As if there hasn't been enough upheaval in professional golf, news emerged last week about the possibility of a future 20-something tournament schedule for the PGA Tour—a model that could cut the current number of events the tour holds roughly in half. You have questions, we have ... well, we have a lot of questions, too, but also some answers. We do our best to explain what exactly is going on.
Hold on, a 20-event schedule?
The herald of change was Harris English. Speaking at last week's the RSM Classic, the two-time Ryder Cup veteran asserted the landscape of the league was about to undergo a drastic transformation:
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"I get that they want all the best players playing together more often, and the talk of the tour potentially starting after the Super Bowl I think is a pretty good thing because we can't really compete with football," English said at Sea Island. "We'll see where that goes."
English later added: "I think that's what they're going to change down the road, maybe in 2027, is have all the tournaments be equal and not have the eight elevated events and the regular events. They'll have 20, 22 events that are all the same. I think that's a good model to have. That's where you're at and the top players play every single event because you can't really afford to take one off."
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2025/11/harris-english-pga-tour-20-event-schedule-filtered-image.jpgPhoto: Getty Images
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBefore going any further, it's worth noting that English, who just completed his 14th year on tour, isn’t known as a purveyor of unfounded gossip, but rather is known as one of the more measured voices when it comes to remarks. As such, he wasn’t likely attempting to break news about potential changes with the tour so much as reacting to what he's heard about possible changes being discussed.
Hold on, didn't the tour just announce two new events in the past month?
It did; Austin and Asheville are coming to the schedule. The problem with English's soundbite is it didn't leave room for context and nuance.
So, there's validity to English's comments?
Since Brian Rolapp took the reins as PGA Tour CEO in July, the idea of significantly reducing the calendar has gained traction. Rolapp signaled as much at the Tour Championship in August, preaching about the need for product "scarcity." The golf industry has seen an awful lot of big-picture whispers in the past five years, but given the leadership change at the tour, this one carries more fire than smoke. Post-Ryder Cup, these whispers have gained momentum as tournament officials and sponsors scramble to cement their future status behind the scenes.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWell, what does a theoretical 20-something schedule look like?
(Exhales) OK, buckle up.
As English mentioned, and as sources explain it to Golf Digest, the initial idea would be for the season to start in late February. Going off historical calendars, that eliminates both Hawaiian events and a chunk of the West Coast Swing, with San Diego and Palm Springs most vulnerable. The optics of leaving Maui after the wildfires wouldn't be great, and golf fans treasure the Pacific Ocean backdrop in prime time when much of the United States is buried in winter. But the logistics of setting up infrastructure coupled with the lack of fans makes both Hawaiian events ripe for elimination. Meanwhile, the former Bob Hope has struggled with sponsorship issues and weak fields, and while Torrey Pines has been a loyal partner to the tour—something that could very much work in its favor down the road—Farmers Insurance's title sponsorship of the event ends in 2026.
The WM Phoenix Open, Genesis Invitational and AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am aren't going anywhere, which means one or two Florida events—at PGA National Resort and Innisbrook—would be cut to accommodate those West Coast visits. Sources say the major championships wouldn't count as part of the 20 events, and weeks after majors would be "bye weeks." (That sound you heard is every top-30 player weeping tears of joy.) One of the Texas events has been floated as a potential casualty, and alternate events would struggle to justify their existence. The fall would remain its own entity (more on this in a minute), which allows the number to get down to the low 20s quickly.
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2025/11/pebble-beach-pga-tour-2025-filtered-wide-shot.jpgOne thing to watch, however: Don't be surprised by the addition of several events in underserved metro areas. With the amount of majors and big events in its future and recent past, New York City doesn't qualify, but Boston and Chicago sure do.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThat still seems like a decent amount of events left, especially in the fall … or are all those events gone?
No, although this is where the plan remains very much a work in progress.
The other events not in the 20-something slate would essentially become another tier. One theory is a beefed-up Korn Ferry Tour. The other, a league of sorts between the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry, with the fall season falling into this domain. Granted, a two-tiered system essentially already exists between the signature events and other full-field tournaments; this new system would simply augment the signature series and make the delineation between the two levels official.
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AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSo would all this create more player turnover?
Yes and no. For all the hand-wringing about signature events creating a closed shop among the elite, there's been a decent amount of turnover among the top 50 and 70 on the FedEx Cup points list. J.J. Spaun, Ben Griffin, Chris Gotterup, Jacob Bridgeman and Andrew Novak proved this season that there's room for career advancement. Whatever new system emerges will ensure those opportunities still exist.
The bigger question, it appears, is keeping that number of around 70 players competing in the main tier of event, or growing it. It’s not just Rolapp who is new to the tour, as he’s building his leadership team from other non-golf backgrounds. If there is an early observation from this group, it’s that the tour (and golf in general) leans too heavily on past performance rather than cultivating new stars. Look at other professional sports leagues in the United States, particularly those All-Stars or champions from six or seven years ago. There are a handful of mainstays, but those squads are 70-75 percent different. In golf, not so much. Yes, the game is different from others, but golf has a habit of becoming infatuated with certain individuals and what they did rather than what they're doing. As an upshot, the tour's infrastructure does a poor job of introducing new stars to audiences. The hope is under a new system, rising players have a better chance of becoming known entities sooner—and those banking on their name to help them stick around have to prove their skill to keep it.
What is driving this decision?
