2026 Austin Championship preview: Texas welcomes new PGA Tour stop

We're coming down to the nitty-gritty on the FedEx Cup following the PGA Tour. We're at the penultimate stop after a couple of weeks in Mexico. The PGA Tour is back in the United States for a debuting event. And we have a preview for you. I'm Ryan Balogy with Golf NewsNet previewing the Austin Championship presented by Compliance Solutions at the Omni Barton Creek Resort in Austin, Texas. This was originally the Good Good Championship. The Good Good name has been removed due to their ad scandal along with Callaway. And so now it's the Austin Championship for this first year of the event. It's a $6 million purse, just like a number of tournaments in the FedExCup Fall with $1,080,000 to the winner and 500 FedExCup Fall points to the champion as well. Probably about 28 points in the Official World Golf Ranking to the winner this week also. Omni Barton Creek is a Tom Fazio design. It plays about 7,450 yards from the tips. It's a bit of a resort course, so there should be some good opportunities to score here this week. And after two weeks in Mexico, a number of players who have kind of sat out some of those weeks outside of the United States, between Mexico and Bermuda, are back competing this week in this tournament. Your headliner is probably Jason Poivin, but also Blades Brown, the 19-year-old who became the youngest modern winner in PGA Tour history, beating Ben James in a playoff. Last week in Mexico to wait his first PGA Tour win. Ben James, who lost that playoff, was in the field. He is withdrawn. There are a number of other great players, including Austin Smotherman, who has won his last two starts in the PGA Tour, both in playoffs, looking for a third win in the FedExCup Fall. He's already got kind of all the goodies you can get out of this, but other than to move up in the world ranking, also get more money, and potentially land some additional status into the championship series in 2029, which would be pretty amazing. So, lots on the line. Here this week for the 120-player field competing, you're trying to get into the top 100 in the FedExCup Fall standings to make sure you keep your status on the PGA Tour in 2027. You're also still trying to get somewhere between 51 and 60 in the FedExCup Fall standings if you haven't already gotten into that top 50 through the regular FedExCup season. If you finish 51 through 60, you're going to get the first two signature events of next year, both those out in California, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational. Those are great opportunities for players to play for a $20 million purse. Maybe get a little sniff of the life that could be ahead of them if they qualify for the PGA Tour Championship Series in 2028.