Tommy Gainey, who 'spent a lot of money missing cuts,' seeks second PGA Tour Champions win
Todd Kelly- Tommy Gainey shot a 5-under 66 to take the clubhouse lead but was unhappy with his performance on par-5s.
- Gainey secured his spot on the PGA Tour Champions through 2026 after a recent win.
- He expressed relief to be on the senior circuit after struggling to compete on the PGA and Korn Ferry Tours.
- Having his tour status secured allows him to play aggressively without worrying about his exemption.
PHOENIX ― After shooting a 5-under 66 to take the clubhouse lead after 18 holes in the season finale in just his ninth start on the PGA Tour Champions, one might think Tommy Gainey would be pleased.
Nope. Far from it.
"Do you want me to give you an honest answer?" he said. "I'm pretty pissed at the way I played today and I'll tell you why. Hit the ball really good, made a lot of putts. But the par-5 performance has got to get better. I mean, I'm just blowing shots away, throwing them away, blowing them up, whatever you want to call it. I've hit it on two fringes of the par 5s today, and two out of the three made par."
He wasn't done there.
"I had it 20 feet for eagle right there and made par," he said, pointing back to the 18th green. "And that's why I'm so pissed off."
Gainey is in the field at the 2025 Charles Schwab Cup Championship by virtue of his 36th-place finish in the regular-season points standings. A large reason for finishing 36th was his win five weeks ago in the Fuyrk & Friends. Gainey got that win at the age of 50 years, one month and 23 days.
A win on the PGA Tour Champions means an exemption through the end of that season, plus the entire next season and that means job security for Gainey through 2026. Winning not even two months into being eligible on the senior circuit was huge.
"I feel very relieved because, you know, I didn't have enough money to be exempt out here and I come out and I just got hot on the Mondays and I took it into the tournaments and played well enough and then just so happened that I ended up winning a tournament and you know the weight off my shoulders, it's been taken off and but you know what? I still want to win," he said. "The desire and the fire there is still to win. And that's my goal right now. So every time I tee it up, I plan on winning. It never works out that many times, but the plan is to still win."
So what was it like for the 48-year-old Gainey to count down the days on his calendar until he was eligible for the Champions tour?
"Let me tell you. When I was 48, I couldn't wait to get to 50," he said. "Playing against these young boys on the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour, I didn't have much of a chance. I was competing to try to make a cut and I missed a bunch of cuts because I was shooting 3 to 5 under on the first two days when the cuts were 6, 7, 8, 9, you know, and 5 and 6 under for the first two days don't look very good, but you shoot 5, 6 under out here for two days, then that's a different ball game. So I'm very relieved to be out here.
"But it was tough. I mean, I spent a lot of money missing all those cuts the last two, three, four years."
And now?
"I've got a chance to win every tournament that I'm in," he said.
And does having his status secured for 2026 free him up to just go play golf?
"I mean, I can't sit here and tell you that it doesn't," he said. "I'm always aggressive. Always. But knowing that I'm exempt for next year and I got no worries."