Stewart Cink Leads Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs Into St. Louis Showdown

The road to the Charles Schwab Cup championship begins Friday, and Stewart Cink has everyone chasing him.

The 2026 PGA Tour Champions playoffs open at the Stifel Charity Classic, where Cink, Zach Johnson and Steven Alker headline a loaded field at Norwood Hills Country Club. With the season-long championship approaching, every shot carries greater consequences.

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Cink enters the postseason atop the Charles Schwab Cup standings, holding a $484,332 advantage over Johnson, the tour's winningest player this year.

But don't expect the defending Cup champion to coast.

Johnson has captured six tournaments in his rookie season, while Cink owns five victories and Alker has collected four. Together, they've won 15 of the 25 tournaments played this season, accounting for 60 percent of the titles.

That's a remarkable concentration of success among three competitors.

And now they're fighting for the same prize.

The Stifel Charity Classic marks the first time the playoffs have opened in St. Louis. The 68-player field will compete for a $2.3 million purse, including $345,000 to the winner.

Only the top 54 players in the standings will advance to next week's Simmons Bank Championship in Arkansas. After that, the field shrinks to 36 for the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix.

One player carrying considerable momentum into Missouri is Vijay Singh.

The 63-year-old World Golf Hall of Famer stunned the field at Sunday's SAS Championship, earning his sixth PGA Tour Champions victory and becoming the seventh-oldest winner in tour history.

Singh jumped from 57th to 33rd in the standings, dramatically improving his postseason position.

Defending Stifel champion Thomas Bjørn won't get another opportunity this week. The Dane, who defeated Cameron Percy in a playoff last year, failed to finish among the top 72 in the season standings.

Four former tournament winners return, including Y.E. Yang, Steve Flesch, Padraig Harrington and David Toms.

There's also another significant financial incentive.

Johnson, Alker and Tag Ridings are competing for the Sprint to St. Louis's $200,000 winner-take-all bonus. The highest finisher among those three claims the money.

Ridings secured his opportunity with a tie for third at the SAS Championship.

The 54-hole tournament will be contested on Norwood Hills' par-71 layout, measuring 6,992 yards.

With three of the previous five editions requiring playoffs, another dramatic finish wouldn't be surprising.

Golf Channel will televise Friday through Sunday's rounds from 4-6 p.m. ET.

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For Cink, the objective is defending his season-long crown. For Johnson and Alker, it's closing the gap.

For everyone else, it's simple: survive St. Louis or watch the championship race continue without them.