Does the future of PGA Tour Champions hinge on Tiger Woods? We asked around
Adam Schupak- Tiger Woods becomes eligible for the PGA Tour Champions in 2026, sparking debate about his potential impact on the senior circuit.
- Some players and analysts worry that Woods playing on the Champions Tour could overshadow and devalue regular PGA Tour events.
- The PGA Tour Champions faces uncertainty about its future profitability and relationship with the main PGA Tour under new leadership.
- Despite financial concerns, the senior tour has strong sponsorship deals and visits many markets not served by the PGA Tour.
Is Tiger Woods ready to say, “Hello world,” at 50 and do for PGA Tour Champions in 2026 what Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino did for senior golf in 1990?
Even before Woods announced last month that he had surgery again on his back and muddied the waters on when or if he’d be able to play, this had become the hot topic related to the future of PGA Tour Champions, which is wrapping up the 2025 season this week at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix.
Speaking last month at Furyk & Friends, a Champions Tour stop that will move from Jacksonville to Palm Coast, Florida, next year, Tom Pernice Jr., a 66-year-old veteran pro, voiced an opinion shared by many on the 50-and-over circuit when asked if he thought it would be like 1997 — Tiger’s rookie season on the PGA Tour — all over again, after he turns 50 on Dec. 30 to become eligible for the senior tour.
“That’s if the Tour wants him to play out here,” Pernice said. “Does the Tour want Tiger to stay over there (on the PGA Tour) as opposed to play over here? That is the question.”
Billy Andrade summed up the dilemma facing new PGA Tour CEO Rolapp, who joined the Tour in July after a hugely successful career in the NFL. While Tiger's presence playing golf anywhere would be a godsend for the Tour, Rolapp may not want the senior tour to overshadow where the bread is buttered.
“What’s the buy-in for a PGA Tour event that nobody is going to watch the minute Tiger Woods shows up to play a Champions Tour event? That’s what I think they are worried about,” said Andrade.
Tiger Woods has deal with Insperity
It's the striped elephant in the room. Consider that Tiger signed an endorsement deal to become a brand ambassador for Insperity, the HR solutions company that also serves as title sponsor for the Insperity Invitational, a long-running Champions Tour event held at The Woodlands in Texas.
While sources say Tiger’s contract doesn’t specify he has to play in the company’s event once he becomes eligible, what if he chooses to do so rather than play the Truist Championship, a signature event on the PGA Tour contested the same week in early May? Truist is reportedly paying $25 million while Insperity is paying a fraction of that — what one insider estimated to be $4 million. Jim Furyk noted that when Phil Mickelson turned 50 and won Furyk & Friends, the TV ratings of the event topped the PGA Tour’s now-defunct Las Vegas tournament that week. It’s safe to say that if Tiger ditches Truist for Insperity, there will be a mass exodus of media canceling rooms in Charlotte for Houston, not to mention all the TVs tuned to seeing Tiger over Rory McIlroy.
Andrade, for one, expects Tiger to find the Champions Tour to his liking and not just for the cart that will be at his disposal.
“What happens to everyone is they get out here and it’s a major adrenaline rush,” Andrade said. “I think his competitive nature is going to trump anything else and he’s going to want to play. I could be wrong and maybe his leg is so bad that he can’t compete and he can’t get around, but if he shows up out here our tour is changed and it will be interesting to see how the PGA Tour handles it.”
Media would flock to Champions events with Tiger Woods
Miller Brady, the president of PGA Tour Champions, joked that he’ll arrange for a bigger media tent should Tiger make an appearance in Houston.
“I can see where someone on the PGA Tour would say we don’t want to take eyeballs away from our event, but I also think that particular weekend can lift everyone’s interest in golf. Hopefully, we have to worry about that but I can only worry about Tiger supporting our tour.”
Brady has many reasons to be optimistic about the future of the tour he’s guided since 2019 – whether or not Tiger decides to play. For starters, over 75 percent of the schedule is contracted through 2028 – 66 percent through 2029. That includes recent announcements of five-year extensions with Pure Insurance at Pebble Beach and a three-year extension with SAS last month. Charles Schwab is locked in as umbrella sponsor through 2033, and five titles have been on board for over 20 years (three more for over 15). All told, the circuit has 10 Fortune 500 companies on its sponsorship roster.
Where does Rolapp stand on Champions tour?
Rolapp got his first look at a Champions Tour event during Furyk & Friends. Stewart Cink enjoyed an hour-long phone conversation with Rolapp not long ago.
“He’s in a perfect position to be where he’s not back-logging miles with a lot of the players and executives out here. He’s the new guy, kind of a move-fast-and-break-things type of dude. I think he will be eying the profitability of every segment of the Tour and eventually PGA Tour Champions will be on his desk and by the time that happens, I hope we can show that we’re a really good product and have a lot of value for the Tour.”
