Tag Ridings missed out on a $200,000 winner-take-all prize last weekend in the Sprint to St. Louis.
The former University of Arkansas golfer has his eyes on more important matters this weekend in Little Rock at the PGA Tour Champions’ Simmons Bank Championship at Pleasant Valley Country Club where the 52-year-old is one of 51 set to tee off in the second round of the Charles Schwab Cup playoffs.
Ridings, Steven Alker and Zach Johnson qualified for the Sprint to St. Louis which culminated at the 50-and-older tour’s first playoff event, the Stifel Charity Classic where the highest finisher of the three in the tournament walked away with the $200,000 grand prize. Alker’s tie for third got him the entire purse, while Johnson (tie for 37th) and Ridings (tie for 54th) had to settle only for their tournament winnings.
Ridings opened the tournament with a 2-over first round in part to a triple bogey on the fifth hole where he caught a flyer with a pitching wedge that hit a cart path and finished on a mountain where he was forced to take a drop from a difficult area. He followed the 73 with a 1-over 72 on Saturday before locking in Sunday with a final-round 3-under 68 to finish even par at Norwood Hills Country Club.
“If you are going to beat those two guys, you’re going have to come pretty close to winning that golf tournament anyway.” Ridings said. “I didn’t play terrible. I made some comeback birdies during that first round. I didn’t quite make as many putts as I could have, but I was making my little run back. The second round was just kind of stagnant, then I woke up a little bit in the third round, which was nice.
Ridings got to the contest’s final stage by staying hot over during the five qualifying tournaments leading to St. Louis. He tied for 23rd at the Sanford Invitational, tied for 31st at the Pure Insurance Championship, was runner-up at the Lehigh Valley Classic before closing the final two weeks with a tie for ninth at Furyk & Friends and a tie for third at the SAS Championship.
“At that point getting to St. Louis, I was just wanting to keep playing as well as I had been and keep being on that heater I was on coming in,” Ridings said. “(Winning the $200,000) didn’t happen, but I was honored to be a part of it. It was something really cool to throw in there on the schedule. I think it’s a really neat thing to get people to look forward to with that tournament.”
Before beginning the late-season swing to St. Louis, Ridings’ best finish the previous six tournaments was a tie for 13th at the Portugal Invitational in early August. He had four top-15 finishes before that, including two majors, in his previous seven events.
“I’ve been doing a lot of work,” said Ridings, who remains winless in the two years on PGA Tour Champions. “On every little thing that wasn’t fixed I was fixing, and it all started working pretty good I would definitely say.
“I really liked the golf course in Pennsylvania (at the Leigh Valley Classic). Really an old-school design and I tend to love those. The one in North Carolina at the SAS when I played it last year, I had one good round on it, s0 it kind of left a good taste in my mouth going into this year for playing there. The conditions were tough. Although it could be grueling, it does tend to go in my favor when the conditions are really tough. All that combined I was playing really well in that stretch.”
The three-week Charles Schwab Cup playoffs began last week with the top 72 players in the points standings. As one of the top 54 players advancing out of St. Louis, Ridings returns to Little Rock in 17th place in the Schwab Cup standings, a safe position for him to advance to the final leg in two weeks, the Schwab Cup Championship, for the top 36 players.
Ridings, a member of the University of Arkansas Hall of Honor, finished 2025 on a heater, coming into the Simmons Bank Championship in 35th place in the Schwab Cup standings after entering the playoffs in 45th. He tied for fifth place at the Dominion Energy Classic before scorching the Pleasant Valley tract with a 13-under 203 and a tie for second, solidifying his tour status for 2026.
Currently living in Keller, Texas, Ridings capped the season tied for eighth at the Schwab Cup Championship and settled into 20th in the final Schwab Cup standings. The Oklahoma City native said the state of Arkansas holds a special place in his heart and is hoping to rekindle the 2025 Pleasant Valley Country Club magic again starting Friday.
Steven Aker, last year’s Simmons Bank Championship winner, said in September that Pleasant Valley was his favorite golf course after setting the course and tournament record on his way to a wire-to-wire victory. But Ridings said he might have Alker beat when it comes to favorite course status.
“It’s another really good old-school design, the kind I really like playing,” Ridings said of PVCC. “It has a lot more personal touch for me than I am sure even Steve had after his win. I just love being in Razorback country and the great state of Arkansas. I get a lot of support. That kind of outpouring support can go a long way.
“If you notch a win on this tour, it’s always very meaningful. I don’t have one yet. There would be a lot of things good happen to me if I am able to do that. Maybe this is the week and the place to change that.”
Frankie Frisco has been with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette since 2007 and became the head golf reporter in 2012 when he moved to the Little Rock office, where he covers professional tournaments in the state and major state amateur tournaments. Frankie first became a sports writer in 1991 at the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway and has served in the past as sports editor at the Siloam Springs Herald Leader and the Benton County Daily Record in Bentonville.