A preview of what the revamped PGA Tour schedule will look like

The PGA Tour schedule may be in for a big change.

New CEO Brian Rolapp, along with several prominent players, has signaled the need for fewer events and more impact within a revamped schedule.

This will likely mean taking an ax to the status quo by removing some aspects of the story in exchange for a more entertaining product.

Count me as someone in favor of these moves.

While the prospect of eliminating events that have been around for decades is hard to swallow, the schedule has been bloated for a long time.

As it stands, golf fans have no room to miss the tournament. It’s constantly going.

The new schedule – which is likely to be phased in over several seasons – will be in place for weeks. Every tournament will have higher stakes because bad fields like we see this week at the Cognizant Classic won’t really exist.

There will be room to lose golf. And there will be more incentive for fans to rally around the best tournaments.

What are the priorities for the new schedule?

Based on the talking points from Rolapp and other players, we can make some guesses about what the schedule will look like in the future.

• Cutting shifts from 35 to 23, not including the fall.

• Eliminating signature events by essentially doing everything between February and August a signature event.

• It does not compete with the football season. Tour doesn’t want to go against the NFL and college football. They’ve already taken care of that on the back end with the FedEx Cup ending before Labor Day. Now they will probably do the same on the front, either starting their season after the Super Bowl or trying to avoid it.

• Breathing room after degrees. Instead of rushing to the RBC Heritage, the Travelers Championship or another event right after a big week, the Tour would take a break.

• Having a more balanced schedule. The traditional tour calendar starts off hot from Phoenix to Augusta and then slows down from late April to late August. Some tournaments may see a date change due to this. “Owning the wine” is the main talking point.

• Visiting larger markets. The tour is missing stops in places like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Chicago. These cities are all top 10 media markets in the U.S. Yes, the tour used to be more in these areas—and the majors are frequent visitors to these places—but the current schedule pretty much ignores the biggest markets. That will almost certainly change.

We’re talking about balance, scarcity, and making every event appear.

Preview of what the revamped schedule will look like

Speaking at the Genesis Invitational, event host Tiger Woods hinted that the schedule changes likely won’t take effect until 2028 and beyond.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be OTHER USEFUL changes in 2027, but not everything will be perfectly arranged for next season.

So let’s say we’re taking a look at what the “finished product” will be in terms of the schedule, whenever that time comes. I will use the dates of 2027 just to make my point clear.

Here is my outline of the possible schedule. Below, I’ll go into more detail about why I believe this timeline may be close to what actually happens.

Explanation of schedule forecast

We’ll start at the top, where I believe the WM Phoenix Open is a likely starter for the tournament season. This ends the season with a real bang.

Gone are the days of the Phoenix Open going into the playoffs after the Super Bowl has already started – the tournament will start in a week ahead Super Bowl.

There is a lot of speculation that the tournament would not start until now AFTER Super Bowl, but no football on the first weekend of February (and starting a little earlier might open up some breathing room for the rest of the schedule).

While there is talk of moving Pebble Beach to the summer — and the resort has hosted US Opens in the summer before — I think that’s unlikely on an annual basis. That’s a lot of lost revenue. Perhaps Pebble is included in the Tour Championship every few years on a rotating basis (more on that in a moment).

Right now, I’m left with the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February, the week after the Super Bowl.

The Florida Swing will be transformed as the three marquee tournaments at Doral, Bay Hill and TPC Sawgrass will be March matches on consecutive weeks.

Then we’ll go a week after the Players Championship. There will also be weeks after the Masters, the PGA Championship, the US Open and the Open Championship.

Progress in the Masters is more difficult to predict. Going up north is not an option yet. Here we would normally see the Houston Open and the Texas Open. Some have also predicted a return to Austin, although the Tour is already heading there for the Good Good Championship in the fall.

As it stands, there are a lot of events in Texas, so I’ll cut a few short.

I love moving a new Atlanta East Lake event to this location, creating a swing in Georgia. This opens up the tournament to different hosts (which is desperately needed) while still keeping Atlanta on the schedule.

After the Masters and a bye week, we head to the RBC Heritage in Harbor Town. It’s a classic tour spot and a great spot on Hilton Head for this time of year.

I’m partial to going to the Truist Championship at Quail Hollow in late April, followed by a Texas swing at the Valero Texas Open (San Antonio) and the Charles Schwab Challenge (Fort Worth). The PGA Championship (held in Dallas in 2027 and 2034) will also complete that swing for several years.

The memorial, like Arnold Palmer, is necessary because it is Jack’s event. I also really like the Canadian Open staying on the calendar (and RBC is a critical sponsor for the tournament).

That brings us to the US Open and another bye week.

In the heat of summer, I’m thinking we should start visiting some of those larger markets I mentioned.

That starts with the Travelers Championship moving from Hartford to Boston. It continues next week as the John Deere Classic moves from the Quad Cities to Chicago.

This takes care of hitting two of the biggest missing markets.

After the Genesis Scottish Open, the Open Championship and a good week, we’re down to four events remaining – three of which are the FedEx Cup playoffs.

There are plenty of options in the final regular season spot, but I think the Tour has ignored the Denver area for too long. It would be great to get into another big market.

To give extra weight to the playoffs, I like to move the Genesis Invitational to Riviera from February to August. This will be complicated/impossible for 2028 due to the Olympics (where Riv is hosting) but I like the idea.

I don’t want FedEx St. Jude Classic this time of year, but I think the Tour should have a FedEx event in the playoffs, given how critical the sponsors are.

Then, for the tournament championship, I am strongly in favor of moving this event. Here the tour can reach New York, Philadelphia or even places like Seattle that have been completely abandoned.

I also want to state for the record that I prefer the PGA Championship in August because it spreads more titles. I don’t see this changing because of the Olympics, but it’s something to chew on.

This is just a rough description, but…

I would be much more excited to watch the tournament if this was the schedule.

You will notice the absence of some tournaments. Where is Torrey Pines?

Perhaps a course like Torrey could be on the next list of tournament championship sites. I don’t think we should see it every year because it’s so overrated.

In this schedule model, some tours will either be canceled, moved to the fall, relegated to the Korn Ferry Tour, or given a lower tier status.

It’s hard to see, but a leaner schedule is absolutely the way to go.

What do you think? Let me know below in the comments.

Main photo caption: The PGA Tour schedule is in for a big change. (GETTY IMAGES/Tracy Wilcox)