PGA Tour moving to match play for two-week Tour Championship

Tour CEO announced further changes to structure starting in 2028

Wyndham Clark is congratulated  by Rory McIlroy after winning the BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club last Sunday. Pic: Kevin C Cox/Getty Images

The PGA Tour is reshaping its postseason for 2028 by ending the year with a Tour Championship played over two weeks at different golf courses involving match play.

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp announced the changes Tuesday before the Tour Championship, which currently is 72 holes of stroke play for the top 30 players. Whoever wins the tournament is declared the FedEx Cup champion and earns $10 million in official money from the $40 million purse.

Starting in 2028, the BMW Championship — the only postseason event that rotates is being held that year at Olympia Fields near Chicago — will be for the leading 90 players on the points list. Points from the season continue, and the leader will be the season champion and bonus money distributed accordingly.

The top 32 after the BMW Championship will be broken into eight groups of four-player pools. The leading two players from each pool advance to the final event, which will be match play over four days. Even players eliminated early will play through Sunday to determine final positions.

That means the BMW Championship will offer three trophies — the BMW Championship, the Western Golf Association and the PGA Tour Championship Series Finale.

And the second week of the postseason will have no trophy at all — it’s all about being among the 16 players who advance to the last event.

Meanwhile, Nick Faldo said events like the Irish Open are among the "best events" that former LIV players may want to return to.

Speaking prior to the British Masters at the Belfrey, which he is hosting, Faldo also said the DP World Tour "has a huge opportunity rest of the year" due to the PGA Tour season ending this week. 

Asked about LIV Golf, where the final event took place last weekend, Faldo said: "Well, it looks like from the outside, there's more players trying to leave LIV than trying to go to it now. Obviously losing the funding, I don't honestly know what's going to happen, but my goodness, the so-called 2.0 is going to be pretty weak if it carries on, so I doubt it. Who knows.

"But it's good for many of the players. It sounds like [Jon] Rahm and Tyrrell [Hatton] want out and want to come over and come back to playing. Once they sort out how they feed their way back into the Tour, it's going to strengthen world golf again. That's probably the most important thing.

"Guys want to get back. I've been around 50 years now. I played my first Open 50 years ago, first Ryder Cup 50 years ago next year. What are the five biggest tournaments in the world? Four majors and the Ryder Cup, isn't it, what we deem proper golf, classic golf.

"And we have many great events on European Tour, American tour, and it's still just 72 holes, great atmosphere, great golf course, that's it. If you get that, that's why we love golf, isn't it. If you find that boring, well, fine, you're never going to get it. But we all know those are the best events, aren't they, and that's how golf is played.

"So that's my real bottom line on it. They went off on gimmicks trying to "super charge" the excitement of golf. Well, golf is golf, isn't it. Look how the best events, The Irish Opens, or we had the World Match Play, didn't we, Jack's tournament and Arnold's. They have all stood the test of time. It's just proper golf.

"So sounds like that's what the guys want to come back and play."