In his first season on the Champions Tour in 1990, Lee Trevino set a standard that still looms over the circuit. The Hall of Famer won seven times, became the first senior player to earn more than $1 million in a single season, captured the U.S. Senior Open and swept the tour's highest individual honors, taking home both Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year.
The greatest single season, in terms of victories, came from both Peter Thomson (1985) and Hale Irwin (1997), who each won nine times.
More than three decades later, those remarkable campaigns are facing a legitimate challenge, not from one, but two players.
With three regular-season events and all three Charles Schwab Cup playoff tournaments still remaining, both Stewart Cink and Zach
Johnson have a realistic chance to eclipse the single-season wins mark. What began as Cink's runaway race has evolved into the most compelling storylines on the senior circuit.
Cink seized control early, winning four of the season's first eight tournaments and building a significant lead in the Player of the Year race. But Johnson, who joined the tour after turning 50 in late February, has matched that pace in recent months, collecting four victories over the last eight events to pull even in the season-long conversation and create a heavyweight showdown heading into the stretch run.
The duel brings to mind the PGA Tour's 2019 Player of the Year debate between Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka. Koepka strengthened his case with a PGA Championship victory and top-four finishes in all four major championships, while McIlroy claimed four wins of his own, highlighted by titles at The Players Championship and the season-long FedEx Cup.
In a rare split decision, Koepka earned the PGA of America's points-based Player of the Year award, while PGA Tour members voted McIlroy as their Player of the Year. It was the first time since 1991 that the game's two major season-ending honors went to different players.
Whether the PGA Tour Champions experiences a similar divide this year remains to be seen, but with Cink and Johnson matching each other win for win, the battle for supremacy is shaping up as one of the most memorable seasons the circuit has seen.
Here's a look at the resume of each, heading into the last half-dozen tournaments, and some direct quotes from their season:
Stewart Cink
2026 season resume:
- Events: 16
- Cuts: 16/16
- Wins: 5 (including two majors)
- Official money: $3,660,208
- Second-place finishes: 3
- Third-place finishes: 1
- Top-5 finishes: 13
- Top-10 finishes: 15
What he's saying:
Asked if the season with Johnson feels like ping-pong:
"It didn't feel like ping-pong, it felt like I served and he stuffed it down my throat the last three months or so, so that's not very much of a ping-pong match. I'm just going to be honest, I just haven't been that good at golf the last like three months, it just hasn't been me. I had a good finish in Portugal where Zach won, almost there, was second, but really just hasn't been the kind of golf I was playing earlier in the year. I made a couple changes in my golf swing so letting those settle in and meld, I'm really excited. I'm just really excited. Winning is always great, but even more, it's more of a long-term thing for me."
On his process:
"I try to separate myself from my results. I work really hard at doing that. Try to control what I can control and let everything else just happen and be content with it good or bad. I think that's the thing I'm most proud of. It's something that happens really inside. In my very close group, my wife, my caddie, a couple of my coaches understand what I'm talking about. It's just a real challenge to come out and know that you want results and work really hard tostay detached from those results.
"But what it leads to is better results. You have to kind of fool yourself into being very process-oriented and being OK with not succeeding. I think, number one, an athlete or a golfer or any kind of competitor who's not afraid to fail is dangerous. That's one thing. Number two is, if you're going to remove the results out of your goals and out of what you want to cling to, you have to probably put something else in there to cling to, and for me for many, many years now I've just used my faith like that. So on the golf course that's really what I'm going for.
"I don't necessarily want them to see a 20-under-par score in three days, but I want them to say there's something about that guy that I want to investigate, and it's not birdies or how far he's hitting his 8-iron or his driver. To me, that just makes it a tangible goal. Does it mean it's going to result in wins and 65s every day? No. But I've already told myself that that's not why I'm out here. So I'm trying to shoot a little higher than just, well, 'shoot higher' is a bad term. I'm aiming a little higher over the horizon than simply what the scorecard says. I consider it to be the No. 1 priority in my job."
Zach Johnson
2026 season resume:
- Events: 15
- Cuts: 15/15
- Wins: 6 (including one major)
- Official money: $3,295,613
- Second-place finishes: 1
- Third-place finishes: 3
- Top-5 finishes: 12
- Top-10 finishes: 1
What he's saying:
On playing the PGA Tour Champions:
"It's still highly competitive. The golf courses are good, the venues are terrific. And we're playing against, obviously, a lot of friends, so it's a little more laid back in the evenings. There's charity. There's great sponsors, whether you're talking about the title sponsors or the umbrella sponsors. Pro-ams are great. Everybody seems to have a great time. I would argue it's the best tour in the world. I'm enjoying it. I would love to have my family out more, but I know my wife's enjoying it as well. She likes to watch golf and take a nap, so that works out well.
On the budding rivalry with Cink:
"I don't know if rivalry is the word. … when he won [a month ago in Seattle], I hope I was one of the first text messages, you know? Because I'm genuinely happy for him and all of his successes. … obviously we're different on and off the golf course, but the healthy part of is that we can make each other better. … I've seen Stewart work. He's a worker. And he's kept in great shape. That's a credit to him. … this game is hard and when we have successes and peaks, ideally we're the first ones to congratulate or hug the other. So, he's a, he's a stud."
On Cink as a Ryder Cup captain candidate:
"He was one of my vice captains. He's also a confidant of mine, but more than that, he's a great friend. If you're talking about someone with passion for the game and, certainly, passion for that tournament and the Cup itself, he's right at the top of the list as far as I can tell. If you're talking about the capacity, the ability and the wisdom required to take on that role, there's absolutely no question. And I say that not just about Stewart, but about Lisa as well. It's not just a captaincy. It's a partnership. It's a tandem. My wife arguably did just as much, and maybe even more, than I did in terms of the work, preparation and everything that goes into it.
"I don't know what the future holds. I came off the Ryder Cup committee after the previous Cup, so I wasn't privy to the discussions about the next captaincy, and that's fine. That's the way the system works. But I know the individuals involved, and I trust them. I know they're being thorough, and I know they're trying to navigate those waters as effectively and efficiently as possible.
"If Stewart is the man for the job, Team USA would be very fortunate. Having said that, I know the people making those decisions, and I trust that they know what's best for Team USA. At the end of the day, you're leading the team, but the team is much bigger than any one individual and certainly bigger than the captain. That sense of humility is something Stewart has absolutely no trouble embracing. He's about as humble a man as I've ever been associated with.
"I have no idea what the future holds, but he is pure class. He's also gritty, methodical and intentional in his approach to the game, both on and off the golf course, and that's what sets him apart. Obviously, his talent is ridiculous. He's not winning by one shot here and there; he's winning by a lot. He still has the fire to compete. I think the younger generation still knows him, and hopefully that's something he can lean on and they can appreciate as well. So I'll shake the hand, and potentially hug, the man who becomes the next captain."
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Breaking down the Zach Johnson vs. Stewart Cink PGA Tour Champions battle
