Copyright Arkansas Online
Tag Ridings began his rookie season on the PGA Tour Champions in March with zero status at the Cologuard Classic in Tucson, Ariz. He will end the season in mid-November playing in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix, having produced two top-five finishes in the tour's opening playoff events. He squared away a second-place finish Sunday in the Simmons Bank Championship at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock. The University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor member and current resident of Keller, Texas, started the playoff-starting Dominion Energy Charity Classic 45th in the Schwab Cup standings, finishing that tournament tied for fifth and moving into the 35th position to firmly secure a spot in Little Rock. He left Little Rock having vaulted into 22nd in the season-long race, again making a larger gain in the rankings than any of the other 51 players to survive the soggy Pleasant Valley conditions. "That's incredible," Ridings, 51, said of the making the top 36, which also gains him full status on next year's PGA Tour Champions. "I just never really planned on any of that. It is beyond my wildest dreams. I dreamt of some stuff, but I didn't dream of any of that. I am ecstatic. And looking forward to keeping this thing rolling (in Phoenix). "It feels incredible getting full status. It's been a slow build to this point, but to pull it off on a very hard golf course against the best of fields when it came to crunch time, it is very gratifying." Ridings finished the Simmons Bank Championship tied with Richard Green at 13 under, seven strokes behind wire-to-wire winner Steven Alker, who jumped ahead of Miguel Angel Jimenez into first in the standings. Alker won last year's Schwab Cup title for a second time, winning it initially in 2022. It was a complete tee-to-green effort for Ridings over the entire 54 holes, where players survived continuous rain most of Saturday and Sunday and an hour-long fog delay at the start of the final round. Ridings' final statistics compared to Alker's backed up his performance, which earned him a $196,500 payday: Tied for second with 17 birdies to Alker's 21. Made just four bogeys, three in the final round; Alker had all three of his on Sunday. Fifth in driving distance (295 yards); Alker was 29th (277.5). Tied for 10th hitting greens in regulation (77.78%); Alker was second (85.19%). Tied for first in converting all of his sand saves; Alker tied for 19th. Eighth in putting (per greens in regulation) at 1.67; Alker was second (1.57). Ridings said he drove the ball better the week before in Richmond, Va., but he got a break early Sunday when his tee shot at the par-4 4th went out of bounds before hitting a tree and bounding back into play. He used a hybrid on several occasions and also went to a new 3-wood for added length when players could use preferred lies out of the fairway because of the wet and muddy conditions. "This place if you hit it 300 (yards) it gets narrow at some points," Ridings said. "I had to hold back to hit some of these shape shots and went to the hybrid. It's the straightest club I own. My 3-wood cracked a couple of weeks ago, and it cost me a little bit that week. The next 3-wood definitely wasn't working, so I went last Tuesday and bought me a new head, put it in play the next day, and it's been very good for me." Alker's tournament-record 61 on Friday opened eyes all the way through Sunday's finish, including those of a couple of PGA Tour Champions veterans. But so did the play of Ridings, who was an All-SEC performer for the Razorbacks in the mid-1990s. "I was so proud of Tag Ridings," said tour member and Little Rock resident Glen Day. "I saw Tag when he came out early in the year trying to qualify. I told him that he's got the game to play out here. He hits the ball a long way. He's done fabulous." Ken Duke (Arkadelphia, Henderson State), who like Day has won on the PGA Tour and is also a winner on the PGA Tour Champions, said he got to share some thoughts with Ridings. "I told him, 'Congratulations, you've worked hard,' " Duke said. "I said, 'You've worked hard. You got through this whole thing and played really well. You've got status for next year.' For guys like us that are not lifers on the tour, that's a big deal to have full playing status out here. "He's a long-ball hitter. This golf course benefits a long hitter obviously. Despite cooler weather and the rain you still have to be a long hitter and must have putted really well. That is what you have to do at Pleasant Valley. You have to be a good putter and get the speed of these greens because they are really, really fast. That kind of combination, a long hitter and a good putter, will get you near the top." Day said he had a good feeling Alker would continue his success after a tournament-record 11-under 61 in his first round on Friday. The New Zealander broke his own mark of 10-under 62 in the opening round of the 2024 event. "I remember talking to him, and I said, 'You like this golf course?' " Day said Sunday night. "He goes, 'Oh this golf course is great.' He didn't play as good as he wanted the last couple of days, but it was still impressive." Padraig Harrington, the defending champion in Little Rock, finished in a four-way tie for 34th with Paul Stankowski, Boo Weekley and David Duval. The Simmons Bank Championship concluded its second year of a five-year run on the PGA Tour Champions. It replaced the TimberTech Championship on the circuit's schedule and was recognized with the Players Award after the 2024 season when PGA Tour Champions players voted it as their favorite event despite its 51-player field in its first year on the calendar. Alker now has 10 career wins on the PGA Tour Champions, while Ridings owns two runner-up finishes, including his second event at the end of March in The Galleri Classic. After Sunday, the long-standing Korn Ferry Tour veteran went from a name from the past in Arkansas Razorbacks lore to a name casual golf fans got to know over the weekend, even leading Hog calls with the galleries coming up the 18th fairway. "I suppose Little Rock and Arkansas know a little more about who I am now, and I think hopefully America does too," Ridings said. "They're not going to forget the Hog call now either."
