ATLANTA — Less than a month into his new job as CEO of the PGA Tour, Brian Rolapp has a lot to tackle. But getting a long-awaited deal with the Public Investment Fund and a resolution to the divide with LIV Golf does not seem a pressing priority.
Meeting with the media at East Lake Golf Club, where the Tour Championship begins Thursday, Rolapp outlined his plans for a more compelling PGA Tour that caters to fans and includes more cooperation with the DP World Tour.
He announced a committee that will be headed by Tiger Woods to explore ways to make the competitive product better.
But the “framework agreement” that was negotiated by commissioner Jay Monahan—who introduced Rolapp on Wednesday—back in June 2023 seems no closer to resolution.
Rolapp said he yet to meet with anyone from the PIF.
“I’ve been here for three weeks, so my focus has obviously been on the Tour and focusing on the Tour and in learning and starting to develop a bit of a vision for the future,” he said. “Part of those conversations have been with our partners at the DP World Tour. I spent some time with [DP World Tour CEO] Guy [Kinnings] last week. I think we have an investment in the DP World Tour. I think golf is a global game; we all know that. We have quite a bit of European players on the Tour.
“I think it’s an important partnership that we want to figure out how to grow. I think conversations with them and how they might fit in a new competitive model will certainly be part of this committee’s work, so we’ll continue to work on that.”
Asked about finding common ground with LIV Golf—which is playing its Team Championship this week, the last of its 14-event schedule—Rolapp said, “I think my primary focus is going to be on strengthening the Tour, and blank sheet of paper means blank sheet of paper. Whatever does that, I’ll pursue aggressively. That’s how I view it.”
At his news conference in March at the Players Championship, Monahan said “we are doing everything we can to bring the two sides together” and “like our fans we share an urgency to bring the two sides together.”
In June, when Rolapp was introduced to the media for the first time at the Travelers Championship, he noted that fans have expressed the desire for the best players in the world to play together more often. LIV Golf has several past major champions, for example, and Bryson DeChambeau is going to be a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team.
“When it comes to that situation particularly, I think the fans have been pretty clear,” Rolapp said on June 17. “They want to see the best golfers competing against each other. I agree with that.
“When it comes to the situation with LIV, I think that’s a complex situation that’s probably something I should learn more about before I speak. But I will say my focus is on growing the Tour, making it better, and really moving on from the position of strength that it has.”
Two months later, Rolapp approached the issue differently.
“I think I’m going to focus on what I can control,” he said. “I would offer to you that the best collection of golfers in the world are on the PGA Tour. I think there’s a bunch of metrics that demonstrate that, from rankings to viewership to whatever you want to pick. I’m going to lean into that and strengthen that.
“I will also say that to the extent we can do anything that’s going to further strengthen the PGA Tour, we’ll do that, and I’m interested in exploring whatever strengthens the PGA Tour.”
Talks with the PIF have gone quiet in recent months after initial optimism earlier in the year when Monahan and members of the PGA Tour Policy Board, including Tiger Woods, met with President Trump at the White House.
While an agreement appeared imminent, something occurred that lessened the enthusiasm, especially after a second White House meeting.
LIV Golf continues to play for the future while announcing a majority of its schedule for next year and resubmitting its application to the Official World Golf Ranking to be accredited.
The PGA Tour, meanwhile, has been bolstered by a strong year that has seen a spike in television ratings back to pre-LIV Golf levels.
“I don’t think fans should expect anything we’re doing now to exist in perpetuity in general,” Rolapp said. “I think that gets back to my earlier comments that if we’re doing our job, we’re going to constantly innovate and get better. So we’re going to do that.
“I think the changes, just being the newest person to this, I think the changes have been positive. I think the change in starting strokes [at the Tour Championship] will make for a really compelling competition this weekend.
“I think the competitive tournaments we’ve had the past few weeks have been great. We essentially had a tournament within a tournament where you’re watching two competitions at once, which I think was extremely compelling. I think the television numbers showed that, that fans will react to good, solid competition.
“But it’ll be, as I mentioned, connecting the regular season and the postseason in a competitive model that we’ll continue to work on.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as New PGA Tour Boss Has a Different Approach to a LIV Golf Deal.
