The PGA Tour Champions’ 2025 season is coming to an end. And the pressure is building at the Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock, Arkansas, this weekend, for the 2025 Simmons Bank Championship. It is the second stop in the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs, and every shot counts here! Play here could mean the difference between advancing to the finale in Arizona or seeing the season end here.

With only 54 players in the field and no cut, big names like Stewart Cink and Padraig Harrington are looking for their final chance to climb up the Charles Schwab Cup standings. Currently, Miguel Angel Jimenez leads the standings by a good margin, all thanks to his dominant 2025 season with 4 wins.

So, after Sunday, only the top 36 players in the standings will move on to the final playoff stage in Arizona — the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, which will take place between November 13th and 16th. Which means there’s plenty on the line for players, and every dollar earned this week counts double in Charles Schwab Cup points.

Usually, in other PGA Tour Champions events, every dollar earned equates to one point towards the Charles Schwab Cup. But since the Dominion Energy Charity Classic last week, the first playoff event, every dollar earned equates to two points. Undoubtedly, a strong finish this week could dramatically shake up the Charles Schwab Cup standings.

But beyond the crucial points, there’s also a handsome reward in terms of prize money this week. The 2025 Simmons Bank Championship purse is set at $2.3 million, with the winner taking home a check of $365,000. A decent amount, but the winner’s payout is slightly less than the standard 15 percent payout for PGA Tour Champions events.

Let’s take a look at the prize money breakdown in detail:

Finally, after the playoffs conclude in November in Arizona, the top 5 players in the final Charles Schwab Cup standings will get their share of $2.1 million bonus pool (all as annuities) in addition to the earnings they have made this season. And as the final round approaches, all eyes are on Steve Alker, who holds a comfortable 5-shot lead heading into the final day, and might take over Jimenez if he wins on Sunday.

Steve Alker leads the way at the 2025 Simmons Bank Championship

After back-to-back bogey-free rounds of 61 and 66, Steve Alker sits at 17-under 127, his lowest opening 36-hole total on the PGA Tour Champions. That number also breaks the tournament’s 36-hole scoring record, previously set by Rocco Mediate in 2013, and ties the second-lowest two-round total recorded anywhere on Tour this season. Even Miguel Angel Jimenez, who has had a dominant season with 4 incredible wins, hasn’t shot scores anywhere close to that.

Steve now holds a commanding 5-shot lead heading into Sunday, and it is the largest 36-hole lead on the circuit in recent times since Paul Broadhurst’s in 2024 at the PURE Insurance Championship. And that’s not all. Alker is the only player in the field yet to make a bogey.

His stellar opening round of 61 not only set a new course record at Pleasant Valley Country Club but also marked the lowest round by any player on the PGA Tour Champions this season. It even bettered his own record, where he opened with a 62 at the same event last year, which was his fourth appearance at the Simmons Bank Championship. He’s won this event before, in 2021, when it was played in Boca Raton, and with the way he’s playing, he is confident of doing it again.

Now, Alker is projected to move from No. 4 to No. 1 in the Charles Schwab Cup standings, and is in a prime position to chase down not only his third career season title, but also to take over Jimenez in the standings. And he has been here before, already winning the Cup in 2022 and 2024.

A win on Sunday would give Steve Alker his 10th career PGA Tour Champions victory, and his second of the 2025 season after capturing the Cologuard Classic earlier this year. With 16 top-10 finishes already, the most of any player this season, Alker clearly has been the model of consistency.