PGA Tour players react to bold, new postseason format

ATLANTA – The PGA Tour is reimagining its postseason yet again. 

In case you missed it on Tuesday, the Tour announced that in 2028 it will shift to a 90-man field for a stroke-play event to determine the season-long points winner. Only 32 will move on to a two-week match-play competition at rotating venues for the newly christened Tour Championship.

The Tour Championship has undergone more facelifts than Elizabeth Taylor. But Tour CEO Brian Rolapp and his Future Competition Committee may have finally struck gold – and not just because they finally are giving the fans what they want and what journalists have been clamoring for. It only took two decades. Here’s what some of the competitors in this week’s event think of the changes.

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“I like the fact that the Tour kind of had the courage to really step outside the box on this one and not do some sort of contrived variant of what we have or what we have had with a match play tournament previously.

This is new and exciting, and I feel like could be — from a playing standpoint, I hope it’s going to be a really fun end to what’s going to be a tough season of golf. I hope the players will find that it’s a fun finish and they can enjoy it.

I think also, too, more from the commercial side of things, I think there’s a lot of flexibility with this format moving forward, and it can adapt and hopefully thrive to whatever conditions we face in the future.

It’s completely different than anything we have in golf. We don’t have an event over two weeks. You can’t really compare golf to other sports but we see longer competitions in other sports. Maybe the first one that comes to mind over two weeks is like a Grand Slam in tennis.

I feel like there’s a real opportunity for people to kind of buy in over a two-week period and grow as the tournament carries on. I’ll be interested to see if that happens or if that’s not the case.

As we see with World Cup football or other events that are longer, there’s a chance for it to really develop and it’s not over so quickly. I think that’ll be interesting, and I think it could work well for the Tour Championship, which should be an important event on our schedule.”

“It’s certainly different. Two weeks, two different venues. But it’s cool. I think they’ve taken a big swing, and conceptually, I think I really like it,” McIlroy said. “The first week will be great trying to get into that top 16, and then the second week, I think for me, one thing I said to Brian is you really want to win a few matches in that second week. It’s going to be hard for some guys to be playing match play and playing for 14th position or whatever it is.

“I think all the incentives are there, and the regular-season champion is going to be adequately rewarded after that final stroke-play event, and then the Tour Championship match play is going to be completely different. But I think it’s sort of a departure from what we’ve had the last few years, but I do think it’ll be a great thing.”

“I think this tournament specifically is something we fiddled around with. When you look at the playoffs for golf, it’s a bit of a different sport. It’s not like the other sports.

Starting strokes, points, I think I was in a unique position of being in favor of the points, but I can definitely see how that was confusing for the casual fan at the end of the year. If you want an exciting finish to the year, points is probably not the best way to do it.

Looking at match play, I think it’s interesting. It’s something new and fun. I think it’s something that people have been craving, especially our fans. The match play tournament didn’t have a ton of success, and I think when you look at it from that point of view, I think part of the problem was showing only two guys — I guess only four guys on the golf course at one time for your final day can be a bit boring. It can be hard, I think, for TV to fill the space.

So to change it to the format we have now where you’re going to have more matches on the course, I think could be interesting and fun. I think the first week is — it’s a little bit hard for me to kind of wrap my head around the group play. Like I said, when I show up at a tournament, I love to be able to compete and give myself a chance to win. To have a full week tournament where there’s not a winner, I think, is a bit unusual for me.

But like I said, the match play, I think it’s going to be really good. It’s fun. It’s an interesting, new way to finish the year. I think that’s something our fans have been craving for a long time. To finish off the year the right way is something exciting that our fans and partners can get behind, I think is really important.

Like you said, maybe moving away from East Lake and seeing different golf courses and maybe seeing a different tournament environment too, depending how many fans we decide to have out and depending what golf courses we’re at, I think it leaves a lot of opportunity for the Tour. Right now it’s just a framework, and that’s why I talk about the opportunity. I think it could be a really fun, interesting way to end the year.

I think it’s exciting. I think any time there’s change, I think it’s something that’s fresh and something that’s exciting. Of course, like one of the biggest points was celebrating whoever was the best — whoever is the best player consistently at the end of the season and having that separate from what will then be playoffs or match-play format.

So I think separating the two, I think, is good and a positive, and it’s what everybody kind of wanted to see.”

“The Tour Championship maybe the last few years is just — I don’t know, I don’t think it’s been right,” Clark said. “I think this new format is going to be exciting. I think going to new venues is going to be, I think, great for the fans, great for us, especially iconic ones. If we really do go to the Cypress Points and the Pine Valleys and these places that I’d say the majority of people have never seen or gotten to go to, I think will be amazing.

Then match play is where we began in golf. I think of all the great moments in the U.S. Am and old videos you saw of Bobby Jones and guys winning tournaments against a guy head-to-head, I think it’s really exciting.

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The two-week thing kind of reminds me of a major in tennis, and it’s kind of fun. Those guys spend two weeks at Wimbledon, and that’s what it is. It’s unique to golf and new to it, but I think over time people will accept it and like it a lot.”

“I don’t know how other players like it, but to me, it’s going to be way more fun than I think 72 holes play.”

“I’m a massive fan of football, well, soccer for you guys. But obviously the World Cup has that group stage, and then you keep playing until you have a winner. I think it’s a good take on the game, and it’s different than the regular season. I think it provides like an end-of-year fun, especially for the viewers at home, I think it provides something different, and that’s super exciting. I think it’s a good thing.”

Adam Schupak is a Golfweek senior writer covering the PGA Tour.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: PGA Tour players react to bold, new postseason format