Update on the future of Fort Worth’s PGA event at Colonial — and its sponsor
Charles Schwab’s contract with Colonial Country Club as the title sponsor of the annual PGA Tour event in Fort Worth expires after the 2027 tournament, but all signs point to that relationship remaining beyond that expiration date.
It’s a question not if the investment firm will stay as the title sponsor, but more how it will look, and the particulars of its “priority status” on the 2028 PGA Tour schedule.
According to multiple sources familiar with the conversations between the PGA Tour, Colonial Country Club and Schwab, the investment firm is happy with its status as the title sponsor. Schwab has a long relationship with the PGA Tour, and also serves as a title sponsor of its Champions Tour.
Schwab representatives did not provide any comment for this, nor did Charles Schwab Challenge tournament director Michael Tothe.
Regarding the event at Colonial, the unknowns are how the PGA Tour will alter its future schedule, and if Charles Schwab is a “Track One” tournament.
PGA Tour’s future schedule in Fort Worth
Former longtime NFL executive Brian Rolapp will replace Jay Monahan as the commissioner of the PGA Tour after the 2026 schedule is complete, and expect Rolapp to implement changes.
At the top of the list is altering the schedule to guarantee fields that feature more “names.”
According to CBS Sports and other golf-centric media outlets, a multi-tiered schedule structure is being discussed. Track One would feature 21 to 26 marquee tournaments, 16 “regular-season” events, three FedEx playoffs and four majors.
Track Two would be 20 tournaments that could potentially include a promotion, or relegation, dynamic that is common in professional sports leagues in Europe but has been rejected here in the United States.
Purse sizes will play a role in these tracks.
One of the changes the PGA Tour enacted as a result of the creation of LIV Golf in 2022 was to increase purse sizes at some events to appease, and retain, top players; those events carry an “elevated” distinction.
The 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge’s purse is $9.9 million. The Memorial tournament next week in Columbus, Ohio, features a purse of $20 million. The larger purses, naturally, draw the more familiar names.
Schwab was offered the opportunity to be an “elevated” event, but declined.
The importance of Charles Schwab to Colonial and Fort Worth
Schwab’s interest to remain as the title sponsor of the event previously known as “The Colonial” is the weight of six 18-wheelers off the club. Finding a title sponsor for PGA Tour events is the biggest priority for clubs that hold tournaments.
Funding a top PGA Tour event is expensive.
Schwab is the sixth company to serve as title sponsor at Colonial, and when it came along in 2019, the timing was savior-esque. The club was coming off a terrible end to its two-year relationship with the boutique food retailer Dean & DeLuca that put Colonial in a hard spot to recruit a new partner.
Schwab entered the scene because it was building a new corporate campus in nearby Westlake; Schwab, who is an avid golfer, spoke of the value of the sport as a sales tool. The agreement between Colonial and Schwab has been extended once previously.
The concerns for clubs is if the title sponsor is no longer interested in remaining in this pricey role. A title sponsor can pull out for a variety of reasons, up to and including the “new CEO” doesn’t like golf, or changes in the budget no longer can cover a pricey PGA Tour event.
As evidenced by the tournament that concluded on Sunday afternoon with Russell Henley winning the plaid jackets in a playoff hole, it’s a good course that produces a good product. The only knock was the timing of this year’s tournament kept some of the Tour’s bigger names, such as Scottie Scheffler, from playing.
Depending on how the PGA Tour alters its schedule in 2028, Colonial and Fort Worth could be a place where some of the golf’s bigger names make a point to play.
Either way, it does sound like Charles Schwab will be around for it.
