For a second straight week, the PGA Tour seems to be going back to the future. The leaderboard entering Sunday’s final round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship has a vintage feel given the ages of those in contention for the $1.17 million first-place prize money payout.
Out front after holding the lead in each of the first three rounds is 41-year-old Alex Noren, a veteran PGA Tour pro who is trying to get the proverbial monkey off his back and claim his first title after earning more than $11.7 million in prize money in 161 starts. The Swede has 10 DP World Tour titles to his credit, but is one of 16 players to earn more than $10 million on the PGA Tour without a victory, a club he will gratefully leave on Sunday with one more solid round at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda.
One shot back is 41-year-old Camilo Villegas. The Colombian is a four-time tour winner, with his first victory coming in 2008 but his last in 2014. Playing on past champion’s status this year, Villegas started last week’s World Wide Technology Championship 223rd on the FedEx Cup points list, but a T-2 finish jumped him to 147th. Another solid start this week will get him inside the top 125, the position he needs to be in at the end of next week’s RSM Classic in order to earn full playing privileges in 2024.
Meanwhile, two strokes off the lead is Ryan Moore, who turns 41 next month and is looking for a sixth career tour win but his first since the 2016 John Deere Classic. He’s also trying to get on the right side of the No. 125 line to keep a card for next year and starting the week 140th. Three back is 50-year-old Stewart Cink, a eight-time winner who made his debut on the PGA Tour Champions this year but still has the game to hang with the youngsters. And four back is 43-year-old Adam Scott, a 14-time tour winner looking for his first title since 2020. Scott won the PGA Grand Slam of Golf title at Port Royal in 2013.
That’s not to say there aren’t some outliers (read: young guns like Matti Schmid, Vince Whaley and Carl Yuon) lurking, but Sunday looks to be a day where a blast from the past becomes the story of the present.
The overall purse in Bermuda is $6.5 million. Here’s the prize money payout for each golfer who made the cut. Come back shortly after the end of the tournament and we’ll update this with individual player names and paydays.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
