PGA Tour to launch ‘World Cup of golf’ in major overhaul

Hosting the World Cup this year has clearly made a big impact across American sport, with the PGA Tour announcing it will copy the format of the tournament in what will be the longest golf tournament ever staged in the professional game.

Brian Rolapp, the PGA Tour chief executive, had previously revealed that the circuit will undergo a radical revamp for the 2028 season, with the Tour splitting into two tiers – the championship series and the challenge series. But nobody knew what would happen to the end-of-season play-offs.

In truth, the concluding Tour Championship, which takes place in Atlanta from Thursday (local time), has never satisfied, with several iterations – always strokeplay – having not much success in helping the event live up to its grand billing and the $US10 million ($13.9 million) first prize.

But in an audacious move, the Tour has decided to stage a fortnight of matchplay.

Much like the World Cup format, the first week will see the 32 players who qualified through the Tour’s season-long points list take their place in eight groups of four, in which they will play each other in round-robin competition.

The top two in each group advance to the knockout stages, which will begin the following week at a separate course. Thursday will feature the last 16, Friday, the quarters, Saturday the semis and Sunday the final, with what is bound to be a record-winning cheque.

It sounds complicated, until you think along the lines of the finals won by Spain in New York last month, and in the explanatory video posted on the Tour’s social channels, there is a shameless nod to the long-employed system. “The format used looks more like a World Cup than a typical golf tournament,” the narrator says.

Rolapp detailed that the changes were developed by the Tour’s future competition committee – a nine-member group chaired by Tiger Woods. “We are creating something different, something distinct within professional golf that can resonate far beyond it,” Rolapp said. “It will be a gruelling, challenging and interesting way to capstone our season.”

In his press conference at East Lake – which hosts this week’s Tour Championship including Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and defending champion Tommy Fleetwood – Rolapp also addressed the issue of LIV players such as Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau returning to the Tour.

Rolapp took a harsh line on that duo, or any others, receiving the same treatment as Brooks Koepka, who was immediately welcomed back in January, albeit with a $US5 million ($6.9 million) fine and restricted status. Rahm, DeChambeau and Cameron Smith were also offered the same terms, but declined. In the wake of LIV’s demise it was evidently a one-time offer.

“No, there aren’t any plans for a ‘returning member program’ like you saw earlier this year,” Rolapp said.