DD Special: Analysis of tour's bold new model

The PGA announced its two-tiered future but still has a few holes to fill before 2028

Bob Harig is on site at the Travelers Championship as the PGA Tour’s incoming commissioner Brian Rolapp and Tiger Woods unveiled sweeping changes today to the PGA Tour’s model that were formally approved Monday evening by the Policy Board, creating two separate player series called Championship and Challenger and fundamentally altering the structure of the tour beginning in 2028.

To support our work as independent golf journalists, please consider subscribing for a little more than $1 a week.

Outgoing PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and his successor Brian Rolapp (Ben Jared/PGA Tour via Getty Images)

‘Strongest possible version of the PGA Tour’

CROMWELL, Conn. — Tiger Woods has never played TPC River Highlands, but he was here Tuesday as part of the PGA Tour’s big reveal of a new competitive format to begin in 2028.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was here, too, despite being in the background for much of the past year. The fourth PGA Tour commissioner in history is stepping down at the end of the year and CEO Brian Rolapp will take over those duties and become the fifth commissioner.

It was Woods’ first public appearance since a rehab stint following a suspected DUI charge in March. He didn’t take questions but his presence as part of the Future Competition Committee speaks to its importance.

“Over the past eight months, the Future Competition Committee has spent a lot of time on a very important and fundamental question: How do we build the strongest possible version of the PGA Tour?” said Woods. “This work was never about any one player or person. It was about bringing together different perspectives, having honest, hard conversations, and thinking boldly about what is best for the game that we all love.”

The big news was disclosed Tuesday morning, and here are several takeaways from the announcement:

PGA Tour Championship Series

This is the name for what is being described as a “Track 1” series of events that will form the highest level of the PGA Tour. Roughly 24 tournaments that will include the four majors, Players Championship and postseason events, which are still to be determined. That leaves about 15 signature-style tournaments that will have $20 million purses, 120-player fields and 36-hole cuts. Ninety players will retain their Championship Series position for the next year while those who fall out will be relegated to a lower tier.

What Rolapp said: “Ultimately, when fans tune into the PGA Tour Championship Series, they know they will see the best players in the world competing head-to-head. … We’re not going to force them to play anything. But we do think we’ve designed a model that will allow them to take some tournaments off and still compete for the regular season title and other things.”

Takeaway: These tournaments are basically an expanded signature-event model, with roughly double the current number of events and with larger fields, cuts and no sponsor invites. Because players will not be allowed to drop down and play events in the second tier and there will be built in off weeks from in the February to August window, the hope is that they will play most of these tournaments, thus having the best of the best together more often. The PGA Tour needs to sell why its important that the top-tier only be allowed to compete in the Championship Series events. There will also be no minimum number of events required for players to play in the Championship Series, so considering the sponsorship costs are massive, seeing top players skip would be a bad look. But for someone like Scottie Scheffler, who might play 20 times total, it basically means skipping four of the 15 events to be determined. As long as the top players spread themselves around, this has a chance to work.

PGA Tour Challenger Series

The description of these Track 2 events, this will be the primary place for rank-and-file tour pros and aspiring players to strive and qualify to move up to the Championship Series. These events will run concurrently with the Championship Series and some will be played during the top tier’s off weeks, many at familar regular PGA Tour venues. The fields will be 144 players and purses will be a minimum of $4 million — less than current regular PGA Tour events but four times as high as typical Korn Ferry Tour purses. Two Challenger Series win in a season earns automatic promotion in-season to the Championship Series while a top-20 finish in the Challenger points race earns a promotion to the next season’s Championship Series.

What Rolapp said: “The PGA Tour Challenger Series is the primary path to the PGA Tour Championship Series. … If you look at the Challenger Series events, they’ll be at venues you recognize. They'll be for healthy purses, which we announced today. They’ll include a subset of the same 200 and change players that we have today. That is much different than what the Korn Ferry Tour is today.”

Takeaway: Think Cognizant Classic, Valspar Championship, Zurich Classic, John Deere Classic. Unless those tournament sponsors want to pay a sponsorship fee in the nearly-$30 million range, they will be part of the lower series. How this plays out will be extremely interesting because virtually none of the big-name top players will be part of it. Will there be an audience? Will the season-long points race and trying to get to the Championship Series be compelling?

Joe Gorder, chairman of PGA Tour Boards, shares stage at Travelers with tour commissioner Jay Monahan, Tiger Woods and CEO Brian Rolapp (Ben Jared/PGA Tour via Getty Images)

Match Play at the Tour Championship

The Championship Series season-ending event is going to be contested using some kind of match-play format and at a rotating selection of prominent venues instead of the long-standing permanent home at East Lake in Atlanta. No particulars were revealed Tuesday including how many players who will qualify. But the 30-man stroke-play event that has been the conclusion to the FedEx Cup playoffs is going to be replaced. And it could have a new title sponsor after FedEx’s contract runs out at the end of 2027.

What Rolapp said: “For the postseason, we will introduce match play and a reimagined Tour Championship that will rotate among prestigious venues featuring the best of Championship Series players. This will include courses the PGA Tour has never visited before. Match play is a format our fans have been asking for, and I look forward to sharing more details about the postseason in my press conference at the Tour Championship in August.”

Takeaway: Match play is risky in today’s broadcast environment but shaking up the postseason and how players get there is a welcome change. For 20-plus years, the PGA