Tee to Green, Part 2: The Schedule

Making sense of the new PGA Tour schedule

This is the second article in our Tee to Green Series, designed to make professional golf and the stats behind it easier to understand. To view the whole series, click here.

Why did the RBC Heritage only have 72 players last week? Why are we playing team golf in April when the Ryder Cup isn’t until September? You wouldn’t be alone with these questions. The answer lies in the sweeping reform from the PGA Tour in the wake of the formation of LIV Golf, and we’ll break it down for you here.

The Issue in 2018

At the root of this reform was the season-long FedEx Cup. Introduced in 2007, the FedEx Cup serves as the PGA Tour’s season-ending playoff series. It consists of a series of playoff events that originally took the top 125 players based on a points system for tournament performance throughout the year. Changing how the Tour operated started in the wake of the 2018 season, after Tiger Woods won the season-ending TOUR Championship, but Justin Rose won the FedEx Cup. That disconnect sparked the Tour’s first major rethink of its postseason format.

Fixing the FedEx Cup

Immediately after the season ended, it was announced that the FedEx Cup system would be changed, and a new system was designed to make the FedEx Cup race easier to follow. The 30 players who advanced to the TOUR Championship would start with a score reflecting their FedEx Cup standings, with the leader starting at -10 and 30th place starting at even par. Whoever won the tournament with those adjusted scores would be the winner of both the TOUR Championship and the season-long FedEx Cup.

Since then, the format has evolved, with only the top 70 making it to the playoffs starting in 2023 and the removal of the first playoff event, going from four total down to three in 2019. That was just the start of the disruption.

LIV Changes Everything

When LIV Golf launched in 2022, it blew the PGA Tour’s comfort zone to smithereens.

Backed by massive financial support and offering enormous, guaranteed payouts, LIV posed a serious threat to the Tour’s traditional structure. While PGA Tour players were grinding through four-day events for performance-based prize money, LIV was handing out nine-figure checks just for showing up and adopting a new team format in an attempt to drum up more interest.

It was loud and brash, blaring music from a DJ booth, playing walk-up songs, and using shotgun starts like it was high school golf all over again. Star players like Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, and Cameron Smith jumped ship, lured by the financial security and a lighter schedule. LIV isn’t going anywhere for now, and the PGA Tour had to move quickly to stay the main event in pro golf.

With ongoing talks of a merger between LIV’s backers (The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund or PIF for short) and the Tour, the situation is fluid, but the changes are already here. To retain its biggest names and avoid a full-scale talent exodus, the Tour rolled out sweeping changes.

That meant more money, but also a major rethink of how the season worked. It also forced the Tour to modernize, competing not just for talent but for eyeballs in a new era where golf had suddenly become a battleground for relevance. It wasn’t just about the money, it was about making PGA Tour golf feel like a must-see event again.

The New-Look Tour

The PGA Tour kept a lot of things the same: almost every event is still around in some form, there’s still a FedEx Cup, and there’s year-round golf. There have been a lot of changes, though, starting with the schedule itself.

In 2013, the Tour adopted a “wraparound schedule”, where a new season would begin immediately after the FedEx Cup playoffs concluded in the fall. This lasted a decade before the traditional January-December schedule returned. In this new-look schedule, the season starts with the Hawaiian swing in January and runs through August, when the FedEx Cup playoffs begin.

After the playoffs, the FedEx Cup Fall begins. This is a series of eight events for players not in the top 50 of the points standings to keep their status on tour, gain exemptions, and qualify for Signature Events (more on those in a bit). For most players, the fall is a last shot to secure status for next season: either by cracking the top 125 or picking up a win. For everyone else, it’s an absolute grind to keep their cards (Tour membership).

Remember those Signature Events we mentioned? They’re a series of limited-field events designed to reward the best players on Tour. To qualify, players must finish in the top 50 of the FedEx Cup standings from the previous year, win a tournament in the current season, or qualify through other performance-based categories during the season. Most have no cuts (meaning every player sticks around for the weekend), which means guaranteed money. They also include some of the biggest non-majors on the calendar. There are eight of these hosted throughout the year, and each has its unique quirks.

• The Sentry

  • Formerly known as the Sentry Tournament of Champions, this Hawaiian season opener keeps that celebratory spirit alive by hosting every winner from the previous season as well as the top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings.

• AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

  • Notable for its celebrity Pro-Am, where pros are teamed up with celebrity playing partners (including notorious sandbagger Larry Fitzgerald) for the tournament while also playing a PGA Tour event.

• The Genesis Invitational

  • Hosted by Tiger Woods in LA, and it shows. This is one of three signature events in the year to have a cut and is considered an invitational.

• Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard

  • Another invitational signature event with a cut, the Arnold Palmer is named after the tournament’s biggest supporter and gives Arnie’s signature (and stylish) red cardigan to the winner in his honor.

• RBC Heritage

  • Held the week after the Masters, this event is known for its “plaid jacket” handed out to the winner.

• Truist Championship

  • Formerly known as the Wells Fargo, this tournament is held at Quail Hollow Golf Club every year, famous for its “Green Mile” closing stretch.

• The Memorial Tournament presented by Workday

  • The third and final signature event with a cut and famous for its milkshakes, this invitational has been hosted by Jack Nicklaus at his Muirfield Village Golf Club since 1976.

• Travelers Championship

  • Capping off the Signature slate, this is one of the most popular events of the year and ranks second in attendance among non-majors, behind only the rowdy Waste Management Open.

None of that overshadows golf’s four biggest stages: the majors.

The Majors (and a Team Twist)

Of course, any golf season revolves around the majors: The Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, and The Open Championship. These four tournaments are the crown jewels of professional golf: winning even one can define a career, even though Talor Gooch thinks there’s an asterisk if he isn’t in the field.

• The Masters is always held in April at Augusta National, famous for its prestige, Amen Corner, and green jackets for the winners.

• The PGA Championship is run by the PGA of America (not the PGA Tour) and rotates venues each May, often providing some of the most entertaining golf of the season.

• The U.S. Open, held in June, relies on a mix of historic venues and anchor sites like Pinehurst, known for brutal rough and the self-proclaimed “toughest test in golf,” which lives up to the hype.

• The Open Championship, often shortened to “The Open,” is the oldest major in golf and rotates among 10 links courses in the UK every July.

There’s one more unusual stop on the schedule: the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the Tour’s only team-format event. Unlike LIV, the Zurich has had this format since 2017, with two-player teams playing a mix of best ball and alternate shot. It’s a refreshing change of pace and one of the more fun weeks on Tour.

Final Thoughts

Between Signature Events, a reworked schedule, and an aggressive response to LIV, there have been a lot of changes on Tour. But beneath the surface, it’s still the highest level of golf in the world. The stars are still here. The stakes are still high. And every week, there’s still something meaningful to watch. Whether you're trying to understand how it all works or just want to hold your own on the practice green before your next round, that’s what we’re here for. If this helped make sense of the modern PGA Tour, we’re glad to have you and see you soon.