Quail Hollow Locks In PGA Elite Status as Tour Rips Up Its Playbook for 2028

Charlotte's Truist Championship just locked in a permanent home among the PGA Tour's most exclusive events. The tour announced that the tournament, played every May at Quail Hollow Club, will become part of a new top-tier Championship Series beginning in 2028 — guaranteeing the city a spot alongside golf's four majors and its most storied international team competitions for years to come.

According to WBTV, the Championship Series will consist of 23 to 24 premier events running from February through August, featuring the tour's top performers competing head-to-head. The series will include the Players Championship, the four major championships, and international team events such as the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, the station reports. Quail Hollow Club has hosted PGA Tour competition since 1969 and became Charlotte's annual May stop in 2003, a run that also includes the 2017 and 2025 PGA Championships and the 2022 Presidents Cup, according to Front Office Sports.

A Postseason Overhaul Built Around Match Play

The move comes bundled with the biggest change to the tour's postseason in years. Per the station's report, the top 90 Championship Series players will advance to a finale that trims the field to the top 32, and for the first time, the Tour Championship will be played in a head-to-head match-play format rather than stroke play.

That two-week postseason event will see 32 players split into eight group-stage pods of four during the first week, with the top two from each pod advancing to a 16-player knockout bracket at a separate venue the following week, according to Women's Golf Journal. It marks the format's return to the tour schedule since the WGC-Match Play was discontinued after 2023, and the first time match play has ever decided the PGA Tour's postseason, as theScore notes.

The overhaul was shaped by the tour's Future Competition Committee, a nine-member panel chaired by Tiger Woods and established in August 2025, per WKZO. Woods reportedly expressed enthusiasm about the change on social media following the announcement. PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp first introduced the two-tiered structure in June 2026, splitting the tour into the Championship Series and a secondary Challenger Series featuring $4 million minimum purses with promotion and relegation elements.

What It Means for Charlotte and Quail Hollow

Truist Financial Corporation signed a seven-year agreement through 2031 worth nearly $200 million in August 2024 to become title sponsor of the tournament, replacing Wells Fargo and keeping the event's $20 million Signature Event purse intact. Truist Chairman and CEO Bill Rogers praised the decision to include Charlotte's tournament in the Championship Series, the station reports.

Because Quail Hollow was hosting the 2025 PGA Championship, that year's Truist Championship was temporarily relocated to Philadelphia Cricket Club before returning to its home course in 2026. The club's long resume, which also includes hosting the Kemper Open from 1969 to 1979, helped make the case for its permanent inclusion among the tour's premier events, according to Front Office Sports.

A Transition Year Before the Big Change

Before any of this takes effect, the tour still has a 2027 season to play. That schedule, announced this month, functions as a transition year with 36 regular-season events and eight Signature Events — including the May 2027 Truist Championship — before the two-tier structure kicks in for 2028.

Charlotte isn't alone in North Carolina's newly elevated standing. In July 2026, the tour folded Greensboro's long-running tournament, now renamed GO by Raymond James, into the 2028 Championship Series as well, ensuring the state holds two elite regular-season stops. That event traces its roots to 1938 as the Greater Greensboro Open, according to Front Office Sports. Other tournaments confirmed or slated for the Championship Series include the Travelers Championship, Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Sentry, The Memorial Tournament, and the Sompo Championship.

The full 2028 PGA Tour schedule will be released and finalized on February 22, 2027, per WBTV's report. Several details remain unresolved, including host course rotations for the new match-play postseason and the financial structure of the secondary Challenger Series. For Charlotte golf fans, the takeaway is straightforward: the world's best players will keep coming to Quail Hollow, and starting in 2028, they'll bring a Championship Series and postseason bracket unlike anything the tour has run before.