PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced the Tour's 2025 schedule on Wednesday in Memphis.
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Not much.
If you’re bored by the nuance of Signature Event scheduling and shifting title sponsors and just want to tell your buddies that the 2025 PGA Tour schedule is out and they say, “cool, what’s changing from this year?” feel free to steal that two-word summary. Not much.
And if your buddies happen to follow up with a question, something like, “hey, what’s going on with that LIV-PGA Tour deal…?” you could probably use the same two words, with a caveat for safety. So far, at least, not much.
Don’t take my word for it, though. On Wednesday, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was in Memphis at the FedEx St. Jude Championship to announce the schedule and was asked this question:
Does the release of the schedule now indicate that there’s not going to be anything with LIV, at least through next year or ’26 or ’27?
Monahan needed just four words in response.
“I think that’s fair.”
If those short, sweet answers satisfy your curiosity, feel free to scroll along to whatever’s next. But if you want a little deeper dive into each of those two questions — what’s changing on the PGA Tour and what’s going on with the LIV deal — well, let’s get into it.
The 2025 PGA Tour Schedule’s out. What changed?
On Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. ET the PGA Tour emailed its players tipping them off to the impending release of its 2025 schedule. An hour later they released the full thing. And, at first glance, the 2025 schedule looks a lot like the 2024 schedule.
So what does the schedule look like?
-There are 36 “regular season” events plus the three-event FedEx Cup Playoffs, which means the season again runs from January to August, not including the FedEx Cup Fall.
-Those 36 events are comprised of the four majors, the Players Championship, eight additional Signature Events, 18 full-field “normal” PGA Tour events and five opposite-field events (now called “Additional Events”).
-The Tour was keen to highlight that the schedule is “fully sponsored,” pushing back against the narrative that the Tour is in trouble with tournament sponsors.
-Monahan referred to 2025 as the “second year of this reimagined schedule,” so through that lens the continuity makes sense.
-The 39 events from January to August take place in 18 different states plus Puerto Rico as well as a handful of countries: the Dominican Republic hosts an opposite-field event, the national opens of Mexico and Canada are each PGA Tour events, the Scottish Open is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour and DP World Tour and Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland is hosting the Open Championship.
What are the changes, then?
-The majors change every year, so let’s start there. The Masters will be played at Augusta National (okay, that’s not a change) while the PGA will head to Quail Hollow Country Club in Charlotte, N.C., the U.S. Open goes to Oakmont Country Club just outside Pittsburgh, Pa., and the Open returns to Royal Portrush at the northern tip of Northern Ireland.
-The Wells Fargo Championship has become the Truist Championship; when Wells Fargo let its sponsorship expire, Truist recently signed a seven-year deal with the Tour to take over the Charlotte event.
-Because Quail Hollow is hosting the PGA, the Truist Championship — which is a Signature Event — will take place at the Philadelphia Cricket Club for 2025 before returning to Quail Hollow in the years that follow. Oddly, the Truist Championship at Philly Cricket Club (a Signature Event) will happen the week directly before the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow (a major) and in some ways it feels like they should just flip the venues and play the Truist at Quail Hollow and the PGA at Philly Cricket…
-The RBC Canadian Open will take place at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley for the first time.
-The Canadian Open (June 2-8) is also back in its place on the schedule the week directly before the U.S. Open (June 9-15), flipping spots with the Memorial Tournament, which is now one week earlier (May 26-June 1) and because the U.S. Open is at Oakmont you now have something of a Midwest swing, or a cities-kinda-near-the-Great Lakes swing.
-It’s been interesting to see how the Tour stacks Signature Events with majors. Do you put ’em before majors, after majors or steer clear altogether? For 2025 the Masters will again come the week before the RBC, the PGA will come the week after the Truist and the U.S. Open will happen the week before the Travelers, while the Open Championship sits on its own.
-The ISCO Championship, the opposite-field event formerly known as the Barbasol, will now be held at Hurstbourne Country Club in Louisville, Ky., still the week of the Genesis Scottish Open.
-The BMW Championship, the second event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, returns to Caves Valley in Owings Mills, Md., where Patrick Cantlay outdueled Bryson DeChambeau back in 2021.
-The Signature Events made two tweaks: No. 1, they’ll mandate a minimum field size of 72 players. No. 2, Tiger Woods will have a special exemption to play whenever he so chooses.
What does this mean for LIV-PGA Tour negotiations?
Like I said earlier: so far, not much. And that seems significant. There’s surely far more going on behind the scenes, but whatever that “something” is does not seem to have the PGA Tour and LIV on the brink of a blockbuster deal. Monahan was asked Wednesday about negotiations with LIV’s backers, the Saudi Public Investment Fund. Here’s how he sidestepped that question:
“There’s tremendous momentum [on the PGA Tour]. I think that’s reflected in the energy you see coming in the Playoffs, the ’25 schedule, and we’ve seen and continue to see a lot more innovation, and certainly the conversations with the Public Investment Fund are an important part of the journey that we’re on this year and that we’ll continue to be on, and as I’ve said before, you’ve heard some players comment on, we continue to be in regular dialogue. I’m encouraged by that. But I’m really not going to offer more than that and not negotiate in public.”
Let’s add testimony from a few other relevant figures. First from Patrick Cantlay, who is on the Tour’s board — though not its “transaction subcommittee”:
“Well, it’s definitely quieted down, and I agree with you, there hasn’t been as much chatter the last few months, which has been nice,” he said. “I think that’s just kind of the nature of it. There’s going to be ebbs and flows, depending on what kind of information comes out or what announcements.”
He added that “whenever we do get a meaningful update, that’ll come back to the board, and then I’m sure we’ll have a discussion about it.” Which implies that there has not been a “meaningful update.”
Then there’s Rory McIlroy, who isn’t on the board but is on the transaction subcommittee. Has it been eating up his time?
“I haven’t been on a transaction committee call since June, maybe, at the Memorial,” he said. “The players aren’t expected to hop on those Monday, Wednesday, Friday calls. I actually haven’t been on one — it’s been wonderful. It’s been great.”
I’m sure it has! But again, not encouraging in terms of progress.
Then there’s Phil Mickelson, who spoke last week about his time with the PGA Tour. He used the past tense describing the Tour, while he added he plans to be involved with his current franchise, the HyFlyers, “probably through the rest of my life.” That suggests he’s planning on a lengthy LIV lifespan.
“My focus has changed to building something different. I tried for decades internally to do it with where I was at, and I feel like this is a better way to go to achieve the things that I want to achieve in the game.”
So if you’re fired up for another PGA Tour season to look and feel like this one, there’s reason to feel good about the stability of the product. But if you’re waiting for reunification, for Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm at TPC Sawgrass, for peace in the golfing world, don’t hold your breath.
You can find the full 2025 PGA Tour schedule below this lovely Phil Mickelson video.
2025 PGA Tour schedule
Dec. 30-Jan. 5 The Sentry (Signature Event) Plantation Course at Kapalua
Jan. 6-12 Sony Open in Hawaii Waialae Country Club
Dylan Dethier is a senior writer for GOLF Magazine/GOLF.com. The Williamstown, Mass. native joined GOLF in 2017 after two years scuffling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams College, where he majored in English, and he’s the author of 18 in America, which details the year he spent as an 18-year-old living from his car and playing a round of golf in every state.