Cink took note of Rolapp’s three pillars – parity, simplicity and scarcity – which he announced during his State of the Tour press conference in Augusta and said he expects changes in the future.
“I’m just speculating through Brian’s eyes, maybe the tour gets a little smaller, maybe less players but the one thing I don’t see changing is the players that play out here are still carrying the PGA Tour logo,” Cink said. “Branding is important. We do go to places like Richmond and Little Rock and Raleigh and Des Moines and the list goes on. We go places that don’t see the Tour and so we carry a good base for that flag-carrying for that PGA Tour brand.”
In 2026, 22 of the 28 events on the tournament schedule are played in markets where the PGA Tour doesn't play. The other concern among the senior players is the shift to a for-profit model and what that could mean for a circuit that used to require a hefty subsidy from the big tour, and while its balance sheet is much improved, it’s still striving for profitability.
“I personally think this Champions Tour could go away with our new board that we have and our new CEO. They already took $2 million away from us out of our pension fund just out of the blue,” Pernice said. “They told Miller Brady basically, ‘You need to figure out a way to be profitable.’ Now, we don't have a TV contract, so that's kind of hard. And our costs are $800,000 each week to put on TV, so do the math and that’s around $25 million in operating costs. But we don't get any of the revenue from TV, which is part of the PGA Tour deal.
"So, are we a burden to the PGA Tour? We could be done. If they're for-profit and they have venture capitalists that are going to come in and if you're not making a profit, they're going cut you. So there's people out here worried that this could be done in three or four years. And then, what's our value? Can we go to someone else to see if they want to take it over? It's a good question.”
Pernice wondered if an umbrella sponsor could be found to absorb the TV costs and pension for $35 million or more.
“The initial feel out here is the Tour feels that we're not making a profit, we’re a burden and they're going take away our retirement points out here. Why do we need the Tour? That is our question.
“There's a lot of us players that just want to know where we stand and where we fall. You know, if that's going to be the case, let us know ahead of time. We can go shop around. I mean, I'm 66, I'm not going to be out here forever, but it's a great product for our sponsors, our sponsors like our product to entertain their clients with all the pro-ams we play in and social functions. It's way better than on the regular tour, as far as entertaining clients. Now, TV-wise and big names, obviously not, but big names only are playing in the elevated events anymore. Is our name recognition better than it is going to play in the John Deere? Maybe so. So things are going to change. Anybody think it's going to be the same, it's not.”
Pernice wasn’t done yet.
“We're a bunch of guys that think playing for $2 million a week is way below our value. A lot of us think we should be playing for three or four million (per tournament) based upon name recognition. You know, the demographics of the people that watch golf the last 20, 30 years, they know a lot of the Champions Tour guys more than they do the guys that are playing this week in (Bermuda). My whole deal is, how much value do we have? We really don't know being under the PGA Tour umbrella. And that's fine, if they're going to keep us under the umbrella and treat us correctly. But we have to see if that happens.”
David Toms took a similar stance, making the point that the Champions Tour isn’t really about Friday to Sunday, the tournament days.
“That’s really a bonus,” he said. “They want to entertain their customers with golfers that they know. That's how they're able to sell it. I mean, if you're selling it as your brand's going to be highlighted in this tape-delayed broadcast on Golf Channel at 8 o'clock at night, that's not what you're buying it for, in my opinion. You're buying in for your customers playing the pro-am with Fred Couples, Jim Furyk, Stewart Cink, guys like that.”
If Tiger plays on the Champions, where would he play?
Which brings us back to the original question of Tiger. His health is an unknown quantity in determining how much — if at all — he can play, but most players think he’ll target these events:
Soft landing spots for Tiger would be Furyk & Friends and American Family Insurance Championship, which is hosted by another Tiger buddy in Steve Stricker, who he could possibly partner up with at the team event or perhaps Notah Begay III, as well as the Hoag Classic in Newport Beach, Calif., not far from where he grew up and just two weeks before the Masters.
“He’s always saying he needs more reps,” Pernice said. “This would at least give him some reps and alleviate that problem, if you will.”
Winning the U.S. Senior Open is the ultimate prize as it would make him the first player to claim the U.S. Junior, U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open and U.S. Senior Open, which would be quite the feather in his cap.
The Senior PGA Championship and Senior British Open – especially at St. Andrews – would be next on the list with the Kaulig Companies Championship at Firestone, where he has fond memories, and the Pure Insurance Invitational at Pebble Beach likely being longshots but perhaps holding sentimental value. And, of course, the Insperity Invitational if he wants to do right by a sponsor.
Tiger’s status could hold the fortunes for the Champions Tour, which is why Cink smiled and said, “He might have to say, ‘Hello world,’ one more time.”