A day after the PGA Tour announced the first Championship Series event – the Travelers Championship, which has been a signature event and was expected to remain an upper-tier stop under the circuit’s new competitive model – a surprise second tournament was added to the expanding 2028 lineup on Tuesday.
The Tour announced that Sompo, an insurance and financial services company, will take over sponsorship of the Napa, California, event beginning next year at Silverado Resort, July 29-Aug. 1. Beginning in 2028, when the Tour implements the new competitive model with Championship and Challenger series events, it will become an upper-tier event and relocate to another market, according to the press release.
The new competitive model beginning in ’28 will include 23 to 24 events, including the four major championships, The Players Championship and the international team event, either the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup. That schedule will run from February to August.
According to a source with knowledge of the situation, the Tour is making progress with both series in terms of sponsorship and the expectation is to have the full ’28 Championship Series event schedule released in late January.
New agreements, like the multi-year deals announced this week involving Sompo and Travelers, are in the $33 million to $37 million range per year depending on the tournament’s location and golf course. Championship Series events will have $20 million purses.
Following last month’s announcement of the new competitive structure, the Tour’s broadcast partners are supportive of the new model, particularly a player-driven move to implement a new match-play format for the Tour Championship, which will rotate between prestigious courses that have never hosted Tour events.
Last month, Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said the Championship Series would include existing events, like the Travelers Championship, as well as new markets, like Boston, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. According to the Tour source, the circuit already has one new market lined up for 2028 and are in deep discussions with various other cities.
The Northern California Tour event moved to Silverado Resort in 2014 and has been played primarily in September and October but isn’t on this year’s schedule fall schedule.