[PHOTO: Tracy Wilcox]
Significant changes are coming to the PGA Tour, ostensibly to strengthen the competitive model, but just as likely to simultaneously enhance the financial prospects of the new for-profit parent company, PGA Tour Enterprises. New PGA Tour chief executive Brian Rolapp is sending a message that he will not be afraid to shake things up on the most powerful tour in golf.
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In his first official move after 18 days on the job, Rolapp announced overnight (Australian time) the formation of a nine-member committee chaired by Tiger Woods and, perhaps tellingly, includes two figures with ties to Strategic Sports Group, the organisation that last year agreed to pour $US1.5 billion into the tour’s new parent entity. The new Future Competition Committee, Rolapp said, was created “to design the best professional golf competitive model in the world”.
What that eventually means Rolapp could explain only in broad terms, but whatever he has in mind is aggressive in its intent.
“We’re going to focus on the evolution of our competitive model and the corresponding media products and sponsorship elements and model of the entire sport,” he said during a 40-minute press conference on the eve of the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club. “The goal is not incremental change. The goal is significant change.”
In addition to Woods, players on the new committee are Adam Scott, Patrick Cantlay and Camillo Villegas, all of whom are members of the PGA Tour Policy Board and PGA Tour Enterprises Board, and Maverick McNealy and Keith Mitchell, co-chairmen of the tour’s Player Advisory Council.
Business advisors to the board are Joe Gorder, John Henry and Theo Epstein. Gorder is chairman of both the tour policy board and enterprises board. Henry is principal of Fenway Sports Group and manager of SSG, while Epstein is a Fenway Sports group senior adviser as well as president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs.
Rolapp said there will be three “governing principles” of the committee: parity, with a commitment to the tour’s meritocratic system; scarcity, in the form of ensuring top players compete together often to keep fans engaged; and simplicity, in better tying together the regular season and postseason.
“I honestly believe that we need to better serve golf fans, but I also believe the PGA Tour can better serve sports fans, and in order to do that, I think some of these characteristics need to come into play,” Rolapp said.
It should be no surprise that Henry and Epstein, who represent SSG’s interests, are involved. Whatever ideas this committee conjures up, be it in blowing up the long-established schedule, adding new events or changing some competitive formats, conventional wisdom says that better serving fans would translate to a better bottom line.
Asked about the SSG investment, Rolapp said that was one of the factors that interested him in leaving his post as NFL executive vice-president. But he wasn’t prepared to say much about what he planned to do with the $1.5 billion infusion intended to strengthen the tour after the existential threat from the creation of the well-funded LIV Golf League. But it’s clear he wants to hear from SSG figures, and this committee is good conduit.
“And not only does [SSG investment] provide, I think, necessary capital as we work through this competitive model and improved commercial model, I also think it also brings learnings from other sports, which I think is beneficial, in expertise, perspectives that I think will be helpful to grow the PGA Tour,” Rolapp said. “It’s one reason why I asked Theo Epstein to participate in this. He clearly has a track record in other sports including baseball and has wrestled with these same competitive issues, and I think we can learn from his experience.
“I will certainly bring experience from my work at the National Football League in similar matters,” he added. “I think outside perspective is always a very good thing, as long as it’s applied in the right way. I think SSG has brought that and has been helpful.”
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Rolapp gave no timeframe for implementing changes. The PGA Tour announced on Tuesday the 2026 schedule that added a ninth limited-field signature event, at Trump Doral, owned by US president Donald Trump. But he repeated his message that he intended to move aggressively. It’s obviously a high priority, being the first initiative of his tenure as successor to Jay Monahan.
“I think it’s important to set a vision and a tone for what we want to accomplish, which is significant change,” he said. “I think it’ll take time, as I mentioned before. As I also mentioned before, I want it to be iterative and collaborative with all of the stakeholders of the PGA Tour. That’s how I think good innovation and change happens is when you get input, you look at an issue holistically from different perspectives, and I think that’s important to do that on the outset. If we had done a bunch of work and then announced it and gave the committee a baked cake, you’re not getting a great result. I wanted the opposite. It’ll focus us on the future and it’ll focus us on the things that are important.”
