{"id":357903,"date":"2026-07-30T18:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T18:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357903\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T18:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T18:59:15","slug":"arnold-palmer-invitational-in-pga-tour-championship-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357903\/","title":{"rendered":"Arnold Palmer Invitational in PGA Tour Championship Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Arnold Palmer Invitational<\/a> officially secured one of the coveted spots in the upcoming PGA Tour Championship Series beginning in 2028, a move widely expected for one of the tour\u2019s premier events but formalized Thursday.<\/p>\n

The annual event at Bay Hill Club and Lodge<\/a> in Orlando joins the Travelers Championship, a new tournament sponsored by Japan-based Sompo Holdings and The Sentry, which is moving from Kapalua, Hawaii to Torrey Pines in Southern California for its 60th edition.<\/p>\n

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp announced sweeping changes in June at the Travelers Championship outside Hartford, Connecticut. The Championship Series will replace the current signature-event model starting in 2028. The API has held the designation during the past three seasons, positioning it to become one of the Championship Series<\/a> cornerstones.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecoming one of the PGA Tour Championship Series events allows us to further recognize the strength of our tournament while celebrating the legacy of Arnold Palmer,\u201d tournament director Drew Donovan said in a statement.
\u201cMr. Palmer believed in challenging the world\u2019s best players while creating an unforgettable experience for fans. We will continue to deliver championship golf at Bay Hill and give back to the Central Florida community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Championship Series will feature approximately 23-24 events from February and ending in August. Fields will expand to 120 players, up from the roughly 70-player fields featured at current signature events, and include a 36-hole cuts and no alternate list. The initial schedule includes the four majors, the Players Championship, the playoffs and either the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup during the years those biennial team competitions are staged.<\/p>\n

The remaining 15 or so Championship Series events will carry Track One status, featuring purses of at least $20 million. Fields will include the top 90 players from the previous season along with players promoted from the Challenger Series, or Track Two.<\/p>\n

\"TigerTiger Woods (left) and Arnold Palmer share a laugh together on the practice range during the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational March 15, 2008 at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge in Orlando. (Gary W. Green\/Orlando Sentinel\/MCT)<\/p>\n

Challenger Series events will offer purses of at least $4 million and 144-player fields, providing opportunies for rising players and those attempting to regain Track One status.<\/p>\n

Shortly after becoming PGA Tour CEO in June 2025, Rolaap formed the Future Competitions Committee to redesign the tour\u2019s competitive structure.<\/p>\n

The PGA Tour is expected to announce additional Championship Series events, with the complete 2028 schedule finalized by the end of the season.<\/p>\n

The API will remain a signature event in 2027 while shifting to March 18-21 in 2027, immediately after the Players Championship<\/a>. Since the PGA Tour\u2019s flagship event moved from from May to March in 2019 it had preceded Bay Hill on the Florida Swing.<\/p>\n

Akshay Bhatia<\/a> captured the 2026 API title in a sudden-death playoff against Daniel Berger.<\/p>\n

The revived Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral is scheduled the week before the Players Championship in 2027. The event returned to April 30-May 3 after a 10-year hiatus that included four LIV Golf events at the South Florida resort.<\/p>\n

If next season\u2019s Florida Swing order remains intact in 2028, players hoping to compete in all three marquee events would face three consecutive weeks of high-stakes competition.<\/p>\n

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Arnold Palmer Invitational officially secured one of the coveted spots in the upcoming PGA Tour Championship Series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[12561,139,141,140,76046,110],"class_list":["post-357903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-golf","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}