With the focus understandably on the PGA Tour’s main product, particularly the Championship and Challenger series that are coming in 2028, CEO Brian Rolapp reiterated on Tuesday at East Lake that the pathways won’t be forgotten.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, pathways will still be an important part of what we do,” said Rolapp, who went on to name PGA Tour University, Korn Ferry Tour and even PGA Tour Americas, which is currently the PGA Tour’s third and lowest leveled circuit.
“We’re focused on those pathways. … What they look like exactly, we’re still figuring out, but they will continue to be an important part of the Tour.”
Rolapp added that “all eligibility matters,” even as it relates to the top two tiers. He said he anticipates eligibility, for both the bridge year in 2027 and beyond, being sorted by the PGA Tour’s Sept. 15 board meeting. As for full details on what the pathways will look like starting in 2028, Rolapp gave a November timeline for when that will be finalized.
With the Champions and Challenger tours featuring 120- and 144-player field sizes, respectively, and their membership totals running slightly above those numbers, whatever pathways are slotted underneath those top two tiers will, at best, be filled with available players from outside the top 280 or so in priority.
But if both Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Americas continue to exist as separate, full tours, the PGA Tour, as a whole, could be providing upward of 600 playing opportunities, not including whatever comes from its partnerships with the DP World Tour and Asian Tour.
As for PGA Tour University, currently the No. 1 player in each senior class receives a PGA Tour card for essentially one-and-a half seasons, same with any players who satisfy the Accelerated program. This summer, Virginia’s Ben James was the PGA Tour U No. 1 while Auburn’s Jackson Koivun activated his membership after becoming the third player to achieve Accelerated, which was created a few years ago (Gordon Sargent and Luke Clanton were the first two).
Additionally, PGA Tour award KFT status to Nos. 2-10 in the class and Americas status to Nos. 11-25.
While nothing is finalized, Golf Channel has spoken with people around college golf, including several top college coaches, and the prevailing expectation is that No. 1 in PGA Tour U would receive status on the Championship series, with the rest landing on the Challenger and lower tours.
What happens to Accelerated graduates is more of a question. Ideas include either those players only earning Challenger status, or the program becoming tougher while still sending grads to the top tier.
Right now, players must achieve 20 points to satisfy Accelerated, and players, like Koivun did, can earn an 11-point chunk by winning all three national player-of-the-year awards, plus the national freshman-of-the-year honor. One more option is for Accelerated to be tiered as well, with either Championship or Challenger status being awarded based on two thresholds; Koivun, who won the 3M Open in just his third start as a PGA Tour member, totaled 42 Accelerated points while Clanton and Sargent just eclipsed the 20-point requirement.
“It’s been a successful program,” Rolapp said of PGA Tour U. “You see the performance of some of these young members out there who do amazing things. We want to do more of that, not less. How many cards and where they go, I think, is still being determined. But I can say, much like all of our pathways, we’ll continue to invest in PGA Tour U.”