Why Scottie Scheffler may be unhappy with planned changes as new 2028 PGA Tour schedule is announced

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Scottie Scheffler is one of the PGA Tour’s biggest stars, so it goes without saying that he is someone who the leadership will be keen to keep happy.

Scheffler has won 20 PGA Tour events since February 2022, including four major championships.

The 30-year-old world number one always plays a specific schedule where he will compete in no more than 19 or 20 tournaments per season, including the majors and the playoff events.

Scottie Scheffler is one of the PGA Tour‘s two poster boys, alongside Rory McIlroy, of course.

Scheffler has been nowhere near his best this season, but he is still currently sitting at the top of the FedEx Cup points list.

He is arguably the best competitor in the game and he approaches every single tournament, regardless of the size of the event, with the same focus and hunger to win.

Scottie Scheffler may be unhappy with planned PGA Tour changes

The PGA Tour released a statement on Tuesday, outlining the changes that are set to come into play in 2028.

There will be 20 Championship Series Events with $20 million purses and 20 Challenger Series Events with $4 million purses.

There were many positives, including full field events returning, with halfway cuts.

Match-play coming back is a huge positive, as well as the TOUR Championship being “contested across a rotation of prestigious courses – many of which the PGA TOUR would play for the first time.“

The PGA Tour are returning to their meritocratic roots, and that in itself is a huge win.

However, Scheffler may be slightly irked after he reads one specific line of the statement – “PGA TOUR Championship Series players will not be eligible to participate in PGA TOUR Challenger Series events.“

Now, Scheffler loves to play the CJ CUP Byron Nelson. The great Byron Nelson is one of Scheffler’s heroes, as he is for many golfers from the Dallas area.

Potential CJ CUP Byron Nelson issue may anger Scheffler

The tournament at TPC Craig Ranch will almost certainly not be deemed as a PGA TOUR Championship Series event.

It already has one of the smaller purses on the PGA Tour and one of the weakest fields on the schedule.

So, if the PGA Tour hierarchy decide to label the CJ CUP Byron Nelson as one of the PGA TOUR Challenger Series events, Scheffler would be banned from competing in it.

And he surely will not be happy about that.

Of course, we don’t yet know which tournaments will be deemed as Championship Series events and which ones will fall into the Challenger Series category.

However, the smart money is on the CJ CUP falling down to the track two level.

There is no doubt whatsoever that Scottie Scheffler being barred from playing his hometown event, one that honors Byron Nelson, could cause a big issue when the new format comes into play in 2028.