The future format of the PGA Tour is coming into focus, and right now it doesn’t include a return trip for 50 golf players.
On Tuesday morning, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp announced that the Tour has completed the two-track qualifying system, set to begin in 2018, and ways that players can move between the upper-tier Championship Series and the lower-tier Challenger Series.
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“We are committed to maintaining the meritocracy of our sport and building a competitive model that rewards excellence and creates a clear path for the top players in each career,” Rolapp said, adding “the new eligibility structure … will do just that.”
At the same time Rolappus briefly addressed the elephant in the room, and announced that there was no room for him. With LIV Golf currently in financial straits and players uncertain about their future, Rolapp has made it clear that the PGA Tour will not be providing a boat, or any kind of return opportunity, like the one Brooks Koepka used earlier this year.
“We’re currently planning a returning member program like the one you saw in January,” Rolapp said. “Everyone on the PGA Tour, myself included, is looking at what’s best for the organization,” he said, adding that the goal now is “to build the best tournament model for the future.”
Explaining the two-order structure
That future will include two lines of competition, with the opportunity to move between the two depending on the policy. The 2027 season will be set, which will start from the 2028 season.
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Once fully prepared, the Championship Series will include players meeting a number of criteria, the top 90 players from the previous season, the top 20 players from the previous year’s Challenger Series, and the two-time winners of the previous season’s Challenger Series. Winners of any Championship Series event or the major in previous years wins a two-year exemption.
Players in the Challenger Series and new to the PGA Tour can play their way into the Championship Series through a variety of routes and through the “last chance” series. Challenger Series participants can qualify through the University PGA Tour, Korn Ferry Tour, Q School, or by winning a major within four years, among other ways. The “last chance” series will offer three slots in a series of laughs.
For the 2017 season, players will be able to qualify for the upcoming two-track format by winning tournaments, with each tournament format — the major/signature event, the full-field event, and the opposite event — offering different exemptions for the 2018 season and beyond.
While the specific qualities of each series are primarily up to the players and their stakeholders, the overall motivation is clear: to play good golf as in the Challenger Series, great golf as in the Championship Series.
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The Tour also announced a points system for the Championship Series, with the goal of rewarding both winners and strong finishers, while at the same time giving value to making the cut. Players will effectively compete with each other for points, theoretically making it easier for fans to decide who is playing well over the course of a full season and who is in danger of falling out of the top flight.
The winner of the tournament will receive some 300 points, with second and third place receiving 200 and 150, respectively. A finish of 65 will receive thirty points, and no finish below will earn points. As with exemptions, this will be easier to realize in practice than in expansion.