‘Very, Very Weird': Golf Analyst Warns PGA Tour's New Format Could Leave Iconic Events Fighting for Survival

Two iconic venues, one-tier slot—which survives? Starting in 2028, the PGA Tour will introduce a major two-tier system featuring an elite Championship Series and a Challenger Series below it. But the futures of two major Dallas-area events, the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial in Fort Worth and the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in McKinney, remain uncertain. Analyst Smiley Kaufman warned on The Smylie Show that the new format could leave the iconic events fighting for survival. Watch What's Trending Now! The PGA Tour should announce the remaining event locations and tier placements in the first quarter of 2027, and neither tournament has yet received a specific tier assignment. But Kaufman feels the Tour could invest in the Dallas market, which is larger and more commercially attractive. Therefore, if the Tour forces players to play at Fort Worth, it will ruin the iconic event. ADVERTISEMENT 'Dallas is the bigger market and the one the PGA Tour wants to be more heavily invested in. Fort Worth has more history and more of an iconic venue, one that all the players look forward to. When you stand on that first tee box, and you see all those winners on the wall, it is the PGA Tour. That's the backbone of what these guys look forward to every year—playing at a place where all the history has taken place. So that would be very, very, very, very weird to me to have a Challenger Series event at Colonial.' This comes after the PGA Tour revamped its 2027 Florida Swing with major date changes, including moving the CJ Cup Byron Nelson up a week to follow the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. These changes create a tighter three-week block of elevated Florida events before the Masters, improve weather and attendance prospects at Doral, and ease a previously crowded stretch of Signature events and majors later in the spring. ADVERTISEMENT The adjustments are transitional, coming in the final season before the Tour's full two-tier overhaul takes effect in 2028. Under the new model, the Championship Series will feature 23–24 events, including the majors and The Players Championship, with $20 million purses and fields of roughly 120 players. And the top 90 players will retain their status each year. Meanwhile, the Challenger Series will feature at least 20 events, with purses of around $4 million and larger fields, serving as the main pathway to the top tier. At least 20 players will earn promotion annually, while multi-time winners and major champions could earn immediate promotion, and underperforming players will face relegation. ADVERTISEMENT Interestingly, sponsors of Challenger Series events could face tougher financial decisions under the new structure. With elite players unable to drop down to the lower tier, these tournaments will feature smaller purses and less star power, potentially making them harder to market to sponsors that previously backed full-fledged PGA Tour events. Some sponsors have already expressed hesitation, likening the lower tier to another Korn Ferry Tour and questioning the value of investing $5–15 million in events with weaker fields. Existing sponsorship agreements could also require renegotiation. While the 2027 Florida Swing changes may create some pressure on non-Signature events, the bigger challenge is likely to emerge once the two-tier system takes effect in 2028. ADVERTISEMENT That being said, it looks like the sweeping changes to the PGA Tour's format in 2028 have left analyst Smiley Kaufman concerned about major tournaments. But only time will tell if it's really a cause for worry.