Tour Championship goes to match play in 2028 as players split

The PGA Tour's season finale switches to match play in 2028, and one of the change's leading advocates is a player who spent the early part of the debate against it. Adam Scott, a player director on the Tour's policy board, said in St. Louis that he had reversed his position and then helped shape the format.

“I was strongly against the concept,” Scott said.

What the new Tour Championship looks like

Under the plan, the FedEx Cup trophy goes to the winner of the season-long points race, and the Tour Championship becomes a separate event decided by match play. It is conceived as a limited-field, limited-attendance television event held at a rotation of established courses, without the usual tournament build-out, and could be sold as a standalone media rights package the next time the Tour goes to market. CEO Brian Rolapp is expected to fill in details at his State of the Tour press conference on Tuesday in Atlanta.

Scott's original objection was the mismatch of playing a full stroke-play season and then deciding it under another format. Enough players said the same that the idea looked finished when it surfaced roughly 20 months ago, as part of the review that produced Commissioner Jay Monahan's line about everything being on the table.

Scott has said reworking the FedEx Cup was his main reason for standing for the policy board, with the aim of giving the trophy standing comparable to the Lombardi Trophy or the Stanley Cup. He and fellow player director Keith Mitchell worked on a version of match play they judged workable. Scott also argues the calendar helps, with the finale falling shortly before the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, both contested at match play in alternating years.

Fitzpatrick questions the playoffs themselves

Not everyone accepts the premise. Matt Fitzpatrick, speaking ahead of the same tournament, described the current FedEx Cup structure as weird and said that as an Englishman accustomed to league titles decided across a whole season, he is not convinced golf needs a postseason at all. In his view the player with the most points from January onward should take the title, which this year points to Scheffler.

Fitzpatrick does back the direction of recent changes. The Tour has reduced the points weighting on playoff events and reworked prize distribution from the days when the Tour Championship winner collected everything, and East Lake previously used a staggered starting-score system.

His remaining complaint is that players who lock up a top-50 or top-30 place can coast, or skip the opening playoff event as McIlroy did last year. Golf Monthly reports Scheffler banked $10 million for topping the regular-season standings and stands to collect $23 million more for finishing first in FedEx Cup points.

What changes for fans

Nothing changes this month: the 2026 Tour Championship is played next week in Atlanta under the current format. From 2028 the finale is designed as a small-gallery television event at a rotating set of venues, which means fewer tickets to chase and no fixed host course to plan a trip around — a real shift for anyone used to putting East Lake in the calendar every August.