The PGA Tour has taken a decisive step in the transformation of its competitive model. The Board of Directors has approved the eligibility criteria and the new membership categories that will form the basis for the two-tour structure that will come into effect in 2028, with a PGA Tour Championship Series as the top tier and a PGA Tour Challenger Series as the second tier. A system that intends to reinforce meritocracy and that introduces much clearer promotion and relegation concepts
The Championship Series will be the elite of the new ecosystem. The aim of the tour is to have fields of around 120 players on average during the season and there will be no alternates list nor designated exemptions. The top 90 in the annual standings will retain their status for the following season, while 20 players will be promoted each year from the Challenger Series
Wins will remain one of the main routes to secure retention. Any winner of a Championship Series tournament, including THE PLAYERS Championship and the majors, will have their membership secured for the remainder of that season and the following two seasons. However, unlike the current system, exemptions will not accumulate for multiple wins in the same campaign. Medical extensions and certain career milestone exemptions will also be maintained
There will also be mid-season promotion opportunities. Players who record multiple wins on the Challenger Series during the same year will be able to promote directly to the Championship Series. The annual number one from PGA Tour University will also gain direct access to the top tier after the NCAA Championship, with an additional season guaranteed
One of the issues still outstanding directly affects the DP World Tour. The PGA Tour confirms that it is continuing to study what access its top players will have to the Championship Series as part of discussions about the future of the Alianza Estratégica between the two tours. Therefore, it is still to be determined how the current access route from the Race to Dubai will look from 2028
The PGA Tour Challenger Series, for its part, will operate in practice as a second division. Its tournaments will have fields of 144 players, although these may be reduced when circumstances advise, and it will have an alternates list. There will play the golfers relegated from the Championship Series, while those finishing between 21st and 90th on the Challenger will retain their category for the following season. The top 20 will be promoted to Championship and another 20 players will arrive annually from the Korn Ferry Tour, which will continue to be the main development route within the system
There will also be access to Challenger from collegiate golf. Players finishing second to fifth in PGA Tour University will obtain the category from the conclusion of the NCAA Championship until the end of the following season, while those who achieve and accept PGA Tour University Accelerated status may also join. The Q-School will grant five further places for the following season and certain tournaments will also offer two spots coming from open qualifying
Added to all this will be a new ‘Last Chance Series’, a genuine end-of-season second chance. It will consist of a minimum of four tournaments and its top three finishers will gain a Championship Series card. Eligible participants will include, among others, players recently relegated from the top tier, Challenger members, Q-School qualifiers and certain golfers from the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour University. Those who enter this series will be required to play all its events unless for medical reasons
Before the new system comes fully into effect there will be a transition season in 2027. That year, the top 95 in the final PGA Tour standings will secure a place in the 2028 Championship Series, five more than the 90 who will retain their card thereafter. In addition, the top 10 on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2027 will gain direct access to Championship, while the next 30 available players will obtain Challenger membership
The change will also affect champions’ exemptions. Those earned up to the end of 2026 will be fully honoured, so the major winners of this year will keep their current five years and will be able to remain in the Championship Series until 2031. However, major champions from 2027 onwards will enter the new regime of two additional years of exemption
The reform also reaches points and the schedule. All Championship Series tournaments will use the same points distribution, including THE PLAYERS and the majors, with a flatter curve intended to reward wins and high finishes but also to give greater importance to making the cut
For its debut in 2028, the Championship Series will finally have 24 weeks of competition. The PGA Tour has already announced 19, including THE PLAYERS, the majors and team competitions by nation, while the remaining weeks will combine traditional tournaments with new markets and venues. The full schedule will be announced on 22 February 2027
The result will be a much more recognisable structure with direct consequences at every segment of the standings: Championship Series as the first division, Challenger Series as the second and Korn Ferry Tour as the main access route, with promotions, relegations and a final second chance. A profound transformation with which the PGA Tour intends that every tournament and every position will have much more at stake
