The PGA Tour is about to embark on one of the most dramatic changes in its business model in its history. It’s been the talk of golf circles for months. Tournaments and title sponsorships will all have different vantage points. But despite the changes, the PGA Tour has seen a strong response thus far from sponsors.
Though the model was only officially announced in late June, it’s been in the works for the better part of a year, and the more consistent nature of the new structure has been a positive for both current and potential new partners, said Dhruv Prasad, the tour’s chief commercial officer.
“The perception was some dates were meaningfully better than others and there was a lot of this inconsistency,” Prasad said of the old model. “This inconsistency made it, I think it created an issue of partners not knowing what they were investing in, the value of what they were investing in and having that value be very volatile from week to week.”
In the new model, the 15-tournament Championship series will have between 120-130 of the top players and have a 72-hole cut. While not officially confirmed, around half of those 15 are expected to come from the tour’s current eight-event Signature series. Upon announcement, the tour said it had already confirmed 10 of the 15 Championship series tournaments. And last week, sources said the tour is closing in on two more sponsor confirmations, which would bring the total to 12.
“If you’re an existing Signature event, there’s no question that your event is stronger in the new model than it was in the previous model,” Prasad said.
The eight Signature events this year included the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, RBC Heritage, Cadillac Championship, Truist Championship, Memorial Tournament and Travelers Championship.
There are industry questions about two of those Signature tournaments and what they might look like in 2028. The Arnold Palmer Invitational is presented by Mastercard, though sources have questioned whether the company will renew its longtime deal, which is said to expire in 2028.
The tournament had its place on the 2027 calendar adjusted. Rather than the week before the Players Championship in March, the API will be held the week after in 2027. Even if Mastercard did not return as presenting sponsor, it’s believed the tour would look to position Palmer’s tournament on the Championship series.
Meanwhile, it’s expected that the Genesis Invitational will be on the Championship Series -- Genesis just renewed its title sponsorship through 2030. The question is where the tournament will be played. It’s long been held at the famed Riviera Country Club, but that course is hosting the Olympics competition in 2028, and sources have indicated the club has moved away from wanting to host an annual event but rather major tournaments every few years.
It hosted the U.S. Women’s Open just this summer. It will host the Olympics competition in 2028 and will host the men’s U.S. Open in 2031. Riviera CEO Megan Watanabe spoke to Golf Digest in June about the club’s attitude around hosting major events. Golfweek also recently reported on the matter.
Other tournaments that likely line up with the Championship model? Sentry has assumed the title sponsorship of the annual Torrey Pines tournament following the tour’s decision to end its tenure in Hawaii. Sentry’s deal for the former season-opening event in Hawaii was through 2035, and with CEO Brian Rolapp’s charge to begin the season at an “iconic” West Coast venue, The Sentry at Torrey Pines makes sense.
The WM Phoenix Open also is routinely seen as one of the best tournaments on the PGA Tour with one of the longest-running title sponsors. Despite the tournament going head-to-head against Super Bowl weekend, event organizers have embraced the challenge and made it into the appointment-television-style tournament Rolapp craves.
A potential sleeper for the Championship series is the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. It’s drawn weaker fields in recent years, but with CJ’s commitment through 2033, as well as the tour’s willingness to have a big Dallas-area tournament and an association with a legend like Byron Nelson, some expect the Nelson to be on the top tier.
Some of those Championship series tournaments will come from new markets -- the likes of N.Y., S.F., Seattle or Denver -- which Prasad said will provide deeper pools from a sponsorship perspective, noting there has been “a lot of interest.” Though Prasad did not mention it, New Jersey is another market believed to be in the mix for a Championship event.
The 20-event Challenger series will have fields of roughly 144 players, with 13 of those tournaments being contested on the same weeks as Championship series events. The other seven will have standalone weeks.
One of the drawbacks to the Challenger series is that Championship-level players are not expected to compete in those events. For example, World No. 7 Chris Gotterup won the recent John Deere Classic, far and away the tournament’s biggest name. Under the new model, should the John Deere Classic be a Challenger event, Gotterup would not be competing.
The main value proposition for the Challenger series comes around promotion to the Championship series, Prasad said. Winning two Challenger series tournaments comes with an immediate promotion to the Championship series.
“It means every single week on the Challenger series, someone is playing for the ability to move up,” Prasad said. “We’re going to be able to deliver stories of victory, stories of competitive consequence that will elevate. There’s this fallacy that on the PGA Tour, there are 10 guys that matter and it’s just not true. This is a sport that has more competitive parity than maybe any other sport in the world.”
One potential obstacle for those Challenger series events comes on the sponsorship side. Some events that could be in that series -- the JDC, 3M Open, Valspar Championship and Zurich Classic, among others -- have sponsor deals that run through 2030, three full years into the tour’s new model. The changing model means those sponsors won’t be getting -- at least in their current constructs -- what they signed up for.
While not getting into specifics, Prasad said the tour will treat each event and sponsor contract uniquely as it relates to potential changes.
“In every case, changes are being made, every event is a little bit different,” Prasad said. “What I would say is for every sponsor, all of what we’re doing ... there are 47 events on the PGA Tour before. There are going to be roughly 47 events on the PGA Tour of the future. Everything that we’re talking about, Championship series, Challenger series, Last Chance series in the fall are all PGA Tour events. And the players that are in those events are all going to be PGA Tour members and they’re going to be actually in many ways consistent.”
