Why this pro’s first senior-tour winner’s check could be worth so much more

Last week, Padraig Harrington described the PGA Tour Champions as “the hardest tour to keep your card in the world.”

Just days later, Tim O’Neal, a longtime journeyman pro, earned playing privileges on the PGA Tour Champions next season the old-fashioned way, with a hard-earned victory at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic — O’Neal’s first-ever senior title.

The win was a long time coming for the 52-year-old, who, before joining the senior tour, had spent his career competing all over the world. O’Neal notched three wins on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica between 2013 and 2016, but had previously come up agonizingly short not once but twice in his attempts to get through PGA Tour Q-School.

After turning 50 in 2022, O’Neal at least earned a card, on the senior tour, when he finished T3 at PGA Tour Champions Q-School. He had a solid season in 2023, finishing 44th in the Charles Schwab Cup points list — but that finish wasn’t high enough to grant him the fully-exempt status awarded to the top 36 players each year.

Still, since O’Neal was in the top 54, earning him enough status to tee it up in 24 events thus far in 2024. Last week, he entered the Champions tour’s first Charles Schwab Cup playoff event, the Dominion Energy Charity Classic, ranked 55th — one spot shy of the cutoff to make it into the following week’s playoff event.

A strong finish would go a long way. A win would go a really long way.

And that’s exactly what happened.

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O’Neal fired rounds of 71-67-65 at the Country Club of Virginia to claim the title by two over Argentina’s Ricardo Gonzalez.

With the win and its double points, O’Neal launched himself from No. 55 to No. 13 on the Schwab Cup points ranking, not only ensuring his entry into this week’s Simmons Bank Championship but also the PGA Tour Champions’ season finale, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, which is open to only the top 36 players each season and offers a $1 million bonus to the winner.

The opportunity to play for that kind of money — plus the exemption for the entirety of the 2025 season and its major championships — is huge. Most regular-season, non-major PGA Tour Champions tournaments are 54-hole, no-cut events, meaning simply gaining entry into the field and finishing the rounds will result in a check. To Harrington’s point: getting in — and sticking around — is the real challenge.

For O’Neal, mission accomplished.

“I don’t know what to think. It’s been a long season,” an emotional O’Neal said in his post-round interview with Golf Channel’s John Cook. “For me to get it done when I had to, that means a lot.”

O’Neal won $350,000 on Sunday. But depending on what happens over the next several weeks — and next year — that title could turn out to be worth a whole lot more.