PGA Tour’s approved 2028 entry rules: top 90 stay, 20 rise from Challenger Series

What the PGA Tour has actually approved

On 15 September 2026, the PGA Tour announced Board-approved membership and eligibility rules for its new competitive structure. The two-tier format is scheduled to begin in the 2028 season, with results from 2027 determining much of the inaugural membership. This is a professional-tour competition regulation, not an amendment to the R&A/USGA Rules of Golf or the World Handicap System.

The existing structure will be replaced by the PGA Tour Championship Series and PGA Tour Challenger Series, each with its own points list and entry categories. Annual promotion and relegation form the central mechanism, but a few supporting pathways remain subject to further decisions.

Championship Series: retention and promotion

Under the standard annual system, the top 90 players retain Championship Series membership while the top 20 from the Challenger Series move up. These are core categories, not the total size of every tournament field: additional categories cover winners, college players, medical extensions and other qualifying routes.

A winner of a Championship Series event, including THE PLAYERS and majors under the series eligibility provisions, receives membership for the current season and the next two. Multiple victories in the same season do not extend that exemption beyond two subsequent seasons. Two wins in a single Challenger Series season bring promotion to the top level. The No. 1-ranked PGA Tour University player after the NCAA Championship gains Championship Series access for the remainder of that season and the following one.

There will be no alternate list for the Championship Series. However, certain events, including THE PLAYERS and majors, can retain their own eligibility criteria. Membership of the elite series should not be confused with an unconditional place in every separately governed championship.

Who can play in Challenger Series?

The Challenger Series is designed around 144-player fields, with reductions possible when circumstances require. Eligible groups include golfers relegated from the Championship Series, those ranked 21st–90th on the previous Challenger points list, 20 Korn Ferry Tour graduates, designated winners and pathways through PGA Tour University and Q-School.

Two open-qualifying places are available at selected Challenger events held in the same week as a Championship Series tournament. Standalone Challenger events will not use open qualifying. The series may also offer up to two designated exemptions per event.

The 2027 transition: 70, 95 and 175 are not interchangeable

The permanent top-90 principle must not be applied retroactively to the transition season. The top 70 on the final 2027 FedExCup list after the playoffs qualify for the 2028 Championship Series. Following the fall events, the top 95 on the final FedExCup Fall list also qualify for the top tier; positions 96–175 earn Challenger Series status. Because categories can overlap, those numbers must not simply be added together to estimate field size.

In addition, the top 10 on the final 2027 Korn Ferry Tour points list go directly to the Championship Series for 2028, while the next 30 available players, beginning with No. 11, go to Challenger. The top 10 finishers at the 2027 Final Stage of Q-School earn Challenger membership for 2028. Existing exemptions earned by the end of 2026 that extend into 2028 or beyond will be honoured for their remaining term.

Last chance: approved, but not until autumn 2028

A separate autumn “last chance” series will feature at least four events and award three Championship Series cards. Crucially, its first edition will be staged in autumn 2028, after Q-School. It is not an entry route for the inaugural Championship Series season at the start of 2028. Eligible contenders must play every event, subject to medical exceptions.

For 2028, the Championship Series will also operate a dedicated points system awarding 300 points for first, 200 for second and 150 for third. Points attached to non-members’ finishing positions will not be reallocated. These are competition points for the new series, not a universal scale for every professional tour.

What remains unresolved?

The PGA Tour explicitly says a possible pathway for leading DP World Tour players is still under discussion. Further details of the development structure are due to be considered at the 16 November 2026 Board meeting. Neither item should be presented as an adopted eligibility rule today.

Bottom line: the membership rules approved on 15 September establish future routes into the highest level of the PGA Tour. Most begin with the 2028 season, while 2027 is the transition year. They do not change scoring or handicap rules.

Primary source: PGA Tour, 15 September 2026.

Image: archival illustration of the FedExCup trophy photographed in 2009; Steve Burns / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Not a photograph of the 2026 announcement.