PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp unveils sweeping changes to pro golf

Golf fans are finally getting details on a new chapter for the PGA Tour that’s designed to elevate competition and raise payouts for winners.

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp unveiled the new competitive model for professional golf’s premier circuit ahead of the Travelers Championship taking place this week outside of Hartford, Connecticut.

Rolapp has prioritized modernizing the Tour since he was appointed as CEO in June 2025 following a 22-year career at the NFL. The Tour’s boards also approved Rolapp to succeed Jay Monahan as commissioner following Monahan’s retirement at the end of the year, the Tour said Tuesday. Rolapp will retain his role as CEO.

“We had a productive meeting yesterday where our boards approved the Future Competition Committee’s recommendation to establish a new competitive model for the PGA Tour that will begin with the 2028 season,” Rolapp announced Tuesday.

Instead of one main tour schedule of events, the new format will feature two distinct series of tournaments: one, a premier track called the PGA Tour Championship Series and a second that offers a pathway toward those elevated events called the PGA Tour Challenger Series. 

The new format will be familiar to fans of other sports like soccer, where some leagues feature differentiated divisions that promote and retain the best performing teams, while relegating those who don’t perform as well to lower circuits.

In the press release, Rolapp called it a “new competitive model grounded in meritocracy, with clearer pathways, higher stakes and more consistency when the best players compete together.” He added that the focus will now shift to finalizing details and preparing to implement the system for the 2028 season.

Wyndham Clark, just off Sunday’s US Open win, applauded the changes Tuesday, telling CNBC in an interview that the Tour is in “an amazing spot.”

“I think this two-track system is going to bring meritocracy and it’s going to make it easier to follow the PGA Tour, and then match play should be a lot of fun to watch,” he said. “I think the Tour has made an amazing push to get better and improve their product.”

The proposed two-track system will create a schedule that has roughly 23 to 24 events for the season, including The Players Championship, golf’s major championships — The Masters Tournament, PGA Championship, US Open and The Open Championship — season-ending tournaments and any international team events that are contested each year, like the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup.

The season will run from around February through August of each year and will generally consist of tournaments with four 18-hole rounds where roughly half the field will advance to play the full event after a 36-hole cut.

The Tour will also bring back playoff…