CROMWELL, Conn. -- The PGA Tour has approved recommendations from the Future Competition Committee that will dramatically reshape the tour's competitive structure starting in 2028, the tour announced Tuesday.
The Future Competition Committee's recommended changes were approved by the PGA Tour Policy Board and PGA Tour Enterprises Board during meetings in West Hartford, Connecticut, on Monday.
Among other changes, the tour's new model will include two separate series of tournaments -- the PGA Tour Championship Series and PGA Tour Challenger Series -- that will run concurrently during the season. The Challenger Series will be the primary pathway to the Championship Series with golfers competing to advance to the top track, including in-season elevation with two victories.
The PGA Tour hopes the dramatic changes will bring "competitive clarity and heightened consequence" and "deliver a stronger, more compelling experience for fans, players and partners."
"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," PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said in a statement. "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."
Rolapp is scheduled to announce the changes during a news conference Tuesday at TPC River Highlands, the site of this week's Travelers Championship. He briefed players on the details prior to talking to the media.
"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," Tiger Woods, chairman of the Future Competition Committee, said in a statement. "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."
The Championship Series will feature up to 24 events, including 16 signature events, The Players Championship, four major championships, season-ending events and the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup. Each of the 16 signature events will be 72-hole stroke-play tournaments with average field sizes of 120 golfers with 36-hole cuts to the top 65 and ties. Each will have a purse of at least $20 million. The season will run from around February through August.
At least the top 90 players in the points list from the Championship Series will retain their membership the following season. Another 20 will be promoted from the Challenger Series each year. Additional categories such as tournament winners, medical extensions and career milestones are yet to be finalized. There will be no sponsor exemptions.
The tour's revamped structure will utilize a "single, consistent points structure" designed to "reward winning, emphasize top finishes and reinforce the importance of making the cut, creating clear and more compelling storylines on an event-by-event and season-long basis," the release said.
The current FedEx Cup points system doles out 700 points for signature events, 500 points for non-signature events, 300 points for opposite-field tournaments, and 750 points for the majors, The Players Championship and FedEx Cup playoffs.
Major championships will still have elevated points in future seasons.
In its release, the PGA Tour said it has already identified 10 of its 15 Championship Series regular-season tournaments for the 2028 season. The current eight signature events -- AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, RBC Heritage, Cadillac Championship, Truist Championship, Memorial Tournament and Travelers Championship -- are expected to remain part of the future schedule.
The tour is targeting larger markets such as Boston, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C., to fill out the remaining five spots in the calendar. The tour is beginning to finalize the markets, courses, dates and sponsors for the remaining tournaments.
The restructuring also will include a new season-ending model that "includes retention and relegation for the following season, recognition for the season-long points leader and the introduction of match play into the postseason."
The Tour Championship will continue to be played at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta this year and in 2027 before being rotated to "prestigious courses," including many that the tour will play for the first time -- Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey, Cypress Point Club in California and Seminole Golf Club in Florida.
The future fall schedule will include a limited series of elevated international events with top players from Championship Series and will be co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour.
As expected, players will only be allowed to compete in either the Championship Series or Challenger Series but not both. They will not be required to compete in every Championship Series tournament. However, the Players Championship will continue to have its own qualification criteria and might include golfers from both series.
The Challenger Series will consist of a minimum of 20 tournaments, and the tour hopes it will include "emerging talent alongside players fighting their way back to the top." About seven elevated Challenger Series events will be played during off-weeks in the Championship Series season with increased points and consequences.
The Challenger Series will have 72-hole stroke-play events with 36-hole cuts to the top 65 and ties and purses of at least $4 million. The 144-man fields will include amateurs and might be reduced in number due to factors such as daylight hours.
Two-time winners in the Challenger Series will earn immediate promotion to the Championship Series.
The policy board is still finalizing membership eligibility and exemptions for the Challenger Series, including access for DP World Tour and PGA Tour University golfers, according to the release. Those categories will be finalized before the start of the 2027 season.
Golfers who fail to retain their eligibility in the Championship Series and face potential relegation will be able to compete in a "last chance" series after the regular season ends. The series will include four to six events in the U.S. in the fall. The fields will include a limited number of spots for top finishers in the Championship Series, as well as players facing relegation, Challenger Series players and other categories that are yet to be finalized.
Any golfer who fails to regain his Championship Series status and doesn't advance through the "last chance" events will be eligible to compete in the Challenger Series the next season.
The tour said it would continue to operate a Q School to provide developmental pathways into its ecosystem.
"While specifics of the PGA Tour developmental pathways were not voted on, the Boards acknowledged organized developmental pathways -- comprised of Korn Ferry Tour, PGA Tour Americas and PGA Tour University in the current model -- remain critical to identifying and preparing the next generation of players [for] ensuring the Tour's long-term success and sustainability," the tour said in its release.
In addition to Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Maverick McNealy, Keith Mitchell, Adam Scott and Camilo Villegas served on the Future Competition Committee, as did strategic business advisors Joe Gorder, John Henry and Theo Epstein.
"The Future Competition Committee conducted a thorough and highly collaborative process, with meaningful engagement from players, leadership and partners," Gorder, chairman of the PGA Tour Boards, said in a statement. "Brian and his team led this work with clarity and discipline, ensuring the outcome reflected a player-driven approach that addressed the evolving sports landscape. The Boards are confident this model is the right path forward for the PGA Tour and solidifies the foundation of the organization moving ahead."