New Two-Tier PGA Tour To Feature Match Play Playoffs Plus Removal Of No-Cut Events And Sponsor Exemptions

The PGA Tour has today unveiled plans for its future two-tier structure, which includes promotion and relegation, a match-play format for the Playoffs, the end of Signature Events in their current guise and the removal of sponsor's exemptions in the biggest tournaments.

Previously referred to as Track One and Track Two when Brian Rolapp initially proposed his plans at The Players Championship in March, the official names will be the PGA Tour Championship Series and the PGA Tour Challenger Series.

The new structure is set to come in for the 2028 season.

These plans were 'approved' by the PGA Tour Boards on Monday, the circuit confirmed, and created by the Tiger Woods-chaired Future Competition Committee.

The FCC had three strategic priorities:

• Increasing the consistency and quality of fields across the season
• Creating a clear system for players to earn and retain status
• Delivering a more structured and competitive experience for fans and partners

PGA Tour Championship Series

The top-tier Championship Series will consist of 23-24 tournaments, including the flagship Players Championship, the four Majors, the Playoffs and either the Ryder or Presidents Cup, with the season running from February to August.

All 'Championship Series' tournaments will feature 36-hole cuts with fields of 120 players and purses at a minimum of $20m. There will be no sponsor's exemptions or alternates list.

Membership for the top tier will be a minimum of 90 players retained from the previous year and 20 players promoted from the Challenger Series.

The Championship Series already has ten of its 15 regular events agreed for 2028, the PGA Tour said, with the remaining events to be "filled by existing events or new markets under consideration such as Boston, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C."

The 'new-look Tour Championship' will be hosted at a "rotation of prestigious courses, many of which the PGA Tour would play for the first time."

This means current host East Lake in Atlanta, Georgia will no longer be the exclusive home of the FedEx Cup season-ender. A match play format has been approved by the Boards.

PGA Tour Challenger Series

The second-tier Challenger Series, which Rory McIlroy described as a "glorified Korn Ferry Tour" at last week's US Open, will run concurrently to the Championship Series and feature a minimum of 20 events.

The Tour says it will be "highly competitive and lucrative" and visit courses that traditionally host on the PGA Tour.

There will be approximately seven weeks where the Challenger Series is the only event run by the PGA Tour, and those tournaments will be "elevated with increased consequence, benefits and exposure."

The Challenger Series will feature purses of at least $4m and fields of 144 players.

20 players will be promoted from the Challenger Series up to the main Championship Series each year, while two wins will also see players automatically promoted.

Routes to the second-tier Challenger Series have not been confirmed yet. Those routes will include the DP World Tour, Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA Tour University.

There will also still be a fall schedule, which will feature "a limited series of elevated international events," while there will also be a "last chance" domestic series of 4-6 tournaments where the top finishers can qualify for the top-tier Championship Series.

The tour will continue to run a Q-school, where Challenger Series spots will be on the line as well as cards for its developmental tours, i.e the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Americas.

“From day one, the focus of the Future Competition Committee has been to build the best version of the PGA Tour, and to do so in a way that reflects the voice of our players and the expectations of our fans,” said PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp.

“The result is a new competitive model grounded in meritocracy, with clearer pathways, higher stakes and more consistency when the best players compete together.

"This model positions the PGA Tour for the future, and our focus now shifts to finalizing the details and preparing for implementation in 2028.”

Additional details will be evaluated and presented to the Boards later this year for approval, the PGA Tour said.

Future Competitions Committee personnel

• Player Representative: Tiger Woods (Chairman)
• Player Representative: Patrick Cantlay
• Player Representative: Maverick McNealy
• Player Representative: Keith Mitchell
• Player Representative: Adam Scott
• Player Representative: Camilo Villegas
• Strategic Business Advisor: Joe Gorder
• Strategic Business Advisor: John Henry
• Strategic Business Advisor: Theo Epstein

“This work was bigger than any one player or person—it was about designing the strongest possible version of the PGA Tour for the future generations of fans and players,” said Tiger Woods, Chairman of the Future Competition Committee.

“From the beginning, the Committee’s focus was on delivering a better experience for our fans, while creating a model that best sets up the TOUR, its players and its partners for long-term success and stability."