So now we officially know the PGA Tour will undergo a significant schedule change in 2028, though the particulars still have to be ironed out. But I’m not a big fan of what we’ve heard so far with the sole exception being turning the Tour Championship into match play. 

Essentially, beginning in 2028, the schedule will feature a Championship Series with the biggest names playing for purses over $20 million. There will be the Championship Challenger Series with $4 million purses.

In many ways, it will be a hybrid of the existing schedule that features the four majors and eight signature events with limited fields and $20 million purses. Some of the events have a 36-hole cut, the others don’t, so regardless of where a player finishes, he will earn a cheque.

The Championship Challenger Series is like the alternate-event tournaments that take place the same week as the majors. They have little marketing little appeal but give the players not in the majors a chance to make money.

I don’t know if there will be Championship Challenger Series events the same week as the Championship Series, so it will be interesting to see how that is worked out.

So let’s look at this schedule change from a different perspective. The Championship Series will include the stars the people want to see.

The Championship Challenger Series will include the lesser-level players.

So from a marketing perspective, this is all about the marketing of the marquee players.

Isn’t that really the case now?

Week in and week out we are seeing the same stars, the likes of Rory McIlroy (TaylorMade TP5), Scottie Scheffler(Titleist Pro V1), Xander Schauffele (Callaway Chrome Tour), Cameron Young (Titleist Pro V1x), Collin Morikawa (TaylorMade TP5), Matt Fitzpatrick (Titleist Pro V1x) and Tommy Fleetwood (TaylorMade TP5x Pix), to name a few.

If one of them is not in one tournament, you can be sure several of the others will be.

I’m assuming the top-end players will all play in the Championship Series. If so, that will become a bit routine. Isn’t it already?

What’s great about the current schedule is it allows for the someone who is not on everyone’s radar to win a tournament and shock the world.

And isn’t that what’s great about sports in general, some form of David beating Goliath?

Do we really want to see the same same-old on a routine basis?

And we don’t know which specific events will be in the Championship Series and which will be in the Championship Challenger Series.

The Championship will not include sponsor invites or qualifiers.

The list will be what it is, and only injuries or some personal commitment will change that.

The Championship Challenger Series will not have the same cache. A star player who annually participates in a certain event now because he believes in its historical value or some other reason will no longer have that option. Think about it, if a player can play in a tournament with a purse of $20 million, why would he play in one worth only $4 million because he’s done well in it is the past or just likes the way it is run.

And that’s assuming the option will even be there.

If the Championship Series is for the elite stars, it wouldn’t make sense for them to play in what is the equivalent of the minor league event.

And from a fan perspective, what is the appeal of seeing a tournament that lacks star appeal?

I’d prefer a blend.

Basically, the PGA has deemed a tournament in the Championship Challenger Series not that important from a marketing point of view.

I get that this will be performance-based, and similar to soccer there will be a chance for players to move up to the Championship Series and similarly some will be demoted to the Championship Challenger Series.

The players wanted a greater say in the tour and a slice of the pie, this is the end result. This is also a product of the fallout from the LIV Tour in which players who supported the PGA Tour could not cash in like the ones who bolted to LIV and had immediate opportunities to make money, even if they played poorly.

Yes, it was all a personal choice, but as Dustin Johnson (TaylorMade TP5x) once famously said if someone offered you significant more money do the same job and not have to spend as much time doing it, why wouldn’t you take advantage of that? The ones who did it must have realized the opportunity wouldn’t be there, so grab the golden goose while it’s still breathing.

By 2028, the LIV players will be back on the PGA Tour anyway when LIV is long since gone. So there will be an even greater pool of players by then.

We all knew when Brian Rolapp took over as the CEO of the PGA Tour, he would bring new ideas to the table to make more money for everybody. He was not hired to do the same job that Jay Monahan did – and at times very poorly from the players’ perspective. Rolapp and his sales team will now need to bring in fresh money from advertisers with the promise the investment will be worth it.

I wonder if the players will become walking billboards, even more than they are now, and televised events will include an overabundance of sponsorship shots and interviews with the tournament sponsors. Does anyone at home watching on TV want to see Jim Nance talking to someone from the sponsor of the tournament?

I do like the idea to change the Tour Championship in 2028 and make it match play instead of stroke play. The current system of giving the top FedExCup point leaders an instant advantage in strokes to begin the tournament has not worked. At least match play will give the top players a chance to start against the bottom-end players. That does not guarantee the top-end players will win because anything can happen, but that’s okay.

Another thing, with betting becoming so prevalent in sports, I can see the Tour Championship resembling the NCAA basketball Tournament with its popular brackets. If that is the case, I can’t see it becoming popular to people who don’t follow golf unless there is a significant prize offered by the sponsor. Imagine someone who doesn’t follow golf and takes a flyer on a long shot player and wins? If there are multiple winners, the prize will be split. But that’s just my idea. You can be sure betting companies will be attracted to the overall seasonal schedule and the Tour Championship in particular.