PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp spent Tuesday evening at TPC Craig Ranch laying out a potential two-track future for the tour to a few dozen players, describing how tournaments could be split into an elevated top tier and a second-tier circuit. Rolapp answered questions in the clubhouse as he walked players through the plan that would rearrange fields, purses and access across the schedule.
The numbers Rolapp described are stark: the top track would include roughly 23 elevated events — including the majors and the playoffs — with 120-player fields at regular-season tournaments, while a second track would consist of about 20 tournaments played with 140-man fields. Reporting has pegged the top tier at about 20 to 22 events with purses of at least $20 million and the second tier with purses between $8 million and $10 million, with promotion and relegation between the two.
Players who heard Rolapp were blunt about the consequences. Eric Cole said, "It was a lot of talking points, but they definitely have an idea with what they want to do with the tier." He added a warning rooted in this week’s field: "If they go to 120 players, that’s going to eat into the level of players here. It’s certainly more people than you have now in the designated events." Joel Dahmen was even more direct about what that would mean for events like the CJ Cup Byron Nelson: "I would think this would be a lower-tier tournament," and, "It’s just a tough time of the schedule for a lot of people. They would have to be willing to change the date in the schedule to get a better field." Tony Finau raised the specter plainly: "This tournament could be in some trouble," and, "You just have to see what could happen and what the Tour is thinking."
Those concerns are not abstract at TPC Craig Ranch this week. Scottie Scheffler, the defending champion and the only player in the top 20 of the Official World Golf Ranking in the field, leaned on his history with the event: "I have a lot of strong feelings for this tournament, and I hope nothing but the best for it," he said, while acknowledging he has limited sway: "But like I said, a lot of those decisions [about its future] aren’t in my hands. If the Tour wants my opinion, I have nothing but great things to say about this event." Scheffler has played the event since he was 17 and has won it once with a record-low score; Jordan Spieth, another regular at the Byron Nelson, is among only three players in the world top 50 in this week’s field. Scheffler and Si Woo Kim are the only players in the top 20 of the FedEx Cup standings teeing it up.
Context matters: the CJ Cup Byron Nelson is being played the week after the PGA Championship, a scheduling fact that contributes to its diminished field. The tour already has a crowded spring; next year's PGA Championship is set for May 20-23 at PGA Frisco East, just 15 miles west of TPC Craig Ranch, and the tour has not announced some of the 2027 Florida tournament dates. That uncertainty opens a window in the calendar — the Byron Nelson and next week's Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial could be slotted anywhere from March to May — and those dates could determine which tier a tournament falls into.
The tension in Rolapp’s pitch is procedural as well as practical. Reports say the plan would include promotion and relegation between tiers, but other coverage warns that players eligible for the biggest events from 2028 onward "may be discouraged or prohibited from playing Track 2 events." That possibility would deepen the divide the plan is supposed to manage: elevated purses and smaller, star-studded fields at the top, and larger-entry, lower-purse events below — a structure sure to hollow out weeks that have historically relied on strong local ties and steady, if not superstar, fields.
Players are already weighing trade-offs. Jon Drago said he would be willing to move the CJ Cup Byron Nelson date if needed, and others argued tournaments would have to change dates to preserve stronger fields. Rolapp’s meetings began in earnest two weeks ago at the Truist Championship, and they continued this week as the tour’s leadership fields pushback and tries to refine the mechanics. What happens next is procedural: the Tour must announce final choices on dates and access rules, and players will watch whether the Tour adopts restrictions that steer tier-one eligible players away from track-two events. If it does, tournaments like the Byron Nelson will face a stark choice — find a new calendar home or accept a downgraded status — and the result will be a different pga tour schedule by design, not accident.
