Jordan Spieth views the PGA Tour's relegation plans for its upcoming two-tier model as a 'cleaner version' of a system he believes already exists in some form.

Ahead of the 2026 John Deere Classic, Spieth said that while it simplifies the points and tiers for players, media, and fans, he also acknowledged that the model will likely face future modifications.

"I think that we kind of are in [a relegation system] to an extent right now anyway," Spieth told the PGA Tour reporters according to press-conference on YouTube.

"I think there's always been that. Most changes on the PGA TOUR, you know, get modified within a few years, and you get your sample size and go from there.... I guess my easy answer is time will tell, and things get adjusted, but it does, on paper, look like it's just a cleaner version of what's been happening," the 3x Major Champion added during the same press-conference.

CEO Brian Rolapp announced that the PGA Tour approved a two-track model, starting from 2028. It will split the schedule into a Championship Series and a Challenger Series.

The top 130 players on the Tour will be eligible for the 15 regular-season Championship Series events and $20 million purses, while the next 140 players will compete on the second-tier Challenger Series, with at least $4 million purses.

There will be promotion and relegation at the end of each season, with a last-chance series in the fall for struggling players to keep their cards.

Spieth argues the Tour is not inventing something new. He pointed to the way the current structure already draws lines between players.

The top 100 now keep full status, down from the old top-125 cutoff. The top 70 after the FedEx St. Jude Championship keep moving through the playoffs, while the top 50 after the BMW Championship lock up spots in every Signature Event.

The current #53rd player in the world who hasn't won any event since the 2022 RBC Heritage added:

"It's just where is the number and how clean can you make it for essentially everybody to understand, but we had a 125. Now we have different ones. We have 100, we have 70, we have 50. They all mean something different."

Jordan Spieth is not the only player who feels this way

Zach Johnson also believes the two-tier system already exists since the Signature Events began.

"I would say the last two or three, three or four years it's kind of felt like there was two tiers anyway," Johnson said at the John Deere Classic press conference posted on YouTube. "I mean, I don't need to elaborate on that. There's been elevated events, and there's been other events."

But the 2015 Open Champion also acknowledged that fields at normal events still carry real talent and real opportunity, even when the marquee names skip them.

"The beauty of the PGA Tour is those other events still have phenomenal athletes playing and opportunity galore.... It's just a matter of how you — what lens you look through," Johnson added.

What he felt more encouraged about the new system was that it still rewards based upon performance.

"We've maintained meritocracy both in an annual, yearly construct, but then also on the weekly construct," Johnson said. "There's going to be cuts in both sections. … You get what you earn. I think the opportunity is still there."

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Written by

Md Saife Fida

Edited by

Kaamna Dwivedi