The PGA Tour are set to introduce massive changes in 2028.

CEO Brian Rolapp, tasked with improving the PGA Tour’s position in the broader global landscape, is revamping the schedule. Match play is coming to the postseason, all events will carry equal value, and the season will be reduced to about 20 events. 

To bring PGA Tour events into the mainstream spotlight, Rolapp said the new schedule will start much later, after the Super Bowl. This decision shows just how confident the tour was that LIV Golf was no longer a threat. 

The PGA Tour did not think LIV Golf were a threat

There are clear benefits to shortening the PGA Tour schedule. Now the tour has an undistracted market for their biggest events with the NFL season concluded, and with fewer events, each one now means more.

But one big downside is that the tour is completely surrendering the early part of the year. That time used to be an exciting one for dedicated fans, who kicked off the year by watching the West Coast Swing. Now it’s an empty slate.

When LIV Golf was at its peak, this would have been baffling. It’s easy to forget that LIV was once a genuine threat to the PGA Tour, with endless money and some of the sport’s biggest stars.

If the tour were to have done this three years ago, it would have opened the door for LIV Golf to dominate the early part of the year with less competition. But the PGA Tour weren’t concerned about this for the 2028 season.

Brian Rolapp gives you the opportunity to make one change to the PGA Tour, what are you doing?

What is top of your agenda?

When these changes were announced, we weren’t quite at the beginning of the end for LIV. They were still funded by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, events weren’t being canceled, and bankruptcy wasn’t looming.

But Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed left, they signed no one in the offseason, and sentiment grew that the tour’s progress had stalled completely. This sentiment clearly echoed through the halls of PGA Tour HQ. 

By aligning the first two months of the year with their new schedule, the PGA Tour said it wasn’t concerned about competing with other golf tours. They’re now looking at the larger sporting landscape.

In retrospect, that was an early sign that LIV Golf’s time was over.

DP World Tour is the big winner from the PGA Tour’s new schedule

While LIV Golf is unlikely to hoover up any of the attention from the PGA Tour’s January absence, the DP World Tour is sitting in waiting. Since they started playing second fiddle to the PGA Tour, they have had to operate in the windows outside the regular season, and that window has just widened. 

Currently, the DP World Tour’s biggest events happen in the fall, when the PGA Tour is out of the limelight. Their playoffs happen at the end of the year, and their other big events take place at the start of the year before the PGA Tour gets in full swing. 

But now the DP World Tour has the whole of January and most of February with very little competition. Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood and co will have little to do after the New Year, so expect to see them play much more on the DP World Tour.

The tour should begin planning some bigger events at the start of the season to take advantage of this vacuum. The PGA Tour just sent them a gift.