ATLANTA — PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp rolled out the new postseason format the Tour will adopt in 2028 among other updates at his State of the Tour press conference on Tuesday at the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club.
The PGA Tour's Championship Series Finale will serve as the final 72-hole stroke play event of the year, featuring the top 90 in the season-long standings. From there, the top 32 in the standings will advance to a two-week match play competition at rotating, prestigious venues.
The first week will include World Cup-style group play, with the 32 qualifiers broken into eight groups of fours. The top two will advance to the final week, with ties decided in a sudden-death playoff. The finale will be at a separate venue. Week two is
four rounds of match play. All 16 players competing all four rounds. Every match impacts the final standings. The player who goes undefeated will be crowned the winner of the Tour Championship.
"Throughout this process, we listened carefully to our fans, players and partners," Rolapp said. "One message came through clearly: the culmination of our season should be worthy of the journey it takes to get there. The result is a season-ending structure that rewards excellence over the course of the year while building toward a reimagined Tour Championship. We are creating something different, something distinct within professional golf that can resonate far beyond it."
This marks the first time match play will be featured in the Tour’s postseason, and first time the format has been contested on Tour since the 2023 WGC-Match Play.
"The conclusion of the season should be worthy of the journey it takes to get there,” wrote Tiger Woods, the chairman of the Future Competitions Committee, in a social media post on X. “Today’s announcement is a result of the hard work and passion of our players. Excited to usher in a new era of match play on the PGA Tour."
Rolapp spent much of the rest of his update detailing developments of his two-tiered mode. The Championship Series will feature the top performers competing head-to-head across the season in 72-hole stroke-play events with a cut, with players measured through a straightforward, season points system.
The Tour has announced seven of the 15 regular season events on the 2028 Championship Series. An additional four have been identified and are expected to be announced in the coming weeks. Rolapp said discussions with 14 prospective partners for the remaining four regular season events are ongoing.
“It's a high-class problem. We're glad we have it,” he said.
Rolapp said the decision will not simply be determined by the highest bidder.
“It's not just financial, although that's a factor, of course,” he said. “It's the quality of the golf course. It's the quality of the sponsor, what they can do for not only the tournament but the PGA Tour and how they continue to promote the sport and the Tour.”
He said final decisions will be made “soon,” and noted the full Championship Series schedule would be announced Feb. 22 at a new televised event hosted at its headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
The Tour will turn its attention to the Challenger Series, the second tier of events, and Rolapp said, “we've had unsolicited inbound interest,” and “not only from existing sponsors but also new sponsors who have not been associated with the Tour." He expects to announce “a significant portion of the schedule by next year's Players Championship in March, with the full schedule finalized by the 2027 Tour Championship.
When Rolapp was asked about the possibility of LIV Golf players returning to the PGA Tour, he was quick to shoot that down.
“Currently there's no current plans for Returning Member Program like you saw earlier this year,” he said. But Rolapp did leave a window cracked by saying that the starting point for any discussion of a return will depend on a player leaving LIV and no longer being contractually bound like Brooks Koepka, who came back this season.
“Anyone who's interested in coming to the PGA Tour needs to demonstrate that they are relieved of their contractual commitments or any tail obligations they might have in that legacy model,” Rolapp said.
The Tour has two upcoming board meetings – scheduled for Sept. 14 and Nov. 16 – when some of the finer points related to the changes for the 2028 season and beyond are expected to be ironed out and approved.
Eligibility for the 2028 Championship Series will be announced following the Sept. 14 Board Meeting. Rolapp said, “There is still work ahead this fall, particularly in areas such as eligibility in our pathway system.”
Rolapp also highlighted Monday’s announcement of a $13 million gift from former Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem and wife Holly to PGA Tour Charities, and that as part of Brooks Koepka $5 million toward charitable causes related to his return to the Tour, $2.5 million of that commitment will be directed to charitable beneficiaries selected by 99 eligible Tour members. Separately, the Tour announced a new relationship with NBA star LeBron James to launch the LeBron James Family Foundation Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio.
As the season wraps up in Atlanta, Rolapp said this year was the most-watched regular season since 2018, with ratings up 19 percent year over year, and 40 percent higher than 2024. On-site attendance at Tour events was up 8 percent versus last year, marking its highest attendance in recent history, with at least seven events, including the Players Championship, hosting record attendance.
Adam Schupak is a senior writer for Golfweek, covering the PGA Tour.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: New Tour Championship format highlights Brian Rolapp’s vision for PGA Tour future
