It has been clear for some time that the PGA Tour is headed in a much different direction than the way it has been operated for the bulk of its existence. That reality was made clear with the announcement of Brian Rolapp as the first-ever chief executive officer.
And while his future has been a subject of considerable conversation over the past two years, Jay Monahan’s tenure as commissioner is now also determined, as he will step down upon the conclusion of his contract in 2026.
How the commissioner’s role is handled—or if there even is one—is still to be determined post-Monahan. But Rolapp, who comes to the PGA Tour after more than two decades as a high-level executive at the NFL, will clearly be in charge.
“It’s a natural evolution going from a (501)c-6 and maintaining it and having a for-profit enterprise,” said Joe Ogilvie, a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board and the PGA Tour Enterprises board who played the Tour for 14 years. “When you have capital through SSG and potentially more capital, it takes a different skill set. It takes a different team as well. Because you have to deploy that capital and it allows you to think longer term.
“The Tour has always thought long term but at the same time they’ve really been sponsor- and tournament-driven. And to a certain extent they still are. But having ($1.5 billion in SSG investment) allows you to think a lot different.
“The NFL is a big enterprise and has a great standard of excellence. He’s learned what the best league in the world has done. He has experience through his 20 years. That is an amazing thing alone for the PGA Tour to kind of lean on.”
It’s going to take some time to sort it all out. Rolapp, who was announced Tuesday, won’t actually start for several more weeks and perhaps not until the end of July or August. Monahan is expected to serve in a transitionary role for the next 18 months.
For the first time in its history dating to the PGA Tour’s inception in 1968, a person from outside of the golf world is taking over. Monahan is just the Tour’s fourth commissioner, following Joe Dey—who was a long-time United States Golf Association official—and then Deane Beman, who was a player. Tim Finchem served under Beman for years, as did Monahan under Finchem.
But with the addition last year of a for-profit arm called PGA Tour Enterprises, and the investment of $1.5 billion from Strategic Sports Group, the plan was always to add another executive.
The process played out over the last six months, with Monahan serving on the search committee while also being part of both boards.
That situation, too, has evolved as Tiger Woods was given a board position two years ago that increased it to six players, and Ogilvie also joined as sort of a liaison between the players and the business people.
Joe Gorder, an executive at Valero, is the chairman of both boards, with the PGA Tour Inc. (non-profit side) compromised of all the player directors (Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Webb Simpson, Peter Malnati, Adam Scott and Camilo Villegas) as well as other business executives. The PGATE board (for-profit side) is also made up of the players along with SSG executives, including Arthur Blank, the owner of the Atlanta Falcons, who had a big role in vetting Rolapp.
“I think the way Joe Gorder has set it up is good. Both boards are meeting as one,” said Ogilvie, nothing that PGA Tour Inc. owns approximately 88 percent of the business while SSG owns the other 12 percent. “PGA Tour Inc. is the majority shareholder. So it’s important to have the input of both boards and it’s important to have the business people to lean on.”
There’s been considerable chatter about what Rolapp’s relationship with new LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil might mean in the ongoing divide in the men’s professional game.
LIV Golf will undoubtedly see it as a new relationship, one with a fresh perspective. Rolapp has not lived through the angst, and O’Neil is just six months into the job. It’s possible there could be more cooperation than conflict and one of Rolapp’s many tasks going forward will be to figure out a way for LIV players—if they desire—to return to the PGA Tour, deal or no deal.
And a deal between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which backs LIV Golf, is not close. Ogilvie did not discuss specifics and did not acknowledge the talks have slowed considerably from earlier in the year.
The glaring issue there is how to bring LIV Golf under the PGATE umbrella and achieve the goal of being profitable. SSG didn’t invest in PGATE to lose money. In fact, the entity needs to bring a big enough profit to produce a return for SSG while funding the player equity shares that were announced last year.
Rolapp, who had extensive dealings in his role with the NFL in its various media properties, will undoubtedly look for creative ways to grow the broadcast product.
