PGA Tour Unveils First Championship Series Events for 2028 Revamp

The PGA Tour has begun revealing which tournaments will become Championship Series events in 2028 when a new two-track model is implemented.

First up for the PGA Tour’s top-tier Championship Series is the Travelers Championship, which has been played annually at TPC River Highlands just outside Hartford, Connecticut, each June, typically the week after the U.S. Open. Since 2023, the Travelers has been one of eight $20 million signature events on the PGA Tour. The announcement was made on Monday.

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In 2028, the PGA Tour Championship Series will comprise roughly 15 regular-season events, in addition to the four major championships, Players Championship, and playoff events. Purses for the PGA Tour-operated events (the non-majors) will be at least $20 million, with some tournaments like the Players and a revamped Tour Championship offering even more prize money. The second-tier Challenger Series will comprise at least 20 events, each offering much lower purses of at least $4 million. Both series will run from approximately February to August, and will include annual promotion and relegation between the circuits.

“Right now we have 47 events at the PGA Tour—we’ll have 47 events going forward,” PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said when he unveiled the plans for the new scheduling model in June. “That current model serves roughly 230 players. We’ll serve that amount of players, the same. We are just organized now in a more simple understanding competitively so our fans can understand it, our partners know what they’re getting as far as value. So we think we’ve just organized the same tour into a much more interesting and competitive system.”

The second confirmed Championship Series event will be sponsored by Sompo, a Japanese insurance and financial services firm, the PGA Tour announced on Tuesday. The event’s market has yet to be determined, though. In 2027, Sompo will back a full-field (non-signature) PGA Tour event at Silverado Resort’s North Course in Napa, California, July 29 to Aug. 1—effectively replacing the Rocket Classic in Detroit, which is leaving the PGA Tour schedule after this season. In 2028, the Sompo event will relocate to a new market as part of the transition to the Championship Series.

Companies that sponsor Championship Series events will pay at least $30 million annually to financially back those top-tier tournaments

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Confirmed Championship Series Lineup

Rolapp said in June that there was already an initial set of 10 markets set to host Championship Series events during the 2028 season that would be revealed soon. So far, two tournaments have been confirmed for the Championship Series, in addition to the Players, four majors, and playoffs:

• Sompo-backed event (official name to-be-determined)

Currently, there are three postseason events on the PGA Tour, but the exact number of playoff events in 2028 is yet to be determined. While the four majors are not operated by the PGA Tour, players will still earn points in those events for the new season-long Championship Series title race.

Championship Contenders: Signature Events

While not yet officially confirmed, most—if not all of—the remaining signature events from the 2026 PGA Tour season figure to be likely candidates for the Championship Series:

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• Genesis Invitational (Los Angeles/hosted by Tiger Woods)

• Arnold Palmer Invitational (Orlando)

• RBC Heritage (Hilton Head, S.C.)

• Cadillac Championship (Miami)

• Truist Championship (Charlotte)

• Memorial Tournament (Columbus, Ohio/hosted by Jack Nicklaus)

The Genesis Invitational has the cloudiest future among the current signature events. Its host course, Riviera Country Club, is hosting the men’s and women’s Olympic golf competitions in 2028 and the U.S. Open in 2031. Those events would make it more challenging—if not impossible—for the PGA Tour to also play at Riviera in those years. In February, Genesis extended its sponsorship of the PGA Tour event through 2030.

Best of the Rest

Two other non-signature events are widely seen within the golf industry as likely choices to move up to the Championship Series:

• The Sentry (Torrey Pines)

Sentry, the Wisconsin-based insurance company, previously sponsored the PGA Tour’s season-opener in Maui, which was a signature event from 2023 to 2025 before the PGA Tour canceled January’s tournament and decided to exit Hawaii moving forward. Sentry is taking over naming rights for the PGA Tour’s annual stop at Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla, California. The WM Phoenix Open is one of the rowdiest and most-attended tournaments on the PGA Tour each year.

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Rolapp has said tournaments in new markets the PGA Tour doesn’t currently play in annually like New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Denver, and Seattle, could also host Championship Series Events.

Champion or Challenger?

No tournament to date has been confirmed as a Challengers Series event in 2028. Ten other events from the 2026 PGA Tour season have existing sponsorship deals running through 2028 or beyond. While a few could bump up to the Championship Series, the majority will land on the Challenger Series, assuming their sponsors stay on board in some form or fashion:

• The American Express (Palm Springs)

• Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches

• Valspar Championship (Tampa)

• Texas Children’s Houston Open

• Valero Texas Open (San Antonio)

• Zurich Classic of New Orleans

• The CJ Cup Byron Nelson (Dallas)

• John Deere Classic (Quad Cities)

Three other longstanding PGA Tour events figure to also remain part of the new ecosystem, but their sponsors have not yet announced extensions for 2028 or beyond:

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• Charles Schwab Challenge (Dallas)

• Wyndham Championship (Greensboro, N.C.)

It’s expected that one, but not both, of the PGA Tour’s Dallas-area events (the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and Charles Schwab Challenge) will receive Championship Series status.

Rounding Out the Schedule

This year, there were four “opposite field” events—tournaments with $4 million purses played during the same week as a more high-profile event:

• ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic

• ISCO Championship (Louisville)

• Corales Puntacana Championship

None of those four sponsorship deals run beyond 2027, but each tournament would be a fitting Challenger Series event if their respective organizers wanted to be one.

Beyond the February to August schedule for the Championship and Challenger Series, there will be a limited series of elevated international events during the fall as part of the PGA Tour’s strategic alliance with the DP World Tour. Additionally, a separate “last chance” fall series will include four to six events offering a limited number of spots onto the following year’s Championship Series for relegated players and those that did not earn promotion from the Challenger Series, among others.