The Mitsubishi Electric Classic has become one of the more important weeks on the PGA Tour Champions calendar, and not just for the golf, but for what the money means beyond the winner’s check. With the Charles Schwab Cup race heating up, every position on the leaderboard this week carries weight.

The 2026 edition is being played at the TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, Georgia, from April 24 to 26. The course measures 7,205 yards and plays as a par 72. The total prize purse this year is $2 million, and the winner walks away with $300,000. The runner-up earns $176,000, and the third takes home $144,000, whereas the fourth and the fifth places take $120,000 and $96,000, respectively. Here’s a complete breakdown:

Beyond the prize money, there is more on the line. Every dollar earned this week converts directly into Charles Schwab’s Cup points. At the end of the 2026 season, the top five players on the final standings share a $2.1 million bonus pool, paid out as annuities. The PGA Tour Champions, however, does not offer official golf ranking points in its events, which makes the Schwab Cup the primary measure of the player’s season.

Over the years, the prize money for the Mitsubishi Championship has undergone significant changes and developments. When the event launched in 2013 as the Greater Gwinnett Championship, the total prize pool stood at $1.8 million, and the winner took home $270,000. This figure held steady for nearly a decade.

It was only in 2023 that organizers increased the purse to $2,300,000, representing a total $200,000 increase in the total prize money and a $30,000 bump for the winner of the trophy. Since then, the purse has remained $2 million.

The format this year is 54-hole modified Stableford, a change new for 2026, where players earn points rather than count strokes. Birdies earn two points, eagles five, bogeys cost one, and double bogeys or worse cost three. The players with the most points after 54 holes win. There is still no cut, meaning every player in the 78-man field walks away with a check.

Interesting facts you did not know about the Mitsubishi Electric Classic

The tournament is a longstanding institution, yet it is younger than it appears. This year marks the 13th edition of the event. It launched in 2013 as the Greater Gwinnett Championship, with Bernhard Langer winning the inaugural title. It has operated under the Mitsubishi Electric name since 2016, when the brand stepped up from presenting sponsor to full title sponsor.

The course itself carries a history that predates the Champions Tour’s arrival by over a decade. What is now TPC Sugarloaf was once the Rollins family castle and horse farm, Sugarloaf Farms, before it was converted into a golf facility. It hosted the PGA Tour’s BellSouth Classic and the AT&T Classic from 1997 to 2008 before having no professional golf until the Champions Tour returned in 2013.

Perhaps the most overlooked moment in this tournament’s history happened in 2021, when a Monday qualifier won the whole thing. Dickie Pride, in just his 11th start on the PGA Tour Champions, got into the field through Monday open qualifying. He shot rounds of 71, 67, and 61 and won by three strokes. It was his first-ever title on the senior tour. Pride became only the 14th open qualifier to win the PGA Tour Champions back then.

The tournament has given back over $2.5 million to local charities since 2013, with primary beneficiaries including Special Needs Schools of Gwinnett and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. For Mitsubishi Electric, the charitable angle is explicitly part of why the sponsorship works.

And last, certainly not the least, TPC Sugarloaf is a hard course. In six of the eight seasons before 2022, the course ranked in the top seven for difficulty on the entire PGA Tour Champions circuit. In 2021, the stroke average crossed 73, making it the hardest non-major venue that year. Senior golfers chasing Schwab points cannot afford to take this week lightly.