Tour's tiered format raises eligibility questions
Paring the myriad exemption categories is big hurdle in implementing new model in 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.
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In today’s DD …
Bob Harig writes about the exemption hurdles ahead for the PGA Tour
Daily Drive podcast with Harig and Alex Miceli discussing tour changes
Miceli asks if it’s time to ‘free Wyndham’ from his past mistakes
Brian Rolapp faces a lot of still unanswered questions about the future format (Ben Jared/PGA Tour via Getty Images)
McNealy: ‘Eligibility questions are the big ones’
CROMWELL, Conn. — The question was admittedly not delivered as well as desired. The idea was to give PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp a runway into the new Championship Series events and how qualification might be handled, specifically for career achievements.
One that was broached: an exemption for anyone who has won 80 PGA Tour events or more.
Tiger Woods was in the room at TPC River Highlands and chuckled. The carve-out, of course, could only be utilized by him as the winner of 82 PGA Tour events in his career.
The pointed question went over Rolapp’s head.
“I think all those eligibility questions we’re in the middle of answering,” Rolapp said during a news conference at TPC River Highlands, site of this week’s Travelers Championship. “I think it would be premature to speculate or to give you part of the answer.”
Tiger Woods showed for press conference. Will he be able to play tier 1 events? (Ben Jared/PGA Tour via Getty Images)
Rolapp wasn’t going to have all of the answers on Tuesday. He’s been on the job for less than a year and has overseen a new Future Competition Committee headed by Woods that was tasked with revamping the PGA Tour in a for-profit world.
The result to begin in 2028 is a two-tiered concurrent system that will see signature-like events on the top level and events that are somewhere between today’s regular tournaments and Korn Ferry tournaments on the lower rung.
The top — called the PGA Tour Championship Series — will see 120-player fields with 36-hole cuts, no sponsor invites and $20 million purses. To be eligible, you need to have finished among the top 90 the year prior. Players who are top 20 in the lower Challenger Series tier will also earn a spot.
There will be other ways in such as a “last chance” series of tournaments in the fall. Or for any player who wins twice on the Challenger Series.
But what about someone such as Aaron Rai, who last month won the PGA Championship? Under the current system, that’s a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour. Will it exempt him into the Championship Series in 2028 even if he’s outside the top 90 in 2027?
What about someone like Woods? He hasn’t played competitive golf for two years. But what if he wants to play in events like his own Genesis Invitational at Riviera? Currently he has an exemption carved out for signature events due to his stature. He doesn’t take a spot from anyone. In theory, he’d barely use any kind of exemption for these tournaments and wouldn’t take a place from someone more deserving. But with no sponsor invites, is he in the Championship Series events automatically or shut out.
