PGA Tour pro names biggest change he's happiest about with 2028 schedule

Long-time PGA Tour pro Joel Dahmen has welcomed the sweeping changes planned for 2028 but believes veterans could face an uphill battle to remain competitive.

The North American circuit is moving to a two-tier structure in two years' time, with the introduction of a Championship and Challenger Series. 

Players will switch level at the end of the season based on performance. Golfers who win twice on the second tier will earn automatic promotion. 

The new model was approved by the Tour's policy board in June and is designed to keep the world's leading players together more consistently and increase the consequence of poor performance. 

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp, who will take over as commissioner from Jay Monahan at the end of the year, also believes that fans will also have a clearer season-long storyline. 

Dahmen told FrontOfficeSports in a recent Q&A that the biggest thing he's happy with is clarity, adding: "It's defined what the future looks like, it's defined what your number is.

"Because even this past year for me, [I] started off with some conditional status, but played well enough, that got me into signature events, got to play Bay Hill, I played the Players.

"And then a couple weeks later I wasn't getting into fields that were like regular events. So it was just kind of up and down and all over the place.

"And I think at least going forward, you know where you're going to play, you know what your schedule is going to be, and you know what you need to do to get to the next level, you know, to get up to that championship series. 

"So, I don't have a problem with it. I'm just glad that we know what we're doing."

Dahmen said he hopes to play at the top level for at least five or six more years. 

"I think this affords me, you know, a definite opportunity to do that," he said. 

One of the biggest criticisms of the PGA Tour in recent years is that too many playing opportunities are awarded to veteran players. 

Before the 2025 campaign, the number of fully exempt cards on offer was 125. This has been reduced to 100. 

Dahmen believes the growing strength of younger golfers will make it increasingly difficult for older players to hold on to their places.

"I mean, the game of golf is more competitive than it's ever been," he said.

"The younger players are coming up. 

"They're as good as they've ever been, and you have some veterans like myself, you know, trying to hang on as long as possible out there."