Season-ending structure changes represent ‘big swing’ for PGA TOUR Championship Series

ATLANTA – As PGA TOUR CEO Brian Rolapp stood at the podium Tuesday morning inside the historic clubhouse at East Lake Golf Club, he made one point abundantly clear: the TOUR Championship, which this week will serve as the capstone of the 2026 FedExCup season, will look a lot different in a couple years.

Rolapp spoke with media members about the changes coming to the season-ending structure when the PGA TOUR Championship Series begins in 2028, and they are significant. The plans include the creation of a PGA TOUR Championship Series Finale and a pivot for the TOUR Championship to be a separate, standalone competition in which players will face off in match play across two weeks of competition on two prestigious venues.

“This new format creates an exciting opportunity to showcase some of the most renowned venues in our sport, including places the modern TOUR has never been before,” Rolapp said.

Thirty players will tee it up this week in Atlanta, while 32 will begin Week 1 of the TOUR Championship in two years’ time. Although there are many details still to sort out in the coming months, not the least of which are venues for 2028 which will be announced in February, the changes were met with excitement among the players gathered at this week’s FedExCup finale.

“I think the PGA TOUR and the Future Competition Committee and Brian and everyone involved have really taken on board what the fans have been calling for and have wanted, which is match play,” said two-time defending Masters champ Rory McIlroy. “Two weeks, two different venues. But it’s cool. I think they’ve taken a big swing, and conceptually, I think I really like it.”

“It’s completely different than anything we have in golf,” added Adam Scott, a Player Director on the PGA TOUR Policy Board and member of the Future Competition Committee. “I feel like there’s a real opportunity for people to kind of buy in over a two-week period and grow as the tournament carries on.”

Few can boast more familiarity with the machinations of the TOUR’s postseason structure than McIlroy, the only three-time champion in the history of the FedExCup. He has been a constant in the TOUR Championship field amid a revolving door of top-30 combatants, making it to East Lake 13 times in total and every year since 2018.

The Ulsterman sees plenty of upside in the new changes, which will include a stroke-play PGA TOUR Championship Series Finale that will whittle the field from 90 to 32.

“I think all the incentives are there,” McIlroy said. “The regular-season champion is going to be adequately rewarded after that final stroke-play event, and then the TOUR Championship, match play, is going to be completely different. But I think it’s sort of a departure from what we’ve had the last few years, and I do think it’ll be a great thing.”

The other different element that caught players’ attention is a shift in venues. Rolapp made it clear Tuesday that East Lake is “very much in the consideration” to host the TOUR Championship beyond 2027, but the tournament that will now encompass two weeks will soon be on the move. Rolapp cited variables like a smaller footprint, limited infrastructure and build-out, fewer fans and an opportunity to showcase courses that many fans at home have never seen before on television.

Those traits are all positives in the eye of U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, who enters this week on the heels of his win at the BMW Championship.

“Going to new venues is going to be, I think, great for the fans, great for us, especially iconic ones,” Clark said. “I think it will be amazing.”

In Clark’s view, match play “is where we began in golf” and he likened the two-week structure to what tennis pros face at major championships like Wimbledon.

“It’s unique to golf, and new to it,” Clark said. “But I think over time people will accept it and like it a lot.”

Stroke play will determine the FedExCup champion this week in Atlanta, where for the second straight year the player with the lowest 72-hole score will lift the FedExCup and take home a $10-million prize.

The season-ending structure is under construction as the TOUR eyes the start of a new chapter, but the prospect of a new format at new venues has earned praise from the elite field that will face off beginning Thursday.

“I think what the TOUR are really trying to do is listen to the fans and what they want,” McIlroy said. “I think this idea of match play over two weeks is something that came mostly from what the people that watch golf wanted, so I think that’s a really good thing.”