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The PGA Tour is set to debut a major postseason overhaul in 2028, and CEO Brian Rolapp unveiled the Tour’s new two-tier competitive model. Tour leadership says the changes will reward excellence over a longer regular season, and while the plan marks an important first step, Player Advisory Council chairman Lucas Glover believes there is still a long way to go.

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“There’s been a lot of confusion or a lot of drawback,” Glover said to SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio. “And we’ll use Scottie [Scheffler] the last couple years when he’s gone into the playoffs with a monster lead or any player that’s gone into the playoffs with a monster lead that had a dominant regular season, whether that had been Rory [McIlroy] or Scottie or Tiger [Woods] back in the day or DJ [Dustin Johnson], whoever it may have been during the FedEx Cup era, and all of a sudden you can have an average to poor playoffs and all of a sudden your regular season is minimized or not looked on as favorably after maybe you won six events in a major.”

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Glover argued that the Tour should value a player’s regular-season work more heavily, instead of allowing a rough postseason to erase months of strong play. If someone performs against the Tour’s best over 20 to 23 weeks, that body of work should matter most, with match play and the playoffs serving as a finishing touch.

“But, you know, 2022 events, that should mean more than playing good, getting hot for one or two events, or what have you,” he added. “Then to the second part of your question about why match play, well, Twitter fans and the TV partners want it. And it makes a lot of sense. You know, you get these guys playing great head-to-head at the end, and just another kind of way to promote our product and do it the way that the feedback has been given, and do it that way.”

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The PGA Tour’s two-tier model will split the schedule into the Championship Series and the Challenger Series, with the top players competing in the former and the latter serving as the pathway up. The Tour has also built promotion and relegation into the structure, giving the new system a clear sense of movement and consequence.

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That design is meant to put more elite players in the same fields more often, which should create stronger head-to-head battles throughout the season and into the postseason. As Brian Rolapp said at the Travelers Championship in 2026, the postseason will bring back match play, a format he said fans and partners have asked for, and that shift points to a very different finish.

For the PGA Tour, that kind of setup could make the product feel sharper and more competitive. Viewership has been a challenge in recent years, so a postseason built around match play and bigger stakes could help draw more attention when the season reaches its most important stretch.

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Rolapp’s approach also lines up with Lucas Glover’s view that the Tour should reward season-long excellence more clearly. If the new model finds the right balance between merit and match play, the 2028 overhaul could reshape the way the Tour ends its season.

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Written by

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Kailash Bhimji Vaviya

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Kailash Vaviya is a Golf Journalist at EssentiallySports, combining newsroom experience with a long-standing passion for the sport. He has been following golf since his college years, closely tracking the rise of modern stars and the drama of the game’s biggest tournaments. With a background in reporting and digital media, Kailash has built a strong foundation in research-driven analysis and storytelling that connects with sports audiences. At EssentiallySports, Kailash brings this blend of journalism and passion to deliver coverage that goes beyond scorecards. Whether it’s breaking down major championships, analyzing player performances, or exploring the cultural resonance of the game, his work aims to inform, engage, and bring fans closer to the world of golf. He has also written for Comic Book Resources (CBR) and Forbes, further expanding his portfolio across sports and media.

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Firdows Matheen

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