As I’ve talked about a lot over the past several months, the PGA Tour is set for a total overhaul beginning with the 2028 season.
There will be two formalized tiers for players—the Championship Series (big dogs) and the Challenger Series (fighting to make the show)—with virtually no crossover between the two. Traditional sponsor exemptions are going the way of persimmon drivers. And the season is going to end with a two-event match-play tournament held at prestigious courses we rarely (if ever) get to see on TV.
That will completely remake the FedEx Cup which may not be sponsored by FedEx given that their current contract with the Tour ends in 2027.
Nine of the events that will be included in the Championship Series have already been announced. Here are the tournaments we know for certain at this point.
- Arnold Palmer Invitational
- Cadillac Championship
- GO by Raymond James (formerly the Wyndham Championship)
- RBC Heritage
- The Memorial Tournament
- The Sentry (now at Torrey Pines, not Kapalua)
- Travelers Championship
- Truist Championship
- A TBD event sponsored by Sompo, a Japanese financial services company
There is speculation on the remaining handful of Championship Series events—you can likely expect the Genesis Invitational to be involved—but nothing has been made official at this point.
But what I would like to talk about today is how the Tour will be bridging the gap between the old system and the new one. After all, there is still one more season to play here (sadly, we have to trudge back to East Lake for the Tour Championship one last time under the current format).
Let’s get into some of the key changes we will be seeing in 2027 and how the Tour plans to set up its structure going into the gargantuan 2028 campaign.
1. Hawaii is no longer the starting point
I wrote about this at length earlier in the year during my Hawaiian Swing obituary but the Tour is done starting its season at Kapalua and Waialae.
For decades, the Tour beginning in Hawaii felt like a natural extension of the calendar turning to January. Viewers across the country got two weeks of palm trees, the dulcet tones of Mark Rolfing and primetime golf during the middle of their frigid winters.
It was awesome … but it was also sleepy. The events may have offered spectacular vibes but they were sparsely attended and didn’t exactly start the season with energy.
To recap, Kapalua has been permanently removed from the schedule after The Sentry was canceled there in 2026. The Sentry name will survive but it will move approximately 2,500 miles east to Torrey Pines for what will become a Championship Series event in 2028.
Instead of opening in Hawaii, the season will begin Jan. 21-24 with The American Express in the California desert. The Sentry will follow, occupying the traditional San Diego position on the calendar and finishing on a Saturday.
And the Sony Open? It’s transitioning to a Champions Tour event to host the senior circuit (not to be confused with the Championship Series on the PGA Tour, of course).
The Tour will begin its season on the mainland for the first time since 1998. It’s been a while, y’all.
2. Pebble Beach gets a new date (and will be played twice)
There is a reshuffling of event dates on the Tour’s 2027 schedule.
The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is moving up to Feb. 4-7, one week before the WM Phoenix Open. The Genesis Invitational follows Phoenix before the Tour heads east for the Florida Swing.
The previous order was Phoenix to Pebble to Riviera. Now we are going Pebble to Phoenix to Riviera.
This is a byproduct of the Tour schedule starting later than normal. It probably won’t feel too strange given how Phoenix will still end on Super Bowl Sunday and we’ll inevitably watch a playoff butting up against kickoff in the big game (as is tradition).
This cadence also avoids placing Signature Events in consecutive weeks. There were two sets of back-to-back Signature Events in 2026, creating demanding stretches for top players and reducing the separation between the Tour’s most important regular tournaments.
All eight will return in 2027 but each will have at least one week of breathing room from the next, a concept you can expect to continue with the new format in 2028.
Also of note, Pebble Beach will host the U.S. Open next June so we’ll be seeing it twice. I think Pebble Beach is a bit overrated and doesn’t test the pro game very well given advances in modern equipment but there are worse places to watch golf.
3. The Florida Swing has been rearranged
I went into detail about these changes earlier in the year but the Florida Swing is getting a makeover.
This is weird for me as a Floridian who grew up going to the Ford Championship at Doral, the Honda Classic, Bay Hill and the Players Championship—in that order. In my head, it will always be that order.
Well, times have changed.
The Cognizant Classic (RIP the Honda Classic name) opens the Florida Swing from Feb. 25-28, the date it has held in recent years. But the Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral is moving from its late April date to March 4-7 after Cognizant and immediately before The Players Championship.
The Players is March 11-14 while the Arnold Palmer Invitational moves to the following week at Bay Hill.
So if you are keeping score, we have flipped everything around here. Bay Hill has long been the tournament prior to The Players but not anymore.
Meanwhile, the Valspar Championship has been displaced. Rather than being played during its customary March window, it moves nearly two months later to May 6-9. Valspar will lead into the Truist Championship at Quail Hollow and then the PGA Championship at PGA Frisco.
I always felt like Valspar punched above its weight in terms of field strength. Players enjoy Innisbrook. This new date is a tough one for them. It’s being played right after the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and directly before two enormous tournaments that are not in Florida so travel is harder.
4. Napa joins the regular season
The lone new addition to the announced schedule is the Sompo Napa Championship at Silverado Resort.
This is a precursor to the Sompo-sponsored Championship Series event for 2028 which will be held somewhere else. Early reports are speculating a potential Pacific Northwest location such as Chambers Bay (you can read my review of Chambers here).
Napa had previously occupied a fall position but the tournament will at least momentarily be played July 29-Aug. 1 as the penultimate event of the regular season, replacing the Rocket Classic in Detroit.
The tournament lands directly between the 3M Open and the newly renamed GO by Raymond James in Greensboro which will remain the final opportunity for players to qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
I should also mention that, in addition to the Detroit event not being included in the 2027 calendar, the Puerto Rico Open is absent as well. There is still an unfilled tournament opposite the Genesis Invitational from Feb. 18-21 so it’s possible another event could eventually be added (although I don’t suppose we’ll be playing golf in Michigan in February, eh?).
5. The playoffs remain familiar but qualifying for 2028 will take place
I mentioned earlier that the FedEx Cup Playoffs are remaining the same for one more year. Try to contain your excitement.
However, it comes with a twist this upcoming year as players will be vying for placement in the Championship Series and Challenger Series.
The 2027 FedEx Cup fall schedule has not been announced nor have the complete eligibility rules that will determine who begins 2028 in the Championship Series and who lands in the Challenger Series. Those details could make the fall unusually consequential.
Players may not merely be competing for ordinary status; they could be fighting over placement within an entirely new ecosystem.
That uncertainty will hang over the entire season.
The 2027 schedule is the final version of the PGA Tour as we currently understand it. It’s served the Tour well in the short term but I think everyone is excited for what 2028 will bring.
Still, these 2027 changes matter. And every tournament will unfold with 2028 looming in the background.
Top Photo Caption: Mark Hubbard hits a tee shot during the Napa tournament. (GETTY IMAGES/Stan Badz)
Leave A Reply