It came as no surprise when it was confirmed that the Sony Open and the Sentry at Kapalua would be no more. Tracy Wilcox, PGA Tour via Getty Images
Even as the PGA Tour pauses from its power-packed six-week run that includes two majors and three signature events to play the Zurich Classic of New Orleans this week – where the field includes the please-introduce-yourselves teams of Casey Jarvis-A.J. Ewart and Pontus Nyholm-Jesper Svensson among others – the future keeps coming.
It’s still challenging to fully narrow the focus, but the confirmation on Monday that the tour’s traditional season-opening doubleheader in Hawaii will be no more (first reported by Sports Business Journal) is another indication of the coming changes to the PGA Tour.
They may not be as radical as initially suggested but saying goodbye to Hawaii reconfirms the idea that the tour prefers to start later in January than almost immediately after New Year’s Day when the NFL is in full flight.
The end of the Sentry at Kapalua and the Sony Open in Hawaii did not come as a surprise. It has become increasingly expensive to operate those events though it’s likely the Sony event will shift to PGA Tour Champions to give the senior circuit a two-week start in Hawaii.
Sentry, meanwhile, is reportedly in line to take over as the title sponsor at Torrey Pines, where the Farmers Insurance deal expired after the event earlier this year.
Throw in the fact that some top players – Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry among them – prefer to start their seasons picking their spots on the DP World Tour’s Middle East swing and the Hawaii equation became more problematic.
Traditionalists will miss those January shots from Kapalua and Honolulu and will likely find themselves waiting for the American Express or Torrey Pines events in southern California to kick off the 2027 season. Whatever other changes come, it will probably be 2028 or beyond before the new schedule model is fully operational.
Still less than a year into his job, Rolapp now has the added wrinkle of deciding how to handle the potential downsizing or demise of LIV Golf. He has already demonstrated a willingness to accommodate players interested in returning to the PGA Tour but those moves come with stipulations.
At the RBC Heritage last week, Maverick McNealy – a member of the PGA Tour’s Future Competition Committee – told Golf Channel that the much-discussed makeover of the tour schedule probably won’t be as dramatic as some have suggested.
“I don’t think you’re going to be seeing big, huge, drastic changes because we’re the best tour in the world and we put on the best golf tournaments in the world. It would be crazy to completely blow that up and change everything. We’re just making tweaks to make it better,” McNealy said.
Maverick McNealy, a member of the PGA Tour’s Future Competition Committee, does not envision “big, huge, drastic changes.” Dylan Buell, Getty Images
Among the tweaks is the expected decision to move the Tour Championship away from East Lake in Atlanta, probably after the 2027 event, confirmed by a source. Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has expressed an interest in making alterations to the season-ending format and there have been discussions about playing the finale at a West Coast venue to provide prime-time viewing on the East Coast.
Still less than a year into his job, Rolapp now has the added wrinkle of deciding how to handle the potential downsizing or demise of LIV Golf. He has already demonstrated a willingness to accommodate players interested in returning to the PGA Tour but those moves come with stipulations.
Jordan Spieth, a former member of the PGA Tour Policy Board, said last week that there had been discussions during his time on the board about how to handle players interested in returning, and news of LIV Golf likely losing its primary source of funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund after this season raises the issue again.
Rolapp, appearing on “The Pat McAfee Show” this week, indicated the tour will consider pathways back for players but pointed out that the PGA Tour will respect the contracts players have with LIV.
“We’ll react when we have an opportunity to react, but right now, we’re focused on making the PGA Tour better,” Rolapp said on the ESPN show.
“But listen, I’ve said it publicly and I’ll say it again: I’m interested in whatever makes the PGA Tour better. That’s what my job is. That’s what I’m interested in doing. That has no limit. That’s how I’ll focus on it.”
Scheffler prefers to play no more than two weeks in a row, though he did play three consecutive weeks earlier this year at Phoenix, Pebble Beach and Riviera.
While Rolapp has pointed to a future schedule with 15 or 16 signature-level events in addition to the majors, the Players Championship and the playoffs, the current run of big events illustrates the challenge of bringing all of the top players together more often.
Last week, both Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose skipped the $20 million RBC Heritage, and it’s probable other top players will skip the Cadillac Championship and Truist Championship, the two signature events preceding the PGA Championship.
Among those taking a pass might be world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who typically plays both the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and the Charles Schwab Challenge in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which are slotted between the PGA Championship and the Memorial Tournament, another signature event.
Scheffler prefers to play no more than two weeks in a row, though he did play three consecutive weeks earlier this year at Phoenix, Pebble Beach and Riviera.
It’s one more piece in the puzzle of trying to put together the best version of the PGA Tour.
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