6/23/26
The PGA Tour announced today radical changes to the Tour starting in 2028. There are two “Series”, that previously were reported as “Track 1” and “Track 2”. The Championship Series is “Track 1” and according to the PGA Tour’s press release, “will feature 23 to 24 events, with the regular season running from approximately February to August. That group will include 15 regular season events in addition to the THE PLAYERS Championship, four majors, the TOUR Championship as part of a reimagined postseason and an annual international team event (Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup). In 2028, when the PGA TOUR Championship Series debuts, it will also include the Men’s Olympic Golf Competition.” The PGA Tour Championship Series will feature 120 players per event, with 130 players eligible to participate. There will be no alternates or sponsor exemptions with a 36-hole cut for the top 65 players and ties.
As part of the Championship Series, the PGA Tour has already locked down the majority of the 2028 schedule. Also from the release, “The PGA TOUR has already lined up an initial set of 10 of its expected 15 PGA TOUR Championship Series regular season events for 2028. The remaining events will either be filled by existing events or new markets under consideration, such as Boston, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.”
As previously reported, the PGA Tour has looked into Sahalee Country Club as a hosting option. The Tour has also pondered the possibility of events being named after the area they are held in, such as the Seattle Open. The PGA Tour hasn’t released information about when the event in Seattle will take place, but with it finally in writing from the Tour, this is a gigantic step forward for the PNW. It would be highly unlikely and smart if the PGA Tour were to specifically name Seattle as a market of interest and not go there, but the PGA of America did just that in the mid-2000’s, implausibly marooning Sahalee of the 2010 PGA Championship.
As for the Challenger Series, which was previously reported as “Track 2”, there was no mention of what current PGA Tour events will make up the 20-tournament schedule or where new tournaments will be held, if there are any in the regular season. There will be a “Last Chance Series” which will be the final opportunity for players to play up into the Championship Series, but the location of those events hasn’t been released to the public.
20 players will get promoted from the Challenger Series to the Championship Series, with the top 90 players from the Championship Series remaining on that echelon of the Tour. There will be a season-long points race for both Series, with a match-play format to determine the Championship Series champion starting in 2028. That event will move around “among a series of prestigious venues, some of which have never hosted a TOUR event.” According to the Tour, the full schedule for 2028 will be released in the first quarter of next year.
The drought appears to be over for the Pacific Northwest as men’s professional golf appears to be coming back to the region. There’s no timeline on how long the Seattle tournament will last, but something is better than nothing.
Click here for the full press release from the PGA Tour.
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