The PGA Tour released its full 2025 schedule on Wednesday. Largely an exercise in copying and pasting, the 2025 schedule features a very recognizable structure, a few minor date swaps, and a timeline that finishes up before the NFL season gets underway.

Brendan Porath, Joseph LaMagna, and Will Knights all have longer takes below. A few other key takeaways from the “new” calendar before we dive in:

    • The Memorial Tournament is moving back to its normal date, meaning the Canadian Open gets sandwiched between the Memorial and the U.S. Open. That poor tournament can’t catch a break.
    • Also, per the PGA Tour press release, “The RBC Canadian Open (June 2-8) will make its debut at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley (North Course), just the eighth facility to host Canada’s national men’s open golf championship since 1977.” Interesting use of the word “just”!
    • The Truist Championship at Philadelphia Cricket Club will take place May 8-11, 2025. Pack a layer just in case.
    • Pebble Beach will once again host a signature event. Maybe this year they’ll be able to get all 72 holes in.
    • Who is the player hosting the “player-hosted” event at Bay Hill? And what’s the difference between that and the CJ Cup Byron Nelson? Do words have any meaning in this categorization scheme? When does life truly begin and end in this world? (This is a BP submission, aim your ire at him.)

Static Sigs

By Brendan Porath

What I am hearing and seeing is that the theme of the entire schedule for next year seems to be a snoozy predictability, or “more of the same.” In line with this, one thing that jumps out is the newly static nature of signature events. This includes a second consecutive year under the “signature” moniker after riding the elevated → designated → signature carousel for a while before this. There is still a subcategory to this subcategory in the form of “player-hosted” signatures – those are the ones with cuts at Riviera, Bay Hill, and Muirfield Village.

When the entire concept of this elevated tour-within-a-tour came to light, it was proposed several times by those officially associated with the Tour that there would be some annual rotation, mixing and matching which events received signature status from year to year. This does not seem to really be happening. We were told this might keep the “others” events engaged – the tournament organizers themselves, the sponsors, and the fans in the markets – via the possibility of getting “signature” status and the best in the world coming to town every X years. For example, we heard how cool it would be if all the best in the world played a signature-level John Deere once per decade or so. But now that elevated circuit seems quite solidified, with the usual suspects like Harbour Town, Travelers, and the Truist (nee Wells Fargo). Maybe this is even for the best. It offers predictability and year-over-year expectations for sponsors, players, and fans of which events, and which weeks of the year, actually matter the most. But it’s certainly less exciting, and a bummer for any of the “others” that have hopes of any upward mobility. It’s also not what was originally proposed.

Hope, a Fool’s Errand

By Will Knights

When LIV first started bucking its head, the general sentiment amongst golf fans was that the disruption would at least lead the PGA Tour to change its ways and improve its product. We even saw hints of innovation with the introduction of designated/elevated/signature events, a reduction in the size of the FedEx Cup playoffs, and a restructured fall season. But now, three schedule releases after LIV’s launch, it’s clear that any hope for real change was wasted emotion.

PGA Tour fans have long been frustrated by a lack of ingenuity and a double-stuffed schedule full of bloated events. The hope with the signature event model was that there would be a clear hierarchy of events, which fans and players could use as the guiding light across a busy season. Just two years later, those events feel increasingly normal. The FedEx Cup playoffs, while definitely more competitive on the front end, remain a facsimile of any real playoff system. And many of the country’s top golf markets remain boxed out on a yearly basis.

Fans surely hoped they would see an improved product and a more competitive structure in the face of external, deep-pocketed competition. Instead, we’re three years in and the only concrete change has been a boost to purse sizes. Expecting real improvements may have been a fool’s errand all along.

Rinse and Repeat

By Joseph LaMagna

Death, tax exemptions, and a PGA Tour schedule that looks exactly like last year’s.

If you were looking to predict the 2025 PGA Tour schedule, you could just grab a copy of the 2024 schedule and you’d be damn close. I understand that professional golf is its own unique sport. The focus should be on creating the most competitive tour with stops at the most compelling venues—not trying to replicate the successful endeavors of other sports leagues. Yet the contrast between how fans react to this and how they react to schedule releases in other major sports is hard to ignore.

In other sports, schedule releases are highly anticipated events. When the NBA schedule drops, fans rush to find out which teams are going to be playing on Christmas Day, for example. NFL schedule releases have evolved into major social media spectacles, driving engagement from hardcore fans eager to see when and where their favorite teams will be playing.

But when it comes to the PGA Tour? The schedule release stirs virtually zero excitement. Everyone already knows what to expect. It’s essentially last year’s schedule with a couple minor tweaks, like the refreshing yet temporary addition of Philly Cricket Club. Meanwhile, major markets like New York City, Chicago, and Boston continue to be neglected, while Florida and Texas dominate the schedule once again.

As Brendan touched on, predictability and consistency in venues do have their benefits for the PGA Tour. Securing sponsorships and locking in golf courses well ahead of time is crucial for the business. Otherwise, the Tour could be left scrambling for venues at the last minute, which comes with a host of infrastructural, logistical, and financial problems. And credit where it’s due – the overall quality of venues has improved in recent years, with Memorial Park in March being a notable enhancement.

But wouldn’t it be nice if the PGA Tour schedule release came with a bit of surprise? There’s a case to be made that introducing variety in tournament formats and/or venues would engage fans far more than the current rinse-and-repeat approach. Consistency works well from a (short-term) business perspective, but it does little to spark excitement among fans.

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