The PGA Tour is taking a big swing on the future of its postseason.
The league announced Tuesday a move to a reimagined Tour Championship that uses a match-play format that will include the top 32 golfers playing over two weeks at different courses.
The massive shift will begin in 2028.
As part of the changes, the PGA Tour will conduct the PGA Tour Championship Series Finale to determine the season-long points winner.
It will consist of a 72-hole, stroke-play event that will feature a field of 90 players.
The event will help determine several factors, including the season-long points list, which players retain their cards for the next season, and it will crown a season-long champ.
It will also help to set the field for the 32 golfers that will participate in the Tour Championship.
“I think one of the issues with the [current] Tour Championship was that I don’t think anyone really felt that it was culminating in crowning the best golfer in the world,” PGA Tour commissioner Brian Rolapp told ESPN. “I feel like calling it the playoffs was almost doing it a disservice because it was just a separate competition. I think we’ve established how you determine the best golfer in the world, and then we’ve established a really great competition in a format that fans want to see that is just a different set of skills over a period of time.”
The Tour Championship will take on a bit of a similar look to the World Cup as the first week will be a three-round, group stage competition that will split the 32 golfers into eight groups of four.
The top two players from each group will move on to the second week, with a playoff being utilized to break any ties at the end of the group stage.
The advancing golfers will then compete in a match-play style bracket to decide the Tour Championship winner.
Golf legend Tiger Woods applauded the changes.
“The conclusion of the season should be worthy of the journey it takes to get there,” Woods, the chairman of the PGA Tour Future Competitions Committee, said on X. “Today’s announcement is a result of the hard work and passion of our players. Excited to usher in a new era of match play on the [PGA Tour].
The PGA Tour is going through several massive changes in the years to come, which also include the move to a Championship and Challenger Series format.
The new format will mark the first time that the Tour will utilize match play in its postseason.
The PGA Tour said as part of its announcement that the Tour Championship will rotate annually among a number of prestigious venues that will include courses that are not traditionally featured on the modern Tour.
