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The PGA Tour is moving forward with plans to implement a new two-series structure in 2028 that will shake up many of the golf circuit’s long-held traditions.
Taking place roughly from February through August, a new PGA Tour Championship Series will feature top players competing for purses of at least $20 million per event, fields of 120 players on average, and a 36-hole cut for the top 65 players and ties.
Running concurrently to the Championship Series will be a second-tier PGA Tour Challenger Series. Those events will have purses of at least $4 million, fields filled out to 144 players, and also a 36-hole cut for the top 65 players and ties.
There will be annual promotion and relegation between the two series. Championship Series players are not required to compete in all top-tier events, but they will not be allowed to compete in Challenger Series tournaments.
The names of the new series are working titles and could be changed, especially if a sponsor were to come on board and buy a lucrative naming-rights package.
The PGA Tour policy boards approved the recommendations from the Tiger Woods-chaired Future Competition Committee on Monday at a meeting in Hartford ahead of this week’s Travelers Championship.
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has been leading the charge for major schedule changes since taking over last August.
“Throughout this process, we have listened closely to players, partners and, most importantly, our fans,” Rolapp said in a letter to public fans posted Tuesday morning. “You told us you wanted to see the best players in the world competing against one another more often. You wanted clearer stakes as the season unfolds. And you wanted a more dramatic finish to the season that rewards excellence and makes every tournament matter. This new model is our response.”
Many final details about the changes are still to be determined and voted on by the policy boards in the coming months.
Championship Series
The PGA Tour Championship Series is expected to have 23 to 24 events when it is launched in 2028.
The regular season will comprise 20 events, including 15 top-tier PGA Tour stops, in addition to the four major championships and the PGA Tour-operated Players Championship.
A two- to -three-event postseason will incorporate match play and conclude with a new-look Tour Championship played annually at a rotation of prestigious courses—many of which the PGA Tour has not played at before—which would end the event’s decades-long run at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
This could include smaller-footprint events with fewer on-site fans due to logistical constraints at some of the country’s best courses in remote locations—like Bandon Dunes in Oregon or Cypress Point in California.
The PGA Tour has an initial set of 10 markets it plans to host Championship Series events in during the 2028 season, which it will reveal soon, with the remaining five events likely landing in cities that already host PGA Tour tournaments or new major markets like Boston, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.
The biennial international team events Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup—typically played in late September—will continue to fall in their traditional slots, featuring mostly Championship Series players.
Top Championship Series players will also have the opportunity to play in a limited series of elevated international events during the fall as part of the PGA Tour’s strategic alliance with the DP World Tour.
Challenger Series
The PGA Tour Challenger Series will consist of at least 20 events in 2028.
Approximately seven of those tournaments will be held during weeks where there is no Championship Series event.
Those Challenger Series events will have elevated points in that circuit’s season-long race, potentially increased purses, and additional exposure on network TV, as most Challenger Series events that run during the same weekend as a Championship Series event will be broadcast on cable or a streaming service.
Last week at the U.S. Open, Rory McIlroy questioned the direction the PGA Tour was moving in, particularly the “Track 1” and “Track 2” model. “As they’ve done all this work, you start to realize that the way the tour was before LIV came along was actually pretty good,” McIlroy said.
For now, there is no further update on how more LIV Golf players might be able to return to the PGA Tour.
Promotion & Relegation
A minimum of 90 Championship Series players will retain their status in any given season, and 20 players will be promoted from the Challenger Series each year.
A “last chance” fall series that will include four to six events will offer a limited number of spots onto the following year’s Championship Series for relegated players and those that did not earn promotion from the Challenger Series, among others.
Championship Series players that lose their status will be eligible for the Challenger Series the following season. Any players that win two Challenger Series events in one season will immediately earn promotion to the Championship Series.
Details are still being finalized about the future of the PGA Tour’s developmental circuits and pathways like the Korn Ferry Tour, PGA Tour Americas, PGA Tour University, and Q-School.
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