PGA Tour Revamps Schedule, Approves Rolapp as Commissioner
· Yahoo Sports
The two PGA Tour boards (Policy and Enterprises) approved recommendations from its Future Competition Committee that established a revamped, two-tier tournament system—with promotion and relegation of players—that begins in 2028. The boards also approved PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp as the tour’s next commissioner, replacing Jay Monahan, effective Jan. 1.
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The new schedule includes the PGA Tour Championship Series for the top players in the sport and will consist of 23-24 events, while the PGA Tour Challenger Series will serve as a feeder tour with immediate promotion after two Challenger Series wins in a single season.
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The Championship Series will include signature tournaments, the four majors, the Players Championship, season-ending events and the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup. Each signature event will have a purse of at least $20 million, and the season is expected to run from February through August.
“Throughout this process, we have listened closely to players, partners and our fans,” Rolapp said in a letter to the public. “You told us you wanted to see the best players in the world competing against one another more often. You wanted clearer stakes as the season unfolds. And you wanted a more dramatic finish to the season that rewards excellence and makes every tournament matter. This new model is our response.”
The Future Competition Committee was formed in August shortly after Rolapp left the NFL to become the PGA Tour’s first CEO. The committee was tasked with taking a comprehensive review of the existing competition model. It was headed by Tiger Woods and included five other players, plus three business advisors, Joe Gorder, John Henry and Theo Epstein. Woods said the committee wanted to create a model that set up the tour, its players and corporate partners for “long-term success and stability.”
The PGA Tour said it lined up an initial 10 of an expected 15 regular season events, and the remaining dates will be filled by either existing events or new markets under consideration, including Boston, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
The season-ending Tour Championship is also getting a new look. It will feature match play and rotate across venues, including many first-time tour stops. That’s a departure from the stroke-play, same-venue model at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, which has been the home of the Tour Championship since 2005.
The Championship Series will typically feature fields of 120 players. Players are not required to compete in each event, and there will be no sponsor exemptions. Membership will consist of a minimum of 90 players from the prior season’s points list and 20 players promoted from the Challenger Series, introducing a true promotion and relegation system. Relegated players will have the opportunity to compete in a “last chance” series that consists of four to six events in the fall.
The Challenger Series will feature 20 events with purses of at least $4 million. PGA Tour players are only allowed to participate in their respective series. Last week, Rory McIlroy called it a “glorified Korn Ferry,” referencing the current developmental golf tour.
“We think we just organized the same tour into a much more interesting and competitive system,” Rolapp said in a Tuesday morning press conference. He also said Challenger Series tournaments will be at recognizable venues for healthy purses featuring current PGA Tour players. “That is much different than what the Korn Ferry Tour is today,” he added.
Rolapp says the new format will put the tour in a better position in its next media rights negotiations. The current agreements with CBS and ABC/ESPN end in 2031, while NBC and USA Sports have rights through 2033. He said the current media partners had input in the tour revamp process.
“I think the demand for live sports programming is still at an all-time high, but not all live sports programming is the same,” Rolapp said at his press conference. “You need to compete in the distribution options, and the financial backing or rights fees available are not limitless, so you need to innovate and be the best you can. I believe these changes put us in a much better position to compete with all of the alternatives that any media partner has for their programming dollars.”
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