A handful of ideologies, the first already in play before Rolapp entered the picture. The motive behind the signature/elevated series is getting the best players in the world competing against each other at a higher frequency, especially since the tour doesn't own the four majors or the Ryder Cup. Rolapp's work experience underlines his belief in cutting product excess; one reason each NFL game is must-watch TV is there are only 17 regular-season games, each with inherent playoff implications, making the games feel like they matter (unless your professional team resides in Ohio).
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut perhaps the biggest catalyst isn't what but who: the Strategic Sports Group. Private equity doesn't operate out of charity. The companies that infused $1.5 billion into the tour want return on their investment, and with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund no longer expected to add another $1.5 billion to the mix (that's the operating mindset for now), SSG needs to start finding other avenues to recoup its money. Behind the scenes the tour has been reducing staff, and though the organization has long been accused of carrying too much fat in its hierarchy, those labor reductions will only go so far. Creating a series of just 20-something tournaments is viewed as one way to decrease costs while potentially increasing revenue.
/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2025/11/rolapp-fleetwood-tour-championship-2025-filter.jpgWhat are the potential obstacles of this plan?
Many!
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Let's start with TV contracts. How do you sell NBC, CBS and ESPN that their "prime" inventory is getting cut in half, even if they still get the same number of events in a two-tiered system? Not just in the current deal, which runs until 2030 and has hundreds of millions attached, but as negotiations begin for the next contract (which will be finalized at least two years before the current expires)? There's a reason past commissioners referred to them as "partners.” Those networks wield real power in how this plays out.
Speaking of partners, what about tournament sponsors? The signature event system has already bred dissatisfaction among players and sponsors alike, who feel the structure has fractured traditional relationships and competitive balance. That friction will intensify with whatever emerges next. At a time when sponsors are tightening budgets, convincing them to invest in an optically inferior product becomes a nearly impossible sell. Complicating matters: only a half-dozen title sponsors have contracts that end after this year, with others signed on well into the future. If the tour abandons Maui, what happens to Sentry, locked into another decade as a sponsor? Would the tour owe buyouts for tournaments it eliminates? The financial entanglements can be problematic.
Then there's the skepticism toward Rolapp himself, inevitable given the magnitude of his mandate. Golf operates within such a peculiar ecosystem that while fresh thinking matters (especially in a sport that resists evolution), installing someone so disconnected from the delicate political web of professional golf—and surrounding him with equally foreign minds—carries real risk. Rolapp prioritizes business innovation over tradition; expecting that not to provoke resistance in a deeply traditional game is absurd.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHow does LIV Golf factor in?
Enormously. The notion of an oversaturated tour calendar isn't novel. However, whenever the issue surfaced in budget meetings during the Tim Finchem era, the former commissioner wielded a singular rhetorical weapon to silence dissent: If they don't play here, they'll go elsewhere. That was an oblique acknowledgment of the European Tour, during a period when the two circuits maintained an uneasy détente at best. That calculus now extends, with far greater urgency, to LIV, given its seemingly inexhaustible Saudi coffers.
A restructured PGA Tour system that marginalizes established stars inherently serves LIV's interests, considering the league's demonstrated appetite for providing a hospitable refuge to those perceived to be in their competitive twilight. But the tour's vulnerability extends beyond player retention. What of the long-tenured sponsors or venues who've anchored events for decades but now on the outside? Rolapp has publicly expressed his focus is inward, but the LIV wildcard is very much on his table.
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AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAnd the DP World Tour?
Quietly the X-factor, and arguably the most significant beneficiary of a restructured PGA Tour calendar.
If the PGA Tour delays its season until the Super Bowl, American players will gravitate toward the DP World Tour's Middle East Swing in late January to secure competitive repetitions (particularly given those events' reputation for lavish appearance fees). If the PGA Tour contracts the stretch between the U.S. Open and the FedEx Cup Playoffs—historically one of its more anemic periods on the calendar—perhaps the Irish Open migrates back to summer, offering players another prestigious venue before the Open Championship. If the fall becomes relegated to PGA Tour players outside the upper echelon, some established stars could pivot toward the BMW PGA Championship, Open de France and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Or perhaps PGA Tour players who've slipped to the circuit's second tier attempt a full campaign on the DP World Tour.
There's also the possibility that DP World Tour leadership reopens negotiations with the PIF. The DP World Tour was the circuit that initially granted Saudi Arabia entry into the professional ecosystem, and having observed their American counterparts' attempts to secure Saudi capital (albeit without participating in those deliberations), European leadership may prove more receptive to those resources now than they were half a decade ago. That LIV Golf members have been permitted to compete on the DP World Tour during the legal appeals of their suspensions has somewhat thawed the lingering frost between LIV and the Old World circuit.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAny strategic decision the PGA Tour makes must be coordinated with the DP World Tour. Without that alignment, the consequences could prove catastrophic.
Anything else?
If you thought the rank-and-file were upset at the signature events, wait until this theoretical schedule gets closer to fruition.
What are the odds this new schedule actually happens?
Stronger than you think. Maybe not 2027, but 2028 feels very much in play. While players, media and traditionalists might instinctively recoil at an outsider commanding control, after four decades of institutional inertia, some radical outside-the-box thinking is precisely what the PGA Tour needs. Sometimes it takes someone unencumbered by tradition to identify solutions that insiders have missed. Even if the solution looks nothing like what we know the tour to be.
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