I’ve Never Been Less Engaged With The PGA Tour... 2028 Can’t Come Soon Enough

Something curious happened to me on Sunday. I was sitting at home with my other half after that day’s Premier League games had finished and pondering my next move. Normally around 6pm on a Sunday, I’m powering up my tablet to stream the golf or NFL, reluctantly aware that I can’t dominate the television all day.

However, on this occasion, taking out my iPad didn’t even cross my mind. With the NFL still in pre-season, golf was the only sporting escape from the monotony of reality television, but it took me until 8pm to realise the final round of the Tour Championship was happening.

While rare, this isn’t completely unheard of – sometimes you’re away with the fairies, on a different train of thought or simply engaged in whatever else you happen to be doing. What was unusual, however, was the fact I didn’t have any desire to stream the action once I’d looked at the scores, despite several players being within three shots of the lead.

This was the PGA Tour’s season-ending tournament and I was prepared to give all my attention to the Real Housewives of Beverley Hills, Selling Sunsets or whatever inane program I was obliged to endure as collateral for my earlier football watching. But why?

It’s a simple question without a simple answer, but the bottom line is I’m as apathetic towards non-Major and Ryder Cup golf as I’ve ever been. That’s a surprising reality for someone who’s historically been an avid watcher of the PGA Tour and works for a golf media brand. Here, I’m going to attempt to work out why that is.

You could certainly argue I’ve been overexposed to golf given what I do for a living, but I’d counter that by saying the fact I work where I work shows just how much I love the game.

I’m also not someone who loses interest in things I’m passionate about. I’ve been a staunch follower of Aston Villa, NFL and cricket for most of my life and I’m as engaged with those entities as I’ve ever been.

So, that points to the landscape, the players and the product, and that’s where I think the issues lie. Cultural factors – both within golf and wider society – have also played a role, too.

Let’s deal with the Tour Championship and the FedExCup play-offs first. I don’t want to be critical of a man who’s an absolute phenomenon and, in my eyes at least, enjoying a stretch of golf to rival peak Tiger Woods, but Scottie Scheffler does not set my pulse racing one bit.

Is he a nice man? I’ve never met him, but he seems to be. Golf Monthly columnist Wayne Riley speaks glowingly about him and he’s always come across well in interviews and interactions I’ve seen. Is he a great of the game? Absolutely and unequivocally. Does that mean I want to watch him? Not always. In fact, I’d probably revise that to ‘not often’.

That’s not his fault, of course, and I suspect he couldn’t care less. In his eyes, his job is doing everything he can to put himself in the best possible position to win.

There’s also a wider point here about the role of professional sportsmen in an entertainment industry, which is a nuanced discussion. How do we even define entertainment - is it solely based on on-course skill or is there more to the story?

Clearly, it’s impossible to force someone to show personality – either on or off the course – or wear their heart on their sleeve. But variety is the spice of life, and from my vantage point, the PGA Tour is underseasoned.

It certainly doesn’t help that collegiate programs have become so professionally run, and that players are media trained to within an inch of their lives. When I first started in the industry and was given time to interview players, I could take things in whatever direction I wanted and discussions were often more open, honest, free-flowing and tangential.

Now, it’s harder than ever to get time with players – social media is the main culprit there – and questions often have to be submitted in advance. It’s become overmanaged and inorganic, as things tend to when people see the potential to make money off something.

It doesn’t help players that mobile phones are constantly thrust into their faces and everything they do is being recorded – something Scheffler has spoken about.

In the cancellation-culture era and an age where negativity can spread across social media like wildfire, it’s no surprise most professionals don’t do anything out of the ordinary or stick their head above the parapet.

And those who do, like Rory McIlroy, often face plenty of scorn for speaking their mind. It’s not an environment conducive to producing the next Seve Ballesteros.

Similar and familiar

Overexposure is a factor, too. Open any social media platform and you’ll see endless clips of the top players playing, practising, speaking and even just walking, a great number being recorded by fans at golf tournaments who would seemingly rather record the action than be a genuine part of it.

Watching a shot being played on TV with hundreds of people behind on their phones is genuinely off-putting to me.

I wish the PGA Tour would follow Augusta National’s example and ban mobile phones, but I don’t see tournament organisers signing up to something that would reduce reach on social media – sadly the name of the game these days.

This distasteful phenomenon was again apparent at East Lake, a golf course I struggle to get excited about. It’s clearly a good layout, but I’ve seen it all before.

It’s also succumbed to the modern trend of making some two-shotters 540 yards because of an obsession with having a par of 70. I know it’s arbitrary as it’s the total score that matters, but I still don’t like it; it feeds into the perception that courses are becoming too similar.

Part of the problem – and we saw it with the other play-off tournaments – is courses need be of a certain type to stage top-tier professional events. More specifically, they need to have enough space, so all too often we’re presented with layouts that boast similar characteristics.

This season, I even found myself struggling to get excited about places like Bay Hill, Riviera and Torrey Pines. At this point, you’d be forgiven for calling me a miserable curmudgeon, but I can't shake the feeling the PGA Tour has become a bit stale.

