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As the PGA Tour shifts to a new two-track model in 2028, select players can use a special provision based on career earnings to earn a spot on the top-tier Championship Series.
The PGA Tour announced membership criteria and eligibility on Tuesday for its new competitive structure beginning in 2028. That structure will feature a top-tier Championship Series of events with $20 million-plus purses and a second-tier Challenger Series with prize money pots of at least $4 million. Championship Series field sizes will be roughly 120 players, but players are not required to compete in every event and the exact number of members each year may fluctuate.
After a transition year in 2027, the Championship Series will include the top 90 players from the previous season and 20 players promoted from the Challenger Series; 20 players will be relegated from the Championship Series each year. In addition to some exemptions, three spots will be available at a “last-chance” fall series and one spot for the top college player from the PGA Tour University program.
The top 50 members on the PGA Tour’s career money list will be eligible to use a one-time exemption to claim a spot on the Championship Series if they lose status, provided they held Championship Series membership the prior season. For the inaugural 2028 season, those qualifying members can use the money exemption as long as they play in 15 or more PGA Tour events in 2027.
That could offer a lifeline in 2028 to star players who struggled in 2026, like Jordan Spieth (No. 10 on the money list) or Brooks Koepka (No. 26), should they not perform well enough next year. It could also benefit older players in their mid-40s, like Justin Rose (No. 4) or Adam Scott (No. 5), if their on-course play begins to dip.
Other notable players who have not been near the top of the FedExCup standings in recent years but are inside the top 50 of career earnings include Matt Kuchar (No. 14), Jason Day (No. 12), Tony Finau (No. 23), and Billy Horschel (No. 35).
However, the money exemption rules out LIV players currently ranked inside the top 50 of PGA Tour career earnings, including Phil Mickelson (No. 4), Dustin Johnson (No. 6), and Jon Rahm (No. 19), as they remain banned from the PGA Tour and do not currently have the ability to play in 15 or more PGA Tour events next season.
The career money exemptions are “an important feature of the overall eligibility system,” PGA Tour chief competitions officer Tyler Dennis said during a virtual media briefing Tuesday, “that reward for a player who’s had an incredible career.” Dennis noted the tour has “put some guardrails around” the system and said it will “continue to be refined and evolved over the years.”
Scottie Scheffler took over the No. 1 spot on the PGA Tour’s career earnings list from Tiger Woods last month.
LIV Players Still Not Welcome
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp on Tuesday reaffirmed the tour’s hard-line stance against bringing more LIV players back any time soon. “In terms of where we are today, we are not currently contemplating a returning-member program like the one you saw in January,” Rolapp said. “Everyone at the PGA Tour, myself included, has been focused on what is best for the organization.”
LIV’s future is in limbo as the league goes through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process in New Jersey, but stars like Rahm still face at least a one-year suspension (from the date of LIV’s most recent event in August) from the PGA Tour, making potential pathways onto the top-tier Championship Series in 2028 difficult. Former LIV players will be eligible to compete on the DP World Tour in 2027, but the PGA Tour has not yet decided how many Championship Series spots will be available on the DP World Tour.
“The Future Competition Committee was really just focused on the competitive model that we’ve been discussing over the past few months,” Rolapp said. “Again, it’s almost repetitive, but it’s worth saying again, really leaning into meritocracy, balancing that with what you’ve seen today about winning and what that means in career milestones.”
Rolapp said the creation of eligibility criteria for the competitive new model “was really with a broader lens of how do we build the best tour. It was not really looked at specifically on any one particular—on LIV or any other consideration.”
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