The PGA Tour is starting to fill in the Championship Series portion of its 2028 schedule with a pair of announcements this week, one of them a surprise.<\/p>\n
Sompo, a multinational insurance holding and financial group that is part of Japan-based Sompo Holdings, will be the title sponsor of one of the premier events on the 2028 schedule that will have $20 million purses and the top tier of players.<\/p>\n
Sompo will get started next year at a familiar place \u2014 Silverado Resort in Napa, California, where Scottie Scheffler won the 19th and final edition of a fall event in 2025. But it won\u2019t be staying there when the tour shifts to its \u201cChampionship\u201d and \u201cChallenger\u201d tracks in 2028.<\/p>\n
The 2027 tournament will be July 29 to Aug. 1 \u2014 two weeks after the British Open \u2014 and televised by CBS on the weekend. Still to be determined is the name of the tournament and, of greater interest, the new market for 2028 and beyond. That will be announced later.<\/p>\n
The PGA Tour is eager to hit larger markets where it doesn\u2019t have a regular presence, such as Denver, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco and New York.<\/p>\n
James Shea, the CEO of Bermuda-based Sompo Property & Casualty, said the partnership is a \u201cmajor opportunity for Sompo to further expand our global brand awareness and showcase the strength of our business to customers, partners and communities around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday, the tour announced the Travelers Championship outside Hartford, Connecticut, would also be part of the Championship Series. That was expected. The Travelers has been one of the highest performing tournaments during the FedEx Cup era that began in 2007 and has offered $20 million prize funds since 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been an extremely successful tournament by every metric,\u201d PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said last month at the Travelers Championship, where he introduced the concept of the Championship and Challenger series. \u201cI think they do a lot of things that we\u2019re looking for in a Championship Series event.\u201d<\/p>\n
The chase is on to catch Tiger Woods<\/p>\n
Tiger Woods went to the top of the PGA Tour career money list when he was runner-up at Torrey Pines on Feb. 13, 2000, and he has stayed there ever since. His last check for finishing last at the 2024 Masters ($44,400) pushed his career earnings to $120,999,166.<\/p>\n
Being passed is inevitable and now is in clear view. It\u2019s just a matter of who tops him first.<\/p>\n
Rory McIlroy, who lost in the quarterfinals of the 2009 Match Play in his PGA Tour debut, is second on the list at $116,446,772. Scottie Scheffler, who cashed his first PGA Tour check in 2018, moved to $116,364,411 with his runner-up finish in the 3M Open.<\/p>\n
That leaves both of them just over $4 million away from Woods coming into the lucrative FedEx Cup postseason \u2014 $20 million purses at two playoff events, and the Tour Championship with its $40 million bonus pool that now counts as official money.<\/p>\n
The Army captain is expanding his horizons<\/p>\n
Former U.S. Army captain Marcus Plunkett<\/a> reached one goal when he qualified for his first major at the British Open and made the cut. And then his journey just got started.<\/p>\n Plunkett raced back from Royal Birkdale to play in U.S. qualifying tournament for the PGA Tour of Australasia. First, he had to stop at a sporting goods store to buy a push cart for the four-round event. He tied for second at Kinderlou Forest Golf Club near Valdosta, Georgia, to earn his card for the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n \u201cI was definitely a little delirious round one, but as the week\u2019s gone on, started to feel a little bit back to normal,\u201d Plunkett said.<\/p>\n He said he has never been to Australia, but all his friends from Down Under have told him the coffee is the best, \u201cso I\u2019ve got to see if they\u2019re pulling my leg or not about that.\u201d<\/p>\n Plunkett, who spent five years in the Army after graduating from West Point, already has had a Korn Ferry Tour card and currently plays the Asian Tour.<\/p>\n \u201dI have Asian Tour status so I\u2019m trying to figure out the balance of the two moving forward,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019m really excited to get out to Australia and get on the links out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Scheffler\u2019s majors mirror his season<\/p>\n Scottie Scheffler had the lowest combined score to par in the majors this year, finishing at 21-under par, but without a major trophy for the first time since 2023.<\/p>\n The world\u2019s No. 1 player was runner-up at the Masters, tied for fourth in the U.S. Open and British Open and tied for 14th in the PGA Championship. What does it all mean? That he\u2019s been playing pretty good golf, much like the rest of a 2026 season that features five runner-up finishes but only one win.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that I\u2019ve always kind of prided myself on is the consistency. That\u2019s something that shows that I\u2019m playing some pretty good golf,\u201d Scheffler said last week before the 3M Open. \u201cIt just hasn\u2019t been quite good enough to win some tournaments. I still feel like my game\u2019s in a good spot and I\u2019ve played some nice golf.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t played any great golf yet, but I\u2019ve played some nice golf over the course of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n The not-so-magic number<\/p>\n