Finally, after years of begging from golf fans, the PGA Tour is introducing match play to its postseason beginning in 2028.
In June, the Tour announced that it will roll out an entirely new competitive structure starting in 2028 with two different tracks, the PGA Tour Championship Series and the PGA Tour Challenger Series. It was assumed that the finale for the Championship Series would include some form of match play, and the Tour made it official with an announcement laying out all of the details on Tuesday.
The Top 90 finishers on the PGA Tour Championship Series points list will retain their membership cards for the following year, and those 90 players will also qualify for the Championship Series Finale. The 90-player, 72-hole stroke play event will essentially serve as the first playoff event, which will then lead into a match play event that will take place across two weeks.
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The Championship Series Finale will award two separate titles – the season-long points winner and winner of the stroke play event – and the Top 32 players on the final season-long points list will advance to match play.
The two-week event will still be called the Tour Championship, but it will be the first of its kind.
The first week will see the 32-player field split into eight groups of four that will compete in group match play across three days. The top two players in each group will then advance to the second week of the Tour Championship.
In a fun wrinkle worth mentioning, if there is a tie at the conclusion of group play, a playoff will take place to determine who will advance, instead of any sort of margin-of-victory tiebreaker or any others determined on paper.
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The second week of match play will feature 16 players who will compete in match play across four days, with the last man standing being the player who manages to win four consecutive matches.
The second week of the Tour Championship will be held at a different venue than the first week of the event. The PGA Tour stated that a full lineup of dates and venues for the 2028 Championship Series will be unveiled on February 22, 2027.
Match play is a no-brainer for the PGA Tour finale
Since the FedEx Cup was first introduced in 2007, serving as the PGA Tour’s postseason, the Tour has rolled out multiple formats. From a straightforward season-long points race to giving the points leader a cushion on the leaderboard, and now the simple format of awarding the FedEx Cup to the winner of the Tour Championship, the postseason has long needed a boost.
Making the season finale a match play event – which most would agree is not only the most entertaining but also the best format to determine a champion – was the easiest change to make. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan never got around to making it. Soon-to-be PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp announcing the change before he officially assumes his new role on January 1, 2027, can certainly be seen as a surprising sign of what’s to come for the Tour and its fans.
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The PGA Tour axed its WGC-Match Play event held in Austin, Texas, following the 2023 tournament. While the match play event typically fell at an odd time on the calendar, it was beloved by the overwhelming majority of fans as it was something different.
Having a two-week match play event to close out the year on two separate courses should provide nothing but positive returns for all involved.
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