As PGA Tour Mulls Schedule Revamp, CBS Has Input on What’s Next

CBS Sports executives don't believe their product will suffer if some longtime PGA Tour stops are cut as drastic changes to the schedule are considered.

CBS Sports has had conversations with the PGA Tour about what the future of the schedule should look like. | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

Could the PGA Tour’s West Coast swing, as we know it, cease to exist after this year? 

That’s certainly a possibility. New PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has preached the idea of increasing the circuit’s “scarcity,” and it’s been speculated that the season could begin after the Super Bowl in the upcoming years as Rolapp and the Tour’s Future Competition Committee, led by Tiger Woods, look to revamp the schedule. 

“We’re trying to figure out what is the best schedule possible so we can create the best fields and have the most viewership and also the most fan involvement,” Woods said in December. “Looking at different timetables of when we start and finish, different tentpoles throughout the year and what that might look like.”

CBS Sports executives, however, are putting the brakes on the idea that their product could suffer if some longtime Tour stops get the axe. 

“We’ve been thrilled that we and other media partners have been asked to participate in conversations with Brian and [Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan] and Joe Gorder and John Henry [Strategic Sports Group members that invested $1.5 billion in the for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises] and Tiger Woods and [FCC member] Adam Scott and so on and so forth,” said David Berson, president and CEO of CBS Sports, in a conference call Tuesday, “because they know we too care immensely about this game, about this Tour and about the future of it. 

“I wouldn’t jump to conclusions too soon about what those changes will be. They’re still in the process of assessing. But the fact that we’ve been asked to give our take, it means a lot to us because again, we care so much about this.”

The first of CBS’s 22 PGA Tour telecasts in 2026 is this week’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. The event, usually the fourth of the season, has been played since 1960, and in recent years has had a Saturday finish to avoid conflicting with the NFL’s conference championships. Now, however, it’s back to a typical Sunday finish, being contested the week before the Super Bowl. There were still benefits to the tournament concluding in prime time on Saturday night, but this year, it’ll occupy a golden television window. 

“As long as the NFL has an open weekend [after the conference championships], and that could change moving forward with their schedule, I have no idea where that’s going, but this to me would be the No. 1 piece of real estate you can have on the West Coast for television,” said Jim Nantz, CBS’s lead golf and NFL commentator. “.You’re not competing against football. And I think there’s something exciting.

Farmers is in the last year of its sponsorship and the company isn’t expected to renew. However, there’s reportedly strong interest in the event, and perhaps it could be moved to another point in the season. 

The first two events of the 2026 season were only on the Golf Channel, not on network television, going head-to-head with the NFL playoffs. The Sony Open in Hawaii, which is rumored to be going away after this year, averaged 106,000 viewers for the final round, according to Sports Business Journal (that’s down from 344,000 in 2025, when there was an NBC lead-in). Although, Scottie Scheffler’s American Express win last week yielded an average audience of 617,000 people, a 127% spike from a year ago. 

“I don’t want to minimize that Scottie won last week and it was a great performance by our greatest player of this time,” Nantz said. “But it was going on against a rather high-profile event [the NFC and AFC championships] that would be in the tens of millions as far as audiences.”

The Tour recognizes that it can’t compete against the NFL, and Rolapp knows that as well as anyone, considering he was previously the NFL’s chief media and business officer (“I didn’t cheer for teams [with the NFL], I cheered for television ratings,” Rolapp said last year). 

Not everyone is a fan of tightening the schedule, though. 

“Obviously, I think we’ve all heard starting maybe after the Super Bowl and then going through to the end of August before the football season starts again,” Rory McIlroy said after Monday’s TGL match. “That seems very condensed to me. Seems like a lot of golf in a pretty short period of time, depending on how many events they want to play.”

The stars still deliver ratings

But regardless of where and when the Tour plays, there’s one factor that usually generates a ratings boost. 

“We see viewership increases when big names and stars are playing,” said Berson, “and then when they’re near the top of the leaderboard. For example, the signature events lately have generated greater viewership than the non-signature events. It’s somewhat logical and the data supports that.”

In 2025, CBS had its most-watched PGA Tour season in seven years, broadcasting six signature, non-major events. In 2026, CBS will have each signature tournament except the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Travelers Championship. 

So as CBS enters its 69th year of televising the PGA Tour, it’ll be more of the same. Next season, though, could look different, but scheuelde tweaks won’t be made without the network’s input—and that has CBS, which has a media rights deal with the Tour through 2030, bullish about what lies ahead for the sport.

“Super excited for what’s being discussed and explored for the future of the Tour,” Berson said. “We have such a great partnership dating back close to 70 years now. As a leader in the sport, we’re ready. We’re really excited and looking forward to building on this momentum.”