A new venue, a familiar cast of characters, and a season-long race that’s tightening. The Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS is underway at Hammock Beach Resort and Spa, bringing the PGA Tour Champions to the Jack Nicklaus-designed Ocean Course for the first time.
Charles Schwab Cup leader Stewart Cink headlines the 78-player field, with Zach Johnson and Steven Alker looking to close the gap as the series approaches its season-ending stretch.
The sixth edition runs through Sunday, after a southbound 60-mile move on Interstate 95 from Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville. The par-72 Ocean Course measures 7,149 yards and offers a different test for a field that includes 16 major winners, 21 senior major champions and six World Golf Hall of Fame members.
For players, there’s much more on the line than simply getting familiar with a new layout.
The tournament is the 24th of 28 events on the 2026 schedule, with a $2.2 million purse and $330,000 for the winner. With only 54 holes to settle matters, a slow start could leave plenty of ground to make up and little time to do it.
Cink, 53, leads the Charles Schwab Cup money standings with nearly $3.8 million and five tournament victories this season. Johnson has made an immediate impression in his rookie campaign, winning six times and earning just shy of $3.3 million, placing second. Alker is third with $2.2 million and four wins.
Together, those three have accounted for 15 of the season’s first 23 tournament titles. Anyone else hoping to leave with Furyk’s guitar-shaped trophy will have to end an impressive run of dominance.
Tommy Gainey knows how to flip the script.
The defending champion rallied from a tournament-record four shots behind to win last year, finishing 14 under par for a two-shot victory. He now faces the challenge of defending his title on a different course.
Bernhard Langer in an interview wiht George McNeilly
The field’s Hall of Fame contingent includes Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Davis Love III, Colin Montgomerie, Vijay Singh and Bernhard Langer, giving local fans the chance to follow some of the game’s most accomplished players.
A rookie with a connection to Hammock Beach also joins the field.
Ryan Palmer, who turned 50 on Sept. 19, makes his PGA Tour Champions debut. One of his four PGA Tour victories came in 2008 at this resort’s other championship course, the Conservatory, making this week something of a homecoming.
“I remember to this day coming down the stretch and burning the last hole to break a seven-man tie. I saw a gentleman today who came up to me and was talking about it, remembering it from then. Yeah, Hammock Beach has a little special place in my heart,” Palmer said.
While FURYK & FRIENDS is new to Palm Coast, this place is no stranger to the over-50 circuit. Its history includes victories by Keith Fergus in 2007 and Langer in 2008 on the Ocean Course.
The two-time Masters winner, now 69, has won 47 PGA Tour Champions events and sounded more like a seasoned driver in the garage area at nearby Daytona when asked for any advice he would offer Palmer.
“You got to push the pedal to the metal right away. I remember when I first came out here, I would hit a 3-wood off some tees just to avoid the bunkers. Everybody was hitting drivers. I’m going, why? What’s going on here? But that seems to be the strategy out here. They just go for everything,” Langer told me. “They know there are only three days, and if you screw up one day big-time, it’s hard to recover, so you need three good scores. There are always going to be five or ten in the field who have their A-game, and they’re going to go very low.”
While preparing for his eventual transition, Palmer said he’s been watching the competition more closely.
“To see the scores. Zach being one of my dearest friends since day one, since ’03, and seeing what he has done has been pretty remarkable,” Palmer added. If you’re not shooting 68 at worst, you’re not going to survive. I’ve watched these tournaments enough this last six months, and you can tell the scores are low. You’ve got to shoot 15, 20 under par for three days to win out here as well.”
Golf Channel will televise all three rounds, with Friday coverage from 1–3 p.m. ET and Saturday and Sunday coverage from 4–6 p.m. ET.
The setting has changed. Now comes the question of whether the leaderboard will follow.
Cink, Johnson and Alker have set the pace all season. This week, the Ocean Course offers Gainey, Palmer, and the rest of the field a fresh chance to catch them.
