighted by a T8 at the Boeing Classic in August.

No. 57 David Duval (356,865 points): The former world No. 1 is looking to qualify for the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs’ second leg for the first time. In his third Champions Tour season, he has notched his first two top 10s, a T3 at the Principal Charity Classic and a T5 at The Ally Challenge.