Stewart Cink has been added to the field for the inaugural Jefferson Lehigh Valley Classic presented by Sodexo, giving the first-year PGA TOUR Champions event its biggest draw so far. The tournament will be played the week of September 28 to October 4, 2026, at Lehigh Country Club in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Cink arrives as the reigning Charles Schwab Cup champion and the current No. 1 player in the standings, a status built on four wins and three second-place finishes. The 53-year-old has not finished outside the top 11 over 13 starts this season, a run that shows his hold on the senior circuit is still very much active.
His place in the field also gives the new event a stronger center of gravity. Justin Leonard and Dicky Pride also joined, and the Jefferson Lehigh Valley Classic will sit on the 2026 PGA TOUR Champions schedule as a Regular Season PGA TOUR Champions event, part of a year that features 28 events and more than $70 million in prize money.
The field update matters because Cink is not just a champion in name. He became eligible for the senior circuit on his birthday in May 2023, won his first PGA TOUR Champions title in his 10th start at The Ally Challenge presented by McLaren in 2024, and now owns eight PGA TOUR Champions titles along with eight PGA TOUR titles. He won The Open Championship in 2009 and received the Payne Stewart Award in 2017, but his current form is what makes his entry into an inaugural event notable.
That same form is why the new tournament already has a sharper profile than most first-year stops. The field is still taking shape, so the open question is how deep it will become by the time play begins in Allentown. For now, the arrival of Cink, Leonard and Pride gives the Jefferson Lehigh Valley Classic an early test of ambition and a reason for the rest of the circuit to pay attention.
