PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp
PGA Tour
When the Tour Championship tees off Thursday at East Lake, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Wyndham Clark and 27 other finalists tee it up, they’ll be competing for a share of $40 million in prize money, with a cool $10 million going to the winner. Even the player who finishes dead last will be somewhat consoled with a $355,000 check.
But as the Tour’s leading lights tussle over 72 holes in Atlanta, the PGA Tour’s vision of how the playoffs will be reshaped in the future has just been laid out.
Starting in 2028, the PGA Tour’s season-ending playoffs, which currently culminate with the Tour Championship, will get a total script rewrite designed to amp up the drama, taking notes from March Madness and soccer’s World Cup.
In the first year of the new two-tier Championship and Challenger Series format, a 90-player stroke-play event will determine the season-long points champion. The top 32 players in the final points standings will then advance to a reimagined, two-week Tour Championship, beginning with a World Cup-style group stage before shifting to a March Madness-style knockout bracket.
The match play format is designed to keep all 16 players who reach the knockout stage relevant through the final Sunday: each will play all four rounds, with every match affecting the final standings. The lone player to emerge undefeated will be crowned the Tour Championship winner.
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp called it a “separate, stand-alone competition” that will be “one of the most difficult tournaments to qualify for and win,” testing the world’s best players in a format golf rarely gets to see.
Each of the two weeks will be held at a different course, creating an opportunity to bring the Tour Championship to prominent venues the modern PGA Tour has never visited. Rolapp said the Tour is willing to accept smaller on-site footprints at certain stops if it means gaining access to “the best courses in the country.”
The broader aim, he said, is to build “the best schedule and the best competitive format for fans that stokes interest, that creates more storylines. That’s our north star.” The Tour has yet to finalize the postseason compensation model, including the allocation of FedEx bonus money, and expects to announce the 2028 Tour Championship host venues on Feb. 22.
The Tour is also pitching the overhaul as a commercial reset. Rolapp said seven of the 15 regular-season events in the new Championship Series have been announced, four more have been identified and the Tour is in discussions with 14 prospective partners for the final four slots. Confirmed 2028 Championship events include GO by Raymond James at Sedgefield Country Club (what was formerly the Wyndham Championship), The Sentry at Torrey Pines, and the Cadillac Championship on Doral.
“It’s a high-class problem. We’re glad we have it,” Rolapp said, while stressing that the Tour is not simply lasering in on the highest bidders. Course quality, the sponsor’s ability to promote the sport, local community support and charitable impact will all factor into the final decision-making, he added.
The Tour has also received what Rolapp described as “unsolicited inbound interest” in the lower-tier Challenger Series, including from companies that have not previously sponsored PGA Tour events. “We have a price point and we have an opportunity for sponsors at all levels at what makes sense for their own marketing goals and sponsorship goals,” he said.