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The PGA Tour’s postseason is set for a sizeable shake-up in 2028 that will feature one tournament played over two weeks.
A two-week Tour Championship featuring a unique matchplay format, similar to a soccer World Cup, will play out at a rotation of celebrated courses. The sweeping changes will affect both the conclusion of the regular season and the finals series in 2028 and were unveiled by the PGA Tour overnight (Australian time) when chief executive Brian Rolapp met with the press at East Lake Golf Club, site of this week’s Tour Championship.
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The 2028 season will be the first year of the tour’s two-track system – Championship and Challenger series – the framework of which was announced in June. A reimagined conclusion to the 2028 regular season will begin with the newly named PGA Tour Championship Series Finale. The Finale will be the last 72-hole strokeplay event of the season and will comprise the top 90 earners on the season-long points list who retain their cards and championship series status for the next season.
The event also will determine the final season-long points list and thus the season-long winner, while it also will create the field for the new-look Tour Championship.
From the Finale, the top 32 players on season-long points will progress to the Tour Championship. PGA Tour sources have indicated smaller fields allows for a rotation of venues for the two weeks that will include historic courses. It is understood that rota may still include East Lake, which has hosted the Tour Championship 25 times, including every year since 2004. The host sites also will feature iconic golf clubs the PGA Tour has never been to.
The Tour Championship will be underpinned by the first use of matchplay in PGA Tour finals history. Matchplay also would be a return to the tour as a format generally given it has not been used individually on the PGA Tour since the scrapping of the WGC–Dell Match Play Championship in Austin, Texas, in 2023.
The Tour Championship will be held over two weeks at two different venues, beginning with a World Cup-style group stage for the first week, before a four-round matchplay bracket to decide the Tour champion.
In Week 1, the group stage will be made up of a three-round tournament with 32 players in eight groups of four. After each golfer plays matches against the other three in his group, the top two from each group will advance to the second week. Adding to the drama will be the fact playoffs will be used to eliminate players in the event of a tie in a group.
The 16 players who advance from Week 1 will then compete in a placement bracket-style event during Week 2 where every golfer competes in all four rounds.
TV networks always had been wary of knockout matchplay with a fear star players would be eliminated early. In this format, golfers will progress through the bracket based on their win-loss record before two undefeated players contest the championship match. Player records across all four rounds will determine the final championship standings.
The 2028 changes to the PGA Tour Championship Series Finale and the Tour Championship came from recommendations approved by the PGA Tour Board in June.
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Rolapp has frequently spoken of the desire to create more consequence to the postseason. More updates are expected to follow as details around the postseason are finalised.
“From the beginning, the goal of the Future Competition Committee was to create an easier-to-follow competitive model for our fans with greater consequence and a stronger season-long narrative,” Rolapp said overnight.
“Throughout this process, we listened carefully to our fans, players and partners. 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.”
Meanwhile, the PGA Tour will unveil the full line-up of dates and venues for the 2028 Championship Series, including sites for the 2028 Tour Championship, on February 22, 2027, as part of a live broadcast at PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
Eligibility for the 2028 PGA Tour Championship Series will be announced after the September 14 board meeting.
