The New Tour Championship Format Might Fix The Playoffs

The PGA Tour has officially announced its new match play-infused Tour Championship, coming to the schedule in 2028.

Earlier this year, Tour CEO Brian Rolapp hinted at the move to match play as part of the Tour’s competitive structure overhaul.

Now we know the exact details of how everything will work.

It’s too bad we can’t implement the format sooner—we have to get through this week’s Tour Championship and next year’s event before seeing this—but I am frothing at the mouth in anticipation for what this format will look like two years from now.

The FedEx Cup playoffs have, historically speaking, been irrelevant in the eyes of fans. It has felt more like a cash distribution mechanism designed to reward top players with a hefty season-ending check than a championship fans genuinely care about.

Try this exercise with me.

Who won the FedEx Cup in 2023? I cover golf for a living and legitimately can’t remember.

Who won the majors in 2023? Oh, it was Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman. Easy.

I didn’t have to use Google for the major winners. Knew them within 30 seconds. But I did have to use Google to figure out the FedEx Cup winner that year (Viktor Hovland).

The point is that the FedEx Cup breeds apathy. The point system has always been confusing and it seems to change every year.

This change they’ve implemented for 2028? I think it might make you care about the tournament in the same way you care about The Players Championship—although it will take some time to get there.

Here is how it will all go down

Simplicity is coming to the Tour Championship. The format should be fairly easy for everyone to follow.

Here are the numbers you need to know: 130 players → Top 90 → Top 32 → Top 16 → Champion.

Remember that we will soon be transitioning to a Championship Series (the top dogs) and a Challenger Series (a glorified Korn Ferry Tour). The Tour is formalizing its long-standing two-tier system; players will be on one track or the other without crossover during the season.

Starting in 2028, about 130 guys will be competing in the 23-ish Championship Series events. The schedule is already filling out with 11 of the 15 sponsors committed to moving forward with this new structure, Rolapp said Tuesday. That is significant as each one of those sponsors will be putting up an estimated $30 million per event.

At the end of the regular season, the top 90 players will make the first postseason event and retain Championship Series status for the following year.

That first event, which many believe will be the BMW Championship, is going to be a stroke-play event—with a twist.

Players will be battling to reach the top 32 on the season-long points list after that first postseason event. Essentially, it’s a battle for seeding and to make the Tour Championship.

If players reach the top 32, they are entered into a two-event Tour Championship played on two different courses.

Woah! The Tour Championship is not going to be a 72-hole stroke-play snoozer anymore. We’re expanding.

The second postseason event is going to be round-robin match play, a la the World Cup. There will be eight groups of four players—seeded according to their season-long finish—competing over three days to establish the top two players from each pool.

The third and final playoff will be a 16-man single-elimination bracket to crown a champion.

That’s it. No gimmicks. We’re crowning a champion based on match play.

The cool part? The courses rumored to be in the mix to host the Tour Championship are not your traditional venues. Josh Carpenter of Sports Business Journal reports that Los Angeles Country Club, Sleepy Hollow Country Club and Interlachen Country Club are possible venues.

Given the match-play aspect, there won’t be the need for a huge buildout. Galleries will be able to get closer to the action. It will be a made-for-TV product.

Sean’s breakdown

If you couldn’t tell already, I’m in love with this move.

We start with the consequence of guys not being able to make the top 90. At the moment, missing the FedEx Cup Playoffs doesn’t mean all that much. Guys still have conditional status and career money list exemptions. Not a ton is at stake. It’s hard to get fans to care about how much money some random pro is adding to their savings account.

In this new model, missing the top 90 means you aren’t being included in the Championship Series for the following year. You’ve been relegated to the Challenger Series. Sponsor exemptions aren’t going to help you this time around. See ya.

Imagine if a top name like Jordan Spieth or Rickie Fowler struggles and misses the top 90. Now we have the possibility for a redemption arc. And the Challenger Series tournaments now have players fighting their way back.

Then we get to the first postseason event where we are cutting a ton of people. It’s mostly based on how well you performed during the season, but there will still be the opportunity for guys to play their way into the Tour Championship.

Then we get into match play where anything can happen.

With this system, the Tour gets to reward its season-long points getters without turning that into a grand spectacle.

That ratio of 32/130 players making the Tour Championship is fair and interesting. The round robin for the second postseason event is fun and a cool way to stack the deck so that more of the star players get into that final 16-man bracket. If Scottie Scheffler has an off day, he should still be able to recover and advance.

Then you reach the final event. Mano a mano all the way through to the finale.

This will be such a hard event to win and that immediately raises the profile of the event.

And unlike a points formula, fans will intuitively understand the difficulty. Survive the season, survive your group and then beat four guys head-to-head. Nobody will need an explainer to understand why that’s impressive. We won’t need Steve Sands crunching numbers on live TV (the real ballknowers will remember).

I also love the move to new courses that don’t traditionally host Tour events. Fresh blood. Better courses. No offense to East Lake but I’m officially sick of it. I would have no issue with it being involved in a rotation of courses but every single year? No thanks.

Finally, it seems likely this will just be called the Tour Championship with no presenting sponsorship. Carpenter reports that the Tour is seeking a handful of $10-million to 15-million investors, similar to how The Players Championship has three “proud partners” rather than one main sponsor.

This may seem like not a big deal but I think it helps tremendously. The FedEx Cup name gives off the feeling of a contrived event. What other playoff system is sponsored? None that I want to watch.

This will probably just be the Tour Championship. It feels more meaningful.

The Tour Championship doesn’t need to become a fifth major. It just needs to become something golf fans genuinely care about winning.

For the first time in a long time, I can honestly see a format capable of doing that.

If I had to offer a criticism, there is an obvious risk: match play doesn’t guarantee stars on Sunday. That’s always been the format’s biggest television problem. If Scheffler and McIlroy are gone early, the Tour has to trust that the bracket itself is compelling enough to keep people watching.

There is no certainty here but that’s part of the allure, right?

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