2026 Simmons Bank Championship recap: Darren Fichardt makes walk-off eagle to win

Darren Fickard is the winner of the PGA Tour Champions for the first time. The South African winning in dramatic fashion in the second leg of three in the Charles Schwab Cup playoffs. We've got a recap of that important tournament. I'm Ryan Baloggy with Golf NewsNet looking back at the Simmons Bank Championship at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock, Arkansas. This tournament is the second of three legs in the Charles Schwab Cup playoffs on the PGA Tour Champions. The tournament is reserved for the players who are in the top 54 in the point standings at the end of the previous tournament. First leg of the playoffs, the Stiefel Charity Classic out in St. Louis. In the playoffs, the points are doubled. So the regular season, every dollar earned translates to a single point in the Charles Schwab Cup standings. Well, they are doubled in the playoffs. So, huge opportunity to move up in the first two playoff events, trying to get into the top 36, who get to the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, which is not this upcoming week, but the following week after a week-long break. Darren Fickart was one of three players to play his way into that top 36, getting into the season-ending tournament, guaranteeing himself access to pretty much everything on the PGA Tour Champions next year. And he did that with a 54th hole eagle to beat Zach Johnson by a single shot on 22 under three rounds, which is pretty unbelievable. 194 was the total that wound up winning this tournament. It was a difficult putt, eagle putt, to wind up winning the tournament for Fickard. who again picked up his first victory on the PGA Tour Champions. Slipped it on the low side on a putt that moved probably about eight or nine inches in a very short amount of space. But good on him for winning. He kind of breaks up a little bit of the monopoly, the the triopoly I guess that you have on the PGA Tour Champions this year between Zach Johnson and Stewart Cink and Steven Alford who have been so dominating on the circuit this year. Now the top 36 players are going to have a week off, and then they're going to go to Phoenix, the Phoenix Country Club, for the season-ending tournament. That's a $3 million purse, but you're going to get about $528,000 if you win that tournament. Also, the players who are in the top five in the standings at the points at the end of that event, they're going to get some share of a $2.1 million bonus pool from the Charles Schwab Cup for the season-long race. That's all paid out in annuities. It'll be interesting to see. Who potentially walks away with that number one spot. But one of the players who wound up not getting through is Michael Block. He came up just a little bit short. Need to finish a little bit higher than that very solid week that he had out in Little Rock. But basically need to finish in the top five to give himself a chance to get into that top 36. So he doesn't get himself full guaranteed status on every event on the PGA Tour Champions next year. But based on his great play, he's going to get a lot of opportunities to see the 50 plus tour next year.