For many PGA Tour golfers, an overhaul of the schedule has long felt overdue, especially for Rory McIlroy. A vocal critic of the Tour’s increasingly condensed calendar, McIlroy revealed in 2024 that he planned to scale back his schedule to protect his body. And yet, even as structural change now appears closer than ever, the Northern Irishman’s concerns have not disappeared.

“We’ve all heard the rumblings without really knowing what’s being said in those rooms and what they’re thinking of,” he told the media at the TGL presser. “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. That seems very condensed to me.”

The rumored version in the golf locker room would compress the competitive calendar into roughly seven months, as per McIlroy. The season, hence, will perhaps end before the NFL resumes in the fall. The reason for such an overhaul comes under CEO Brian Rolapp‘s principles of “parity, scarcity, and simplicity.”

Rolapp, who has worked as an NFL executive before, knows that golf cannot compete with football in terms of viewership. That’s why it should instead avoid overlapping with it. In fact, in 2026 itself, the initial events were scheduled for the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, with chances of overlapping. Hence, there’s a need for a change.

The ideas for these changes are being filtered through the Future Competitions Committee, chaired by Tiger Woods. The same was revealed by Harris English, who said that the schedule will be reduced to 20-22 equal-status events. This would delay the season opener until after the Super Bowl in 2027, which he believes is a “good model.”

“I think that’s a good model to have.. You’ll see all the top players play every single event because you can’t really afford to take one off.”

But that’s where Rory McIlroy’s concerns arise. After announcing his reduction in schedule, McIlroy skipped several Signature events like the RBC Heritage and Memorial. In 2025, he played a minimum of 15 PGA Tour events and prioritized his DP World Tour schedule, a concern raised by several other players on his Tour. He realizes the luxury of a PGA Tour player is to be free to choose a schedule. Scottie Scheffler too did the same, as he sits out of the 2026 Farmers Insurance Open.

That’s why McIlroy isn’t blind to the risks. A Super Bowl-to-August calendar would be intense. That’s why they started the TGL earlier this season, so it doesn’t conflict much with the PGA Tour.

“Seems like a lot of golf in a pretty short period of time, depending on how many events they want to play,” said McIlroy, referencing the burnout potential with more travel and pacing if things aren’t handled properly.

But at the same time, he also acknowledges the opportunity that might come with this overhaul.

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Rory McIlroy sees the schedule shift as an opening door for DPWT players

“That [a schedule overhaul] does open up opportunity for the other five months of the year around the world.”

As a proud DP World Tour member, he sees an upside in giving Europe’s biggest events more breathing room. A compressed Tour schedule would make that balance easier to manage. Last year, we saw the same happening when he shifted focus to Europe after the PGA Tour’s FedExCup Playoffs to compete in Rolex Series Events. He ended up defending his title at the Irish Open.

Even now that the PGA Tour has started, he teed up the Dubai Invitational, securing a T3 position. This was followed by his contention at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, where he had a moderate finish with T33.

In the midst of this, he still had to travel to and fro to compete in TGL. If the PGA Tour’s schedule is adjusted, this would give him some breathing room and save him from burnout. September-January will be cleared almost entirely of PGA Tour obligations. The adjusted PGA Tour season would make the European Tour’s late-summer and fall stretch far easier to commit to without juggling fatigue.

“I’m a DP World Tour member, a very proud one, and I think that opens an opportunity up for them to showcase some of their biggest events in that time of the year,” said Rory McIlroy.