Is the PGA Tour about to have a national-open dilemma?
One of the glaring concerns after the Tour rolled out its two-track model for 2028 is that the national opens currently on the Tour’s schedule – RBC Canadian Open, Genesis Scottish Open and to a less extent, VidantaWorld Mexico Open – risk losing even more of their openness.
The Tour’s plan calls for Track 1 events, part of the new Championship Series, to feature 120-player, all-exempt fields, meaning no sponsor exemptions or open qualifiers. Track 1 members, approximately 130 of them, will also be prohibited from competing in Track 2, or Challenger, events, which figure to still include sponsor invites and qualifiers among their 130- to 144-player fields.
While no tournaments have been tabbed as either track, the national opens would stand to lose either way. If the Canadian Open, for example, is a Track 2 event, it wouldn’t feature any of the best 130 players on the PGA Tour, including homegrown stars like Corey Conners and Nick Taylor. And if the Canadian is Track 1, it will shut out many Canadian players, including young talents who have gotten opportunities to compete for their national championship.
Add in the Scottish currently being a co-sanctioned tournament with the DP World Tour, and things get more complicated. This year’s Scottish field features six Scots among dozens of European-circuit regulars; a move under the Tour’s new model would drastically alter the tournament’s fabric.
“We’ve got to be careful with that,” Rory McIlroy said. “… You can’t call yourself a national open anymore if it’s a closed off tournament and there’s a certain number much guys. I think these events need to be treated differently than, you know, the Travelers Championship or RBC Heritage or whatever else that are going to be in the Championship Series. There’s a little bit more nuance with these tournaments for sure.”
So, what should that nuance be?
Robert MacIntyre, Scotland’s top-ranked player, believes the Scottish Open should transition back to being a full-time DP World Tour event and part of the tour’s Rolex Series. But he also noted that if the Scottish is included in the PGA Tour’s proposed international series, which has been teased to run from late August through the end of the year, it cannot move from its current place on the calendar.
“They have got to make exceptions at times,” MacIntyre said. “I think the Scottish Open has got to be before The Open. I think it will be. I think there will be exceptions. I don’t know. I have not spoken to anybody about it.”
McIlroy, having proposed such a series consisting mostly of national opens to include the Canadian, seems fine with expanding the timeframe for when PGA Tour players compete abroad.
“That could be interesting, as well, trying to build out this series of national opens that have a bit more meaning behind them,” McIlroy said.
Here’s one solution to all this, borrowing from both McIlroy and MacIntyre:
• The Scottish Open becomes a DP World Tour event again, while the RBC Canadian Open is a Challenger event.
• With the Championship Series taking the week before The Open off, those members can participate in the Scottish, which could allot more than a handful of sponsor exemptions to PGA Tour players.
• Championship players are allowed to accept sponsor invites into the Canadian Open, though they won’t earn points for either track.
• Instead, PGA Tour players who compete in both the Canadian and Scottish opens will earn points toward an international series, which will then kick into full gear in late August. That points race could culminate at the Australian Open – or even Tiger Woods’ Bahamas event – at year’s end with the top performers being awarded with big paydays.
Thoughts? It sure beats an alternative where neither McIlroy or MacIntyre are playing in front of the Scottish fans.