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

Last week, Padraig Harrington described the PGA Tour Champions like “the hardest card holder in the world.”

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

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

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

Still, since O’Neal was in the top 54, giving him enough status to make it to 24 events so far in 2024. Last week, he entered the Tournament of Champions in the first playoff tournament— of the Charles Schwab Cup, the Dominion Energy Charity Classic, ranked No. 55 — one point shy of advancing to next week’s playoff game.

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

And that’s exactly what happened.

O’Neal shot rounds of 71-67-65 in the Country Club of Virginia to win the title by two from Argentina’s Ricardo Gonzalez.

With the win and his double-digit points, O’Neal launched from No. 55 to No. 13 in the Schwab Cup points standings, not only securing his entry into this week’s Simmons Bank Championship, but also into the season finale of PGA Tour Champions. The Charles Schwab Cup Championship, which is only open to 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 entire 2025 season and his major leagues — is huge. Most of the regular-season, non-major PGA Tour Champions are 54-hole, no-cut events, meaning that simply entering the course and completing rounds will result in a check. To Harrington’s point: getting in — and sticking — is the real challenge.

For O’Neal, mission accomplished.

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

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

Editor of Golf.com

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural women’s varsity player class, Jessica can blow away anyone in the masthead. She can also drive them in the office, where she is primarily responsible for producing print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Issue, which debuted in February 2018. Her series The original interview, “A Round With,” debuted in November 2015 and appeared in both magazine and video form on GOLF.com.