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SIOUX FALLS — For the fifth time, Sioux Falls will play host to a key tournament on the stretch run of the PGA Tour Champions regular season.
The Sanford International will commence Friday and run through Sunday at Minnehaha Country Club, with the winner playing for a $300,000 check. The tournament includes 78 players playing a 54-hole, no-cut format. Here are more details on the tournament:
Course: Minnehaha Country Club (Par 70, 6,729 yards)
Purse: $2 million (Winner: $300,000)
Defending Champion: Darren Clarke
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Charles Schwab Cup leader: Steven Alker
Last week's winner: Ascension Charity Classic (Padraig Harrington)
HOW TO FOLLOW — TV: Friday-Sunday, 8:30-10:30 p.m. Central (tape delay on Golf Channel)
PRESIDENTS' CUP PRIMER: Five players this week are playing prior to captain roles in next week's Presidents Cup on the PGA Tour, which involves the United States against an International team consisting of players outside of Europe. It will be played Sept. 22-25 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. U.S. captain Davis Love III is joined by assistant captains Fred Couples and Steve Stricker, while International team assistant captains Mike Weir and K.J. Choi are also playing competitively this week in Sioux Falls. It is a role reversal of sorts from 2021, when Stricker was the U.S. Ryder Cup captain, playing in Sioux Falls the week before the Ryder Cup in Wisconsin, and Love and Couples were both assistant captains for Stricker in the team event.
DOMINANT IN THE STANDINGS: Last week's winner at the Ascension Charity Classic in St. Louis — Padraig Harrington — is also in the tournament field. Harrington, who was the Europe captain in the 2021 Ryder Cup opposite Stricker, has moved into second place in the Charles Schwab Cup standings. Standings leader Steven Alker (three wins), Harrington (three), Jerry Kelly (three), Stricker (two) and Miguel Angel Jimenez (three) have won 14 of the first 20 events this season and occupy the top five spots in the standings.
LAST SPOTS IN: Four players made the field by playing an 18-hole qualifier on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at Bakker Crossing Golf Course in Sioux Falls to reach the tournament. Joe Summerhays, of Syracuse, Utah, shot an 8-under-63 to win the qualifier and then was joined by Ricardo Gonzales (Buenos Aires, Florida), Paul Stankowski (Flower Mound, Texas) and Harrison Frazer (Dallas, Texas), who all emerged from a four-person playoff for the final three spots after being tied at 6-under-par.
NOTES: Clarke won last year's event in a playoff over K.J. Choi and Steve Flesch. ... Jimenez holds the tournament scoring record of 196 set in 2020. ... All four past champions of the event are in the field (Clarke, Jimenez, Rocco Mediate (2019) and Stricker (2018). ... Six World Golf Hall of Fame members are in the field: Fred Couples, Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer, Davis Love III, Colin Montgomerie and Jose Maria Olazabal. Last week's winner at the Ascension Charity Classic — Padraig Harrington — is also in the tournament field, as one of 14 major winners in this year's event.
NEXT TOURNAMENT: Pure Insurance Championship, Pebble Beach, California, Sept. 19-25. It is the third-to-last event of the PGA Tour Champions regular season prior to the Charles Schwab Cup playoffs beginning in mid-October in Richmond, Virginia.
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Field Level Media contributed to this report.
