Monday Qualifiers Who Won on the Champions Tour

Has a golfer ever played his way into a golf tournament on the Champions Tour through the Monday qualifier and then won that tournament? Yes — and it has happened more on the senior circuit than on any other U.S.-based tour.

"Monday qualifying" and "Monday qualifiers" are the terms colloquially used for the qualifying tournaments that precede the start of a tour event. At such events, golfers who are not already in the field can try to play their way in. The Champions Tour (and PGA Tour) officially refer to such tournaments as "open qualifiers." Since they typically are played on Mondays on the PGA Tour, "Monday qualifier" has become the commonly used term.

The first-ever golfer to win on the Champions Tour after Monday-qualifying his way into a tournament got that win in style. At the 1987 Crestar Classic, Larry Mowry sank a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole to win by one stroke over two of the best players in Champions Tour history, Gary Player and Bob Charles.

Winning after Monday qualifying is not exactly common on the Champions Tour, but it happens more than on other American tours. For reference, see our list of Monday qualifiers who won on the PGA Tour and Monday qualifiers who won on the LPGA Tour.

The List: Champions Tour Winners Who Monday Qualified

These are all the golfers so far who won a tournament on the PGA Tour Champions (50-and-over) circuit after getting into the tournament through Monday qualifying:

• Larry Mowry, 1987 Crestar Classic
• John Paul Cain, 1989 Greater Grand Rapids Open
• Rives McBee, 1989 RJR Bank One Classic
• John Bland, 1995 Ralphs Senior Classic
• Vicente Fernandez, 1996 Burnet Senior Classic
• Dana Quigley, 1997 Northville Long Island Classic
• Jim Ahern, 1999 AT&T Canada Senior Open Championship
• James Mason, 2002 NFL Golf Classic
• Don Pooley, 2002 U.S. Senior Open
• Pete Oakley, 2004 Senior Open Championship
• Rod Spittle, 2010 AT&T Championship
• Willie Wood, 2012 Dick's Sporting Goods Open
• Doug Barron, 2019 Dick's Sporting Goods Open
• Dicky Pride, 2021 Mitsubishi Electric Classic

Mowry went on to win four more times (five times total) on the Champions Tour, including one major: the 1989 Senior PGA Championship. Bland also won five times total on the Champions Tour. Pooley and Oakley both make the list above for winning senior majors after playing their way in through qualifying.

But the most successful so far of the Monday qualifiers-who-won was Quigley. After Quigley's initial win (the tournament that appears on the list above), he won another 10 times — 11 wins total on the Champions Tour. His last win didn't come until 2006. He made it into playoffs, but lost, five other times, including twice in senior majors.