The revamped PGA Tour schedule is coming into greater focus as dates for the 2027 season are getting announced one by one.
One of the major shakeups? The Florida Swing will take on a significantly different look than we’re accustomed to seeing.
New Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has signaled that future schedules—which are going to evolve with each year—will reach for scarcity and simplicity. During his press conference prior to The Players Championship, Rolapp outlined six initiatives for how the Tour plans to attack its schedule:
- Working toward creating a two-track schedule with 21-26 elevated events (including majors, the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup) and a separate lower tier of events for players to work their way up.
- A straightforward promotion and relegation system between the two tracks.
- Top events with roughly 120-player fields that feature cuts.
- A retooled playoff system with the possibility for a match-play championship.
- Opening big with a marquee event on the West Coast.
- Getting into bigger markets where larger population centers can rally around the Tour.
With that being said, the Tour already has a lot of contracts on the books for events. Here is what we know for the 2027 season at this point.
| American Express | Jan. 21-24 |
|---|---|
| TBD (Expected To Be Torrey Pines Event) | Jan. 28-31 |
| AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am | Feb. 4-7 |
| WM Phoenix Open | Feb. 11-14 |
| Genesis Invitational | Feb. 18-21 |
| Cognizant Classic | Feb. 25-28 |
| Cadillac Championship | March 4-7 |
| Players Championship | March 11-14 |
| Arnold Palmer Invitational | March 18-21 |
| Texas Children’s Houston Open | March 25-28 |
| Valero Texas Open | April 1-4 |
| Masters | April 8-11 |
| RBC Heritage | April 15-18 |
| Zurich Classic | April 22-25 |
| CJ Cup Byron Nelson | April 29-May 2 |
| Valspar Championship | May 6-9 |
| Truist Championship | May 13-16 |
| ONEFlight Myrtle Beach Classic | May 13-16 |
| PGA Championship | May 20-23 |
The biggest moves so far? New dates for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Cadillac Championship and Valspar Championship.
The Florida Swing will look a lot different
The Tour has long visited Florida during March and that will continue into 2027.
However, the cadence is not going to be the same as we have traditionally seen.
The Cognizant Classic remains as the beginning of the Florida Swing with its standard Feb. 25-28 dates but it now will be followed by the Cadillac Championship at Doral.
Doral came back onto the schedule this year for the first time since 2016. It was played in the no-man’s land of early May. Despite being a signature event, several top players opted out and the event was poorly attended.
Now it will be in a much more advantageous spot given that top players are likely to skip the Cognizant and play Doral.
The Players Championship will take place after Doral and before the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. In recent years, Bay Hill led into The Players.
Bay Hill will now go up against the first weekend of March Madness.
This does create three weeks in a row of the top players being in Florida but that will be followed by the Houston Open and Valero Texas Open—two tournaments most of the top players skip—prior to the Masters.
From this year’s Masters through the PGA Championship, there were two majors and three signature events, which created a scheduling crunch for players. The new schedule in 2027 will provide a little more balance on that front.
And what about the Valspar Championship? The typical Florida Swing anchor is headed to May 6-9.
I like to see the Florida Swing stay as a cohesive unit. It feels weird to head back to Florida in May when the heart of the golf season has ended in that part of the country.
It will also be interesting to see if the Valspar can draw a decent field with the Truist Championship and PGA Championship falling in line directly after the Valspar.
What else do we know about the Tour schedule?
According to Sports Business Journal, only two dates through the 2027 PGA Championship haven’t been confirmed yet.
“The annual Torrey Pines event, widely expected to be newly sponsored by Sentry, likely will fall in the spot between the American Express and AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The PGA Tour also has not confirmed a date for the Puerto Rico Open—the opposite field event that in 2026 was held the same week as the Arnold Palmer Invitational.”
We also know the Byron Nelson event has been moved up to avoid three straight weeks of tournaments in the Dallas-Fort Worth area given that the PGA Championship is in San Francisco next year. The Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial is expected to follow the PGA although dates have not been formally announced.
The U.S. Open (June 17-20) and the Open Championship (July 15-18) have already announced their 2027 dates so we have those on the calendar.
Based on the U.S. Open’s dates, we can assume the Memorial will be played June 3-6 to avoid being the lead-in to a major, which tournament host Jack Nicklaus was adamantly against.
What else? We know the season won’t begin in Hawaii anymore. The American Express is kicking off the 2027 season although that is likely to change in future years as the Tour wants a bigger event as the opener.
This 2027 schedule has some tweaks but looks a lot more familiar than one might expect. You can anticipate bigger changes coming in 2028 as certain events will fall off or be moved.
We’re still gathering details on how the Tour calendar will shape up but I think it’s generally headed in the right direction.
Thoughts so far? Let me know below in the comments.
mg
3 weeks ago
4 majors and that is all.