Stewart Cink wins PGA Tour Champions 2026 season opener in Hawaii

He picked up right where he left off. Stewart Cink, just about two months after winning his first Charles Schwab Cup in Phoenix to cap off the 2025 season, won the 2026 season opener on Saturday in Hawaii.

Cink shot 66-63-64 – 193 to finish 23 under at the 2026 Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai to win by three shots over Angel Cabrera and by five over Retief Goosen.

The win is Cink's fifth in 37 starts on PGA Tour Champions and his first in this event.

This victory also comes just days after the PGA Tour Champions named Cink the Jack Nicklaus Award as Player of the Year.

"I don't think validation really applies here because a good season like last year kind of validates itself to get voted in, but I wanted to come out here this year and start hot and not work my way into the season," he said Saturday night after hoisting the trophy. "I'm not going to play for almost two months now, so it really meant a lot to come out here and play well."

The limited-field event is for the previous year's winners, so Cink knew what he was up against.

"It's the champions of the Champions Tour. This is the winners' event, some great Hall of Famers here. Everybody that's come here, it's such a great field that to win makes it even that much more special to know that you've beaten this field," he said. "And the way I did it, too. It's not easy to do it, to start the day tied for the lead and know that those guys are going to be just gunning for you, and to keep my nose out front and to shoot like a really low round, that is very meaningful and I'll be stashing it away in my nearby memory banks for a long, long time."

Cink earned $340,000 for his efforts. He's the first Schwab Cup winner to then claim the next year's season opener.

Cabrera, playing in Hualalai for the first time, was runner-up after tying with Cink in driving distance (312.2 yards) during the week. Bernhard Langer, 68, shot his age or better twice in the three rounds, while Jay Haas, 72, did that all three days. Langer has now turned that trick 37 times, while Haas has done so 41 times.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Stewart Cink wins PGA Tour Champions Mitsubishi Electric Championship