Colonial tournament likely not making the cut in new PGA format, magazine reports 

Is Colonial Country Club’s hosting of the longest-running nonmajor PGA tour event about to come to an end? 

A report by Golfweek magazine says the Fort Worth tournament, now known as the Charles Schwab Challenge, is not expected to be included in the PGA Tour’s schedule in 2028.

Officials with the Fort Worth club and its sponsor, longtime PGA supporter and financial services giant Charles Schwab, are instead considering shifting to hosting one of the senior tour’s premier events, the Charles Schwab Championship Series, according to Golfweek. 

Officials with the club had no comment on the report. The PGA has not said when they will announce their plans for the new tournament setup but indications are they could be coming soon, according to a source close to the club. 

The Golfweek report cites money as one reason for the PGA’s plans. With the area featuring both the Colonial tournament and the CJ Cup Byron Nelson — played at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney — only one was likely to have been selected. The Byron Nelson sponsor, industrial conglomerate CJ Group of South Korea, basically offered more money for a larger purse, according to the publication. 

Starting in 2028, the PGA Tour is breaking its annual schedule into two tiers. The top tier, known as the Championship Series, includes purses of at least $20 million and the tour’s top players. That’s more than double the Fort Worth tournament’s 2026 purse of $9.9 million.

The second tier, the Challenger Series, would play its tournaments simultaneously with the Championship Series and feature purses of at least $4 million for players vying to get into the highest tier.

The two-tier system would have implications on visibility; appeal to sponsors, advertisers and fans; and the tournament’s yearly charitable giving. 

Schwab, the invitational tournament’s title sponsor since 2019, this year extended its sponsorship through the end of next year’s event. 

The Colonial began in 1946 and is the tour’s longest-running tournament to have been played on the same course.

Known as “Hogan’s Alley,” after Fort Worth golf legend Ben Hogan, the Colonial tournament is steeped in tradition and golf lore.

Aside from its history, the tournament has a solid impact on Fort Worth’s bottom line, creating an estimated $5.5 million in economic impact, according to data from Keller-based Highland Market Research, using information from the 2024 event. 

The Schwab Challenge’s economic impact extends beyond hotel, restaurant and tourism spending. 

The tournament has generated more than $200 million in total cash and services for more than 150 organizations in the last two decades, according to a media guide from the event. Last year, Fort Worth Colonial Charities said it generated nearly $19 million via its Birdies for Charity program, donating the proceeds to 33 charity partners. 

Colonial officials have faced unplayable lies before. In 2017, the tournament’s sponsor, specialty grocery chain Dean & DeLuca, abruptly pulled out of its title sponsorship just two years into a six-year contract, citing financial difficulties. 

With the future of the tournament on the line, a foursome of local companies — American Airlines, BNSF, AT&T and XTO Energy — scrambled together to back the then-named Fort Worth Invitational in 2018. But the tournament’s long-term future remained in doubt until Charles Schwab took the title sponsorship. 

Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at [email protected].

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