In 2026, events were played at the following familiar venues: Wailae Country Club, Pete Dye’s Stadium course at La Quinta, Torrey Pines, TPC Scottsdale, Riviera, PGA National, Bay Hill, TPC Sawgrass, Innisbrook, TPC San Antonio, Augusta National, Harbour Town, TPC Louisiana, Doral, Quail Hollow, Colonial, Muirfield Village… you get the idea.

Last month, I was transfixed by the Danish Golf Championship, which had a field far weaker than any PGA Tour event in 2026. But the course was exciting, novel and captivating, and it really drilled home the relationship between originality and interest. Many of the PGA Tour’s host venues have been the same for decades.

I’m not sure if the PGA Tour sees this familiarity as a good thing, if it’s commercially driven or if it’s a case of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, but some things are broken and do need fixing.

Change... but not for the better

There has been a lot of change since the introduction of LIV Golf, but, in my opinion, none of it has improved the experience for the golf fan. The PGA Tour’s reaction to the Saudi-backed circuit’s emergence revolved almost entirely around keeping its players happy. Somewhere along the way, they forgot to put the devoted viewer first.

They convinced themselves Designated and then Signature Events were a step forward for the tour and its followers, but I’m yet to find a single person who thinks their inauguration was a good thing.

In reality, the introduction of these enhanced tournaments only further lined the pockets of those who felt they should be rewarded for eschewing the advances of a nation state repeatedly accused of sportswashing.

Around the same time, in among the squabbling, bickering and lawsuits, players, administrators and broadcasters decided fans wanted to hear relentlessly about prize funds and professional wealth in a cost of living crisis.

Almost overnight, it was collectively decided money would become the new barometer for deciding if a tournament was prestigious. History, tradition and legacy started playing second fiddle and receiving less airtime than funding, the Player Impact Programme and the Aon Risk Reward Challenge.

Money is certainly linked to perceived excitement, too. Only Scheffler and Cameron Young – two of the biggest culprits in the 'unenthused celebrations' realm – know how they feel when they win a golf tournament, but it’s hard for me to get pumped up about their victories when they barely show any emotion themselves.

In Scheffler’s case, maybe it had something to do with the fact he’d already banked $33m in bonus money ahead of the Tour Championship – $10m for leading the regular season rankings and $23m for occupying top spot in the PGA Tour rankings after the BMW Championship. That’s in addition to his on-course earnings.

So, before East Lake, he’d already made more than $50 million dollars. Then, he earned an extra $10m for his victory. Previously, that was life-changing money. Now, it’s just a drop in the ocean. No wonder he doesn’t get particularly animated.

The PGA Tour really misses Bryson DeChambeau for many reasons, but I’d argue his maverick personality and heart-on-his-sleeve nature are top of the list. It’s a stark contrast to the current status quo on America’s biggest circuit.

His golfing prowess is clearly hard to replace, too. There’s no denying LIV Golf has taken away some quality players from the PGA Tour and weakened the latter in the process. Bryson, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Joaquin Niemann, Tyrrell Hatton, Cameron Smith and others are all world-class golfers with interesting and unique personalities.

The schedule makers also decided that having a ‘massive’ event seemingly every week between February and August was sensible. Every year, the NFL is a constant reminder that scarcity is a good thing.

Ironically, American Football is to blame for the schedule being far too congested. But the PGA Tour couldn’t possibly space things out a bit more and risk clashing with the NFL, could it? Well, it could, but its choices have been all about money for some time now.

Reasons for positivity

That said, I do think there’s hope for the future. I’ve been impressed with Brian Rolapp since he became the PGA Tour’s CEO – he seems prepared to mix things up, take risks, improve the fan experience and do what’s necessary to get the circuit back on track. I think he’s the shot in the arm the PGA Tour badly needed.

As an example, he’s been a key driver in the decision to end the season with a two-week match-play event from 2028, even though it’s no secret TV networks much prefer stroke play. He’s also talked about taking the tour to some iconic courses that might previously have been seen as unsuitable given modern requirements.

He’s also helped institute a two-tiered system from 2028 onwards – the Championship and Challenge Series – with sponsors’ invites removed for the former.

Seeing the likes of Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth repeatedly earn entry in the Signature Events off the strength of their past achievements helped make them feel more like exhibitions than merit-based competition.

Pleasingly, the Championship Series will feature 120-man fields and cuts. Another element of some Signature Events that had many fans shaking their heads was the guaranteed payday for everyone in the field – ironically making the PGA Tour more similar to the entity it was supposedly at odds with.

In 2026, there were 37 events on the PGA Tour up to the Tour Championship, including the four Majors and the Players Championship. From 2028, there will be 20. That’s a much more sensible change.

And those who enjoy wall-to-wall golf will be able to watch up-and-coming players, seasoned veterans and everyone in between on the Challenger Series, which will feature a minimum of 20 events. We don’t all want to see the same faces doing battle every week.

We’ll probably see the re-integration of some LIV players, too, although the mechanisms for return are unclear at this point. I suspect Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau will be offered similar terms to Brooks Koepka, and I’m fully expecting other ex-LIV players to compete in either PGA Tour or DP World Tour Q-School.

I’m hoping the above will rekindle my excitement for the PGA Tour, because it’s currently at an all-time low. Pleasingly, it looks like Rolapp is the right man for the job. But history is instructive, and he mustn’t allow the circuit to fall into the same traps. If he does, I’ll be retiring my iPad for good.