The PGA Tour has announced a complete overhaul of its structure and schedule starting in 2028. After a year of discussion and debate about how the organization can create a format that satisfies all stakeholders, including players, sponsors, organizers and fans, CEO Brian Rolup’s new vision for the PGA Tour was detailed on Tuesday.
The PGA Tour will move to a new two-series structure that divides professional players into the PGA Tour Championship Series and PGA Tour Challenger Series, and introduces a formal promotion and demotion structure for players to move between series. Both series feature more than 20 events, but the similarities mostly stop there, especially when it comes to wallet size.
“From day one, the Future Competition Committee’s focus has been to build the best version of the PGA Tour, and to do it in a way that reflects the voices of our players and the expectations of our fans,” said Rolup. “The result is a new competition model based on meritocracy, with the best players competing together, resulting in clearer paths, higher stakes, and more stable competition.”
Perhaps the most important change for fans is the new postseason structure for the PGA Tour Championship Series. A match-play format will be introduced, and the season-ending Tour Championship will be held from its current annual home, East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, to various courses across the United States. Fans have been clamoring for match play to return to the PGA Tour in the playoffs, and that could become a reality in 2028.
“Today’s announcement is a positive step for professional golf,” said Rory McIlroy. “As more details emerge, it is heartening to see the PGA Tour reaffirm the importance of meritocracy and create a structure that will serve players and fans alike well into the future.” “… Efforts to uplift some of these historic international tournaments and national opens are extremely important to golf and I very much support them. In recent years, golf has faced a period of uncertainty and division, which was not in the best interest of the players or fans of the game. We are now putting our fans first and are excited about the future of our sport.”
The PGA Tour is still finalizing some key details about the new organization, but there’s a lot to unravel about how the organization will implement a major realignment of the sport in 2028.
PGA Tour Series Comparison
| Target players | 120~ | 144~ |
event | 23-24* | Over 20 years old |
wallet | Over $20 million | Over $4 million |
format | 72 holes, stroke play | 72 holes, stroke play |
cut | Top 65 (and ties) | Top 65 (and ties) |
*Includes the four major tournaments (Masters, PGA Championship, US Open, British Open Championship), The Players, international team tournaments (Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup), and the Olympics (every four years)
PGA Tour Championship Series
format, structure
The PGA Tour is moving forward from its traditional start, when the circuit began holding regular events in Hawaii in January. As such, the schedule runs from February to August, excluding international team events. These are now treated like “signature events,” with prize money of at least $20 million, a 36-hole cut to the top 65 (and a tie), and all players in the Championship Series eligible to compete throughout the season. Off weeks are scheduled regularly to give players a break.
Ten of the 15 “regular season” events are scheduled for 2028. All are current signature events. The remaining five consist of existing events or new events in large markets. Boston, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington DC are being considered as locations for these tournaments.
Tour Championship updated
- Duration: 2 weeks
- Format: Group Stage, Match Play Bracket
- Host: Rotating location
The PGA Tour has confirmed that the Tour Championship will return to a match play format, although it has promised to release further details in the first quarter of 2027. Such a move has been discussed for years, as many believe this format creates higher stakes for the final tournament of the season.
The PGA Tour has refocused its focus on celebrating regular season champions while building a more siled postseason, with Tour Championship winners recognized in a different, but honorable way. The Tour Championship will be a two-week playoff (shortened from three weeks), starting with the group stage and moving on to a bracket to determine the champion.
“At the end of the regular season, we and the players both thought it was important to have a season finale that culminates with the regular season winner,” Lollup said. “And if you can beat the best 120 golfers all season long, you can probably argue that that’s the most impressive accomplishment in the sport, because you’re beating those guys all the time. It was important to do that.”
“At the same time, it was always important to us to set up another competition after the culmination of the regular season, where some of our best players could participate in a separate, but prestigious competition to bring match play back. This is one of the things we often heard from our fans and partners: How can we make match play more inclusive? And we thought this another competition would be a great way to do that.”
The Tour Championship will no longer be held annually at Eastlake Golf Club in Atlanta, as it has been since 2004. Instead, venues will rotate between “prestigious venues,” including former PGA Tour venues and some of the country’s most elite clubs. Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey, Cypress Point Club in California and Seminole Golf Club in Florida are on the shortlist, according to ESPN. This will allow the PGA Tour to not only showcase some of the largest golf courses in the country, but also explore golf courses in larger markets such as Chicago Golf Club (Chicago) and Merion Golf Club (Philadelphia).
autumn international events
Championship Series players will be eligible to compete in a new series of international events, including several high-profile domestic Opens, including the Australian Open, which the PGA Tour previously announced as a new partner event. This is part of a strategic partnership between the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. Although the International Series will not count toward next season’s points accumulation, the PGA Tour will be marketing players the opportunity to play in new markets and in front of international audiences while also competing in prestigious national championships.
PGA Tour promotions and relegations
The most important unknown with this new structure is how players will flow between the PGA Tour Championship Series and the PGA Tour Challenger Series. Championship Series players can participate in all tournaments each season, while Challenger Series players can take advantage of the mid-season “Battlefield” promotion. However, a player must win multiple championships or win a major after qualifying for such a tournament. Otherwise, the two series will remain separate until the end of the season.
At the end of each season, the top 90 players on the Championship Series points list retain their spots for the following year. The top 20 finishers in the Challenger Series will be promoted. The remaining roughly 10 Championship Series spots will be filled by a variety of unspecified criteria, including tournament wins, medical extensions, career milestones, and a new “Last Chance” series.
The Last Chance Series replaces the FedExFall and offers players with a 91-130 record in the Championship Series and players who don’t finish in the top 20 in the Challenger Series the opportunity to secure Championship Series status in several events.
PGA Tour Challenger Series
format, structure
At least seven of the 20 Challenger Series tournaments are held during the off-weeks of the Championship Series to generate “competitive results, benefits, and increased exposure.” Other events will be held at the same time.
The points system for the Challenger Series will be completely separate from the Championship Series. Players can only earn points for one series at a time. The Challenger Series awards bonus points for events held during off-weeks of the Championship Series and for matches in major championships.
The Challenger Series features a membership structure similar to the current PGA Tour system, with full exemption members who have priority rights to all Challenger Series events and conditional members who fill out the field.
Q School
Q-School will continue to offer golfers the opportunity to qualify for the Challenger Series. Q-School is held prior to the Last Chance Series and provides players access to the Challenger Series and other growth pathways on the PGA Tour.
