The Arnold Palmer Invitational’s place in the PGA Tour hierarchy remains uncertain as incoming Commissioner Brian Rolaap finalizes an overhauled scheduling model set to begin in 2028.
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The tour already has altered the annual event at Bay Hill Club and Lodge in Orlando. The tournament will move to March 18-21 in 2027, immediately following the Players Championship, the PGA Tour’s flagship event — played after the API since moving from May to March in 2019.
The API will remain one of the tour’s elevated events in 2027, while offering a $20 million purse. Akshay Bhatia captured the 2026 title in a sudden-death playoff against Daniel Berger.
As the PGA Tour works to complete the 2028 schedule, API tournament director Drew Donovan remains confident the event will retain the star-studded fields and prestige it has enjoyed since Palmer moved the tournament to Bay Hill in 1979.
“We feel strongly about our position on the tour schedule and within the PGA Tour and will be monitoring further developments as they are announced as it pertains to the 2028 season and beyond,” Donovan said.
Speaking Tuesday ahead of this week’s Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut, Rolapp did not commit to a scheduling model beyond 2027. But with Tiger Woods making his first public appearance since undergoing treatment for his health, the former NFL executive said 10 of 15 regular-season events had been designated in a new “Championship Series.”
“We look forward to announcing these events soon,” Rolaap said.
Shortly after becoming PGA Tour CEO in June 2025, Rolaap formed the Future Competitions Committee to redesign the tour’s competitive structure.
Under the proposed model, a Track One circuit for the game’s top players would feature 23-24 events, including the four major championships and season-ending Tour Championship. Those tournaments would offer purses of at least $20 million and 120 players, up from the roughly 70-player fields featured at current elevated events.
The API is a strong candidate for Track One status.
Track Two events, known as the “Challenger Series,” will feature fields of 144 players and purses of at least $4 million.
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The top 90 golfers determined by a season-long points list will retain Track One status for the following year, while 20 players would earn promotion from Track Two.
Rolaap also said the Tour Championship will transition to a match-play format while rotating among premier venues.
Even if Palmer’s tournament retains its elites status, its position on the spring calendar bears watching.
The revived Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral is scheduled the week before the Players Championship in 2027. The event returned to April 30-May 3 after a 10-year hiatus that included four LIV Golf events at the South Florida resort.
If that order remains unchanged in 2028, players seeking to compete in all three marquee events would need to play three consecutive weeks.
Rolaap acknowledged the challenge, noting it is being weighed as the tour’s sweeping changes come into focus.
“We understand that PGA Tour members cannot play every week, nor are we requiring them to do that,” he said. “They’re not under contract. We’re not going to force them to play anything. But we do think we’ve designed a model that will allow them to take some tournaments off and still compete for the regular-season title and other things.
“If you look at the math, we think we will deliver very, very strong fields week in and week out, and that’s the entire point.”
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Edgar Thompson can be reached at [email protected].