PGA Tour spells out new two-tiered format
Tour will split into separate Championship and Challenger series starting in 2028
Bob Harig is on site at the Travelers Championship as the PGA Tour and its new CEO Brian Rolapp are unveiling sweeping changes to the PGA Tour’s model by creating two separate player tiers called Championship and Challenger. The details were just released this morning; the reaction comes later and the conversation should be dynamic. To support our work as independent golf journalists, please consider subscribing for a little more than $1 a week.
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp will oversee bold new changes to PGA Tour model (Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
Rolapp unveils dramatic changes at Travelers
CROMWELL, Conn. — The PGA Tour and CEO Brian Rolapp are making good on their pledge to revamp the competitive model, announcing Tuesday a long-discussed plan to have two tiers of tournaments, promotion and relegation and a change to the Tour Championship that will see match play.
The two series of events will run concurrently, with the upper tier being called the PGA Tour Championship Series and the lower tier to be called The PGA Tour Challenger Series. The new system will begin 2028.
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The PGA Tour Boards approved the recommendations on Monday that were put forth by the Future Competitions Committee. Rolapp will have a news conference later today at TPC River Highlands, site of this week’s signature Travelers Championship.
The top tier will have 23 or 24 tournaments, including the four major championships, the Players Championship and the postseason, which could shrink to just two tournaments and will see the Tour Championship rotate to different venues — a change from its long-time site at East Lake Country Club in Atlanta.
The event “will be contested across a rotation of prestigious courses, many of which the PGA Tour would play for the first time,” the tour said in a statement. The season will run from approximately February through August.
Those events will have $20 million purses and will have 120 to 130 players with 36-hole cuts and no alternate list. There will be no sponsor exemptions and the top 90 players from a points list will make up the majority of the fields, with 20 players being “promoted” from the Challenger Series.
Players who fall outside of the top 90 at season’s end will have a chance to retain their position in the Championship via a “last chance” series of events in the fall to be determined.
Also to still be determined is how various exemptions for winning majors, regular tournaments or long-time achievements will be handled.
