TPC Southwind Out of PGA Tour Championship Series in 2028

There are courses that earn their place in your memory through sheer drama, and TPC Southwind is one of them. The way the humidity hangs over those Tennessee fairways in August, the tension that builds as players navigate the water-guarded finishing stretch—Memphis has been writing playoff stories here since 2022. Now, we learn those stories won't continue in the same chapter.

A Schedule Shakeup Hits Home

The news, first reported by the Memphis Commercial Appeal and confirmed by both the PGA Tour and FedEx, is straightforward but significant: when the Tour launches its new Championship Series in 2028, Memphis won't be on the schedule. The FedEx St. Jude Championship will run next week and again in 2027, but after that, its role as a playoff host ends.

This comes just two months after the Tour announced its restructuring into a Championship Series (featuring 23 to 24 events with the game's elite players) and a lower-tier Challenger Series. The city that has hosted PGA Tour events since 1958—that's 68 years of professional golf—finds itself on the outside of the top tier looking in.

What TPC Southwind Means to Golf

If you've never walked TPC Southwind in late summer, you're missing one of the Tour's most demanding tests disguised as a parkland stroll. The course asks questions of players that other venues don't think to pose. Those closing holes, particularly the treacherous par-3 11th and the risk-reward 16th, have produced some of the most memorable playoff collapses and comebacks in recent memory.

Scottie Scheffler's dominant display here last year reminded us why this venue matters. The course rewards precision and punishes hubris with equal enthusiasm. That's rare in modern golf architecture, where so many Tour stops blur into forgettable birdie-fests.

FedEx and the Tour: 40 Years at a Crossroads

The timing here is no coincidence. FedEx's sponsorship deal with the Tour—which encompasses not just the Memphis event but also the seasonlong points race and the entire postseason structure—expires at the end of 2027. That's a massive piece of the Tour's commercial puzzle coming undone at exactly the moment they're trying to build something new.

FedEx's statement struck a tone I'd describe as graciously disappointed. The company said it was "disappointed the FedEx St. Jude Championship will not be part of the new Championship Series" but remained "encouraged by their plans to find other opportunities to bring professional golf to Memphis." Their commitment to the city, they emphasized, is "unwavering."

The Tour, for its part, called FedEx "a wonderful partner since 1986" and noted that TPC Southwind "is a premier venue in our TPC Network and remains an important asset to the Tour." They believe Memphis is "well-positioned to remain part of the PGA Tour," though what form that takes remains unspecified.

Reading Between the Fairways

Here's what strikes me about these statements: both parties are leaving doors open while clearly standing in different rooms. FedEx isn't committing to continued Tour sponsorship. The Tour isn't committing to Memphis in any concrete way. Everyone is being polite while the real negotiations presumably happen behind closed doors.

What happens to the FedEx Cup itself—the branding, the structure, the identity of the Tour's season—remains entirely unclear. A Tour spokesperson confirmed only that conversations with "FedEx and other sponsors" are ongoing.

For a city that has poured resources into TPC Southwind and built genuine tournament traditions, this has to sting. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, headquartered in Memphis and long connected to this event, represents something larger than golf. That charitable partnership made this stop feel different, more purposeful than your average corporate-titled event.

The Takeaway

Change is coming to professional golf, and not every beloved venue will survive the restructuring. TPC Southwind may yet find a place in the new order—the Tour's language suggests they're working on it—but the glory days of playoff August in Memphis appear to be ending. For those of us who believe golf courses accumulate meaning through the tournaments they host, that's a genuine loss. Some venues simply feel like they belong on the biggest stage. Southwind is one of them.

We'll see what materializes. For now, savor next week's FedEx St. Jude Championship and next year's edition too. They may be the last of their kind.