Tiger Woods on how less is going to be more for the PGA Tour
Ahead of the Genesis Invitational, Tiger Woods is asked about potential changes to the PGA Tour schedule, which may have fewer tournaments.
If desert golf fans were hoping for some insight into the future of The American Express tour event in La Quinta this week from Tiger Woods, well, let’s just say the details remained a little vague.
Woods is of course one of the all-time great players and the host of the Genesis Invitational being played at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades this week. But Woods is also the head of the PGA Tour’s Future Competitions Committee, and in that roll, he has a lot to say as the tour hashes out the details of a leaner tour in 2027 and beyond.
In a pre-tournament press conference Woods talked about his possible return to the PGA Tour after more health issues kept him off the tour for all of 2025. But he was also asked for his thoughts on what the future of the PGA Tour would be. For the most part, Woods stayed to the corporate line that fewer tournaments and fewer exempt cards for the tour would be better.
“It’s quite a bit of a challenge on both sides, from the physical golf side of it for me, from trying to do the right thing for all of our membership and our partners and everyone who’s associated with the PGA Tour, and trying to do that and trying to make our product even better going forward, given the challenges we have to face,” Woods said.
While the specific subject of The American Express never came up, Woods did talk about the West Coast Swing, once the seven-event swing through Hawaii, Arizona and California that started each calendar year. But the two Hawaii tournaments seem finished, and the PGA Tour is talking about starting each season after the Super Bowl in February. There aren’t enough weeks to have a five-event West Coast Swing that starts in mid-February.
But Woods might have left the door open a bit for some radical changes to the West Coast. What about moving some of the events to later in the year, with the Genesis perhaps becoming a FedEx Cup playoff event in August.
“I think that, one, you’re going to get weather not like this,” Woods said on a cold and raining day in Los Angeles. “That’s number one. We’re going to have perfect days. It’s always perfect in So Cal here in August. So yes, we’re looking at things like that, looking to go to bigger markets later in the year for the playoffs.”
Well, there are at least two tournaments that aren’t moving to August, The American Express and the WM Phoenix Open. August is a no-go zone in the desert for outdoor sports. But that might mean that The American Express, Phoenix and probably San Diego could be staying in the winter. Assuming, again, that those tournaments make the cut. Nothing is certain as the tour as Woods work to put together a new schedule, and even when that schedule will start isn’t certain, Woods admitted.
“We would like to have it happen in 2027. We may have to roll it out over a couple-year period,” Woods said. “We may not be able to implement all of it in 2027, but there will definitely be parts of it integrated or changed than from what it is now in ’26 into ’27.”
So for now, tournaments like The American Express, with a solid sponsor signed through 2028 and with a huge increase in television ratings because the No. 1 player in the world won the tournament, has to sit and wait. And there are still those wondering what all the fuss is about, since from the fan perspective the PGA Tour is still producing a good product with a great winner. Is this change for change’s sake, or will it really make for a better tour?
Woods isn’t the sole voice making decisions about the future of the PGA Tour, but he is an important voice. For now, he’s not letting too many details slip about the moves and the cuts to come.
“I thought I spent a lot of hours practicing in my prime. It doesn’t even compare to what we’ve done in the boardroom,” Woods said. “It’s been challenging. We’re trying to do the right thing. We’re making some great strides.”
Larry Bohannan is the golf writer for The Desert Sun. You can contact him at (760) 778-4633 or at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on X at @larry_bohannan.