The PGA Tour Champions schedule is set for 2027. What it looks like beyond that could be considerably more interesting.
The 50-and-over circuit announced Tuesday a 27-event schedule for next season, beginning with back-to-back tournaments in Hawaii and ending with the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at a new home in Phoenix. The 24-event regular season will take players to 18 states and three other countries, with more than $70 million in total prize money.
The most notable change comes right out of the gate.
The Sony Championship Hawaii will make its PGA Tour Champions debut Jan. 10-16 at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, taking the place of the longtime PGA Tour event
that was dropped from that circuit’s schedule following the 2026 season. It will be followed by the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai in Ka’upulehu-Kona from Jan. 17-23. Both events will feature Saturday finishes. Sony’s move to PGA Tour Champions might also be a preview of what is coming.
While the PGA Tour takes its time finalizing the remaining Championship Series events that will begin in 2028, one potential beneficiary of the new two-tiered schedule could be PGA Tour Champions.
“We might pick up some tournaments that don’t stay,” senior tour veteran Scott McCarron told Golfweek. “Pick up some tour-caliber venues that make us stronger.”
The Sony Championship Hawaii already provides the most obvious example. The longtime PGA Tour stop was dropped from the schedule after 2026 and now becomes the Champions circuit’s season opener.
2027 Senior Major Championships
David Toms, a member of the PGA Tour Champions Player Advisory Council, believes there could be a business case for other displaced tournaments to follow.
“If they don’t want to be a secondary tour event and they want to entertain, we play our pro-ams even in the rain,” Toms said earlier this month as showers fell in Palm Coast, Florida, on the eve of Furyk & Friends.
“A tournament like New Orleans, the Zurich Classic: Does it want to put up $30 million to be a premier event? Does it want to pay half of that and have a secondary event where no one knows who’s playing? Or does it want to be a Champions Tour event for $6 million and have a good time with its customers in New Orleans and play with people you’ve heard of, like Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington and Zach Johnson?”
That question looms larger as the PGA Tour moves toward its dramatically different competitive model in 2028.
So far, the Tour has primarily announced the winners of the Championship Series selection process. The Hawaii Swing events and the Rocket Classic in Detroit are among the notable casualties, while FedEx removed itself from consideration as a playoff title sponsor in Memphis. More disappointment appears inevitable.
The Tour is also building out its Challenger Series, creating another option for tournaments that do not make the Championship Series.
After the two-week Hawaii swing, the Chubb Classic will celebrate its 40th anniversary in Naples, Florida. March brings the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational in Boca Raton, the Cologuard Classic in Tucson and the debut of the Hoag Senior Players Championship Newport Beach as one of the circuit’s five majors.
The Senior PGA Championship returns to The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida, in April, followed in May by the Regions Tradition at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama.
The U.S. Senior Open heads to Oak Tree National in Edmond, Oklahoma, June 28-July 4. The ISPS HANDA Senior Open returns to Royal Porthcawl in Wales in July, beginning a two-week European stretch that concludes with the Portugal Invitational hosted by Ernie Els at The Els Club Vilamoura.
The postseason again will feature three events. The Stifel Charity Classic in St. Louis opens the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs Oct. 18-24, followed by the Simmons Bank Championship in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The biggest change comes at the finale. The Charles Schwab Cup Championship, scheduled for Nov. 8-14, moves from Phoenix Country Club to Papago Golf Club.
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has said the Tour plans to unveil its complete 2028 schedule Feb. 27 during a live broadcast from its headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
Full 2026 PGA Tour Champions schedule
Adam Schupak contributed reporting to this story.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: PGA Tour Champions announces 2027 schedule as Sony Hawaii move hints at bigger changes
