Simmons Bank Championship: Storylines, how to watch, more
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Written by Staff, PGATOUR.COM
The inaugural Simmons Bank Championship will take place at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock, Arkansas, this week and replaces the TimberTech Championship as the second leg in the three-event Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs.
Simmons Bank will mark a new event on the PGA TOUR Champions and brings TOUR-sanctioned golf back to Arkansas for the first time since 2010. The top 54 players in the Charles Schwab Cup standings have made the field at Simmons Bank, and just 36 players will advance onwards to the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
The Simmons Bank Championship features several accomplished players looking to make their run at the season-long championship, including current Charles Schwab Cup leader Ernie Els enters the tournament with three victories and 10 top-10 finishes this season. Retief Goosen heads to Arkansas with one win and five top-10 finishes in the current season. Kenny Perry, a 10-time PGA TOUR Champions winner, is also part of the field. Other notables include last season's Charles Schwab Cup runner-up Steven Alker, five-time Champions Tour winner Vijay Singh, recent winner at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic Tim O'Neal, Y.E. Yang, Padraig Harrington and Arkansas-native Ken Duke.
In last year's penultimate Playoffs event, Harrington secured a wire-to-wire victory, finishing 16-under par and winning the title by a seven-stroke margin. The Irishman claimed his second win of the season with an impressive final round, carding a 7-under 64 that included six birdies in the first seven holes. Charlie Wi matched Harrington's 64 in pursuit of his first career victory on the Tour, while six-time Schwab Cup champion Bernhard Langer also finished tied for second place. Despite strong performances from Wi and Langer, Harrington's consistent play throughout the tournament proved unbeatable.
- Course: Pleasant Valley Country Club, par 72, 7101 yards
- Field: 51 players
- Purse: $2,300,000 (winner: $365,000)
- Friday-Sunday: 3-6 p.m. (GOLF Channel)