PGA Tour's glut of signature events, majors is killing events like Zurich

“I'm not sure where we're going to shake out on all that,” he said. “I'm not going to comment at this time on that.”

This should be a priority because it provides an unfair advantage to those who finished in the top 50 a year before and have access to all the big money events while the Korn Ferry Tour and Q-School grads as well as Nos. 51-100 largely sit on the sidelines or are reduced to playing down at the KFT.

This situation became magnified when the Tour added a ninth signature event at Trump Doral, which returns to the schedule next week, and seems destined to return to an earlier timeframe as part of the Florida Swing going forward. The cancellation of The Sentry returned the number of signatures to eight this season. Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said he’d like to have as many as 16 signature events in the future.

Zurich previously re-upped its sponsorship through 2030, so it likely isn’t going away, though a date change might be advantageous. When asked during a Zoom call ahead of the tournament on what he thought the future of the event might be, Griffin conceded it was a busy part of the schedule and tried to be as upbeat as possible.

“There’s a lot of exciting events around where it is. With certain top players creating a priority on playing signature events, it makes it hard from a strength of field but having the team event makes it unique,” Griffin said. “I just hope there are a lot of events in the future, I hope there are a lot of opportunities for players and as far as how it’s going to roll out, not really sure, but regardless as players we just have to continue to chase and continue to try to play our best and that includes the Zurich Classic.”

Even for the stars, this stretch is daunting. Scottie Scheffler told Golfweek he is strongly considering skipping the Truist Championship at Quail Hollow, where he won the PGA Championship a year ago. Scheffler has made it known that he doesn’t like playing signature events on grind-it-out courses the week before majors, and he faces the added burden of defending the week after the PGA at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, his hometown event in Dallas, followed by the Charles Schwab Challenge in nearby Fort Worth. Another signature event, the Memorial, where he is the defending champion as well, comes next.

Those first-world problems don’t exist for the rank-and-file, who have to show up whenever they are eligible, but the scheduling needs smoothing out for them too. Route 66 is the only runway longer than this Aon Swing 5 stretch to Charlotte.

The idea of the Swing 5 is to give the hot hands not already in the signature events a chance to qualify and present the best limited-event fields. But for next week’s Cadillac Championship and Truist Championship thereafter, Chandler Blanchet, for one, still is feasting on finishing second at the Puerto Rico Open, an opposite-field event held nearly two months ago in early March.

Ben Griffin of the United States and Andrew Novak of the United States pose for a photo with the trophy on day four of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans on April 27, 2025 in Avondale, Louisiana.

Likewise, it is possible that a player hitting half the shots — not exclusively their own ball — at the Zurich Classic is going to get into two signature events to play for $40 million on their own ball. That doesn’t seem ideal. But to Andrew Novak, who partnered with Griffin for his maiden victory last year, the team event is a welcome break from a brutal stretch of the season.

“I cannot stress to you how nice it is going to be on Thursday to pick the ball up and let Ben finish out the hole for me," Novak said. "I’m being punched in the face repeatedly for a few weeks, so, it is going to be really nice to have the team event in there to change the pace up a little bit from what we’ve got going week in, week out."

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: PGA Tour schedule challenges players, raises questions at Zurich Classic