Stewart Cink Builds Record Lead at Charles Schwab Cup Championship

• Stewart Cink leads the Charles Schwab Cup Championship by six shots.
• Steve Allan is alone in second place, with Zach Johnson and Steven Alker sharing third.
• Cink’s margin is the largest 36-hole lead in tournament history.

Stewart Cink played his final 10 holes at Phoenix Country Club in 7-under on Friday, coming home in 29 to turn a tight contest into a procession at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

The defending champion’s 6-under 65, the low round of the day, took him to 14-under 128 and six clear of Scottsdale resident Steve Allan. No one has led this event by more after 36 holes. Jay Haas in 2012 and Kevin Sutherland in 2020 each led by five, and you have to go back to Bernhard Langer’s seven-shot cushion at the 2016 Chubb Classic for a bigger halfway margin anywhere on the circuit.

It did not look that way early on. Cink birdied the 1st and 5th but dropped shots at the 2nd, 3rd and 6th to go out in even-par 36 as the wind got up and swung round. Then came birdies at the 9th, 10th, 12th, 13th and a closing run at 16, 17 and 18. The 29 is his lowest nine-hole score on PGA Tour Champions in an individual stroke-play event.

“I didn’t know I shot 29 on the back until you just told me, so that’s cool,” Cink said. “I saw Zach’s score and all of a sudden I was like, oh, my gosh, he’s right there.”

He added that he “played in the wrong zone for about six holes” before finding more patience around the 8th.

“The wind picked up and it came from a different direction. It just made the holes play in a way that I’ve just never experienced them,” he said. “I let a few strokes go there, missed some putts, let it get to me a little bit. But found the reset button and kind of a little bit of a Jekyll & Hyde out there.”

“Playing in a lead situation is not comfortable for anybody.” @StewartCink is sitting on the largest 36-hole lead on PGA Tour Champions since 2016. https://t.co/lF7aGA5HLa

— PGA Tour Champions (@ChampionsTour) November 14, 2026

What it means for the Cup

Cink and Johnson are the only two players who can win the season-long Charles Schwab Cup, and its $1 million first prize, this week. With playoff points doubled, Johnson must earn $93,002 more than Cink in Phoenix. Cink clinches with victory, or if Johnson finishes solo eighth or worse.

The 53-year-old has led the standings for all 27 weeks of 2026 and is chasing a sixth win of the year after his Boeing Classic playoff victory in August. A successful defence would make him only the fourth back-to-back winner of this event.

This is the 12th time Cink has led or co-led after 36 holes on PGA Tour Champions, and he has converted four of them. He led here at the midway point in 2024 and finished tied sixth.

The chasers

Allan is the only player in the field yet to make a bogey this week. He birdied the 1st and 18th and parred everything in between for a 69 and an 8-under total, as he looks for a first win of 2026 after three in 2025.

Johnson opened with five straight birdies, turned in 31 and was 9-under through 13 holes before bogeys at the 17th and 18th left him with a 66. The rookie, who finished second to Darren Fichardt at the Simmons Bank Championship, needs a seventh win of the season to equal the PGA Tour Champions record for a first-year player.

Alker sits alongside him on 7-under after a 66 that included an eagle at the par-5 7th. The two-time Cup champion has finished inside the top three in all five of his previous starts at this event.

Retief Goosen’s 67 moved him into a tie for seventh, while Pádraig Harrington shot 66 and is tied 15th. Stephen Ames withdrew through illness before the second round, leaving a field of 34.

Related: Trace Crowe Leads by One as Darkness Suspends Play Again

Crowe returns Saturday morning facing a 55-foot birdie putt at the 17th, with Kevin Yu, Brian Harman and Kristoffer Ventura in close pursuit and FedExCup Fall cards on the line.

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Charles Schwab Cup Championship Leaderboard