PGA Tour 2028 Format Confirmed

The images in this article are courtesy of the PGA TOUR

The PGA Tour has released the eligibility criteria for its new two-division competitive model, confirming how players will qualify for the elite Championship Series and the second-tier Challenger Series when the new structure launches in 2028.The PGA Tour boards approved the plan this week.

The 2027 season will run under the Tour's current, unchanged system — the FedExCup and existing tour structure continue as normal. What 2027 does determine, is who earns status on each of the two new series once they begin the following year.

Championship Series

The Championship Series will sit at the top of the new pyramid, featuring roughly 130 players competing across 23-24 events including the four majors, the Players Championship, and international team events. Purses will reach as high as $20 million at flagship events, with 120-man fields typical.

Status on the Championship Series for its 2028 launch will be earned through the 2027 season via:

•Top 70 in the FedExCup standings through the 2027 Tour Championship

•Top 95 in the FedExCup standings through the fall

•Winners of 2027 Players, Majors, Signature, and full-field events

•Top 10 on the Korn Ferry Tour points list

•No. 1 on the PGA Tour University points list

From the 2028 season onward the top 90 from the previous season's points list retain their card, with 20 promoted annually from the Challenger Series, and the remaining spots filled through multiple-win exemptions, medical extensions, career milestones and a new "Last Chance Series" in the fall.

Challenger Series

The Challenger Series becomes the Tour's primary development and relegation pathway, featuring at least 20 events with 144-player fields and purses of at least $4 million, running concurrently with the Championship Series from February through August once it begins.

Status on the Challenger Series for 2028 will be earned through the 2027 season via:

•Nos. 96-175 in the FedExCup standings through the fall

•Winners of 2027 fall and opposite-field events

•The next 30 players on the Korn Ferry Tour points list

•Top 5 on the PGA Tour University points list

•No. 1 on the PGA Tour Americas points list

•Top 10 finishers at the final stage of 2027 Q-School

From 2028 onward, promotion and relegation between the two series will run on points lists rather than the FedExCup, with the top 20 Challenger Series players promoted each year and a mid-season "battlefield" promotion available to anyone who wins twice, or claims a major, while playing on the second tier.

What's still to be decided

Several key details remain unresolved. The Tour has not finalised the remainder of the Championship Series schedule or where those events will sit in the calendar. Most notably for players outside the US system, eligibility pathways for leading players from the DP World Tour — including whether the top 10 on that tour's rankings will receive a direct route into the PGA Tour's new structure — have not yet been confirmed.

The Tour has said full eligibility criteria for both series, including any international pathways, will be finalised and released before the 2027 season gets underway. Until then, players competing on tours outside the US, including those chasing PGA Tour cards through the DP World Tour, remain in limbo over exactly how their route to the top tier will work.