And Ogilvie offered up a fact that Rolapp might find interesting.
“I do think a person who is coming outside of the game of golf to a certain extent has some advantages,” Ogilvie said. “He can take a fresh look and say, 'O.K., how is this league set up. What are the strengths. What are the weaknesses. Let me get this straight. Our players are the talent. And they are playing other events that we don’t own and that aren’t in our TV packages. They benefit from exposure but it’s not traditional. That’s kind of weird.’”
That has long been a dilemma for the Tour. It doesn’t own any of the four major championships. It reaps only 20 percent of the broadcast revenue from the PGA of America for the Ryder Cup. And yet its players—among others around the world—are the stars of the show at the biggest tournaments.
Could the PGA Tour reap some reward out of that arrangement? It’s an interesting topic.
“Just because that is tradition, is there really a business case for that?” Ogilvie said. “He might look at that and say, 'Why is this?' If this is the case you have to make the case why this should go on like this. He said you want to honor the traditions of the game but not be bound by them.”
There will undoubtedly be other changes in the name of profitability. The Tour has already started a program by which its various events must contribute to the purse via a flat fee (minimum of $500,000) and also fork over a percentage of revenue.
There is also the question as to what will happen to Monahan’s position. Ogilvie, who retired from competitive golf in 2014 to become a money manager, has long been discussed as a possibility for that role—even pre-PGATE—although it is unclear if it will even exist going forward.
In the meantime, there are also competitive aspects to work out. The Tour Championship is undergoing an overhaul that promises to see more change as well as a redistribution of FedEx Cup funds. The makeup of the schedule, including the signature events, remains a talking point. What about the DP World Tour’s alliance with the Tour?
Plenty of work to do.
That's a Wrap for 2025 Signature Events
The eighth and final signature event of 2025 concluded Sunday at the Travelers Championship, where U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley birdied the final hole to edge England’s Tommy Fleetwood in what turned out to be an exciting final day.
The signature events have generally served their purpose—getting more money in the top players’ pockets, getting the elite of the PGA Tour together more often—but that doesn’t mean they are perfect.
Now through three years of the program, the last two years have seen the same events: the Sentry, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, RBC Heritage, Truist Championship, Memorial Tournament and Travelers Championship.
But the system can use a re-think.
The Travelers marked the end of a seven-week stretch that saw three signature events—Truist, Memorial and Travelers—and two major championships.
The Truist preceded the PGA Championship and the Travelers followed the U.S. Open.
It’s a lot of golf, and it’s why you saw Scottie Scheffler skip the Truist and Rory McIlroy skip the Memorial. Scheffler wanted to play the Texas events that are in the same timeframe. McIlroy wanted to play the Canadian Open. That is their right and nobody should have a problem with it.
But if the idea is to get the best of the best together and the best of the best don’t always play, well, that’s a problem.
One solution: reduce the number of signature events. There is certainly an argument to be made that eight is too many. Add the Players Championship, the four majors and the possibility of three FedEx Cup playoff events and you’ve got 16 such big-time events where a majority of the top players already reside. The idea that the signature events should not end in June leaves out the fact that the three playoff events are essentially the same thing.
There is already consternation that this setup has caused a two-tiered Tour.
So how many do you cut?
There are no easy answers. But two tournaments that do just fine as regular events are the Heritage and Travelers. Both follow majors. Both have fields of players who want to be there as opposed to the feeling of having to be there because it’s a signature event. Bradley undoubtedly would have been at the Travelers, which enjoys a good field every year regardless of its distinction. So does Heritage, which attracts a strong post-Masters field of players who are happy to experience a different vibe. You could also remove the distinction for the Sentry. It makes sense to have it as one to start the year, but golf has never really embraced “Opening Day” and hence that event also works fine without being enhanced.
Are they taking money out of players’ pockets? Potentially, but that should hardly be a reason for not tweaking the system. Six signature events instead of eight means a better chance of assuring all will be there.
It also means two more full fields, which means more playing opportunities while also providing the top players some space around a busy time in May and June.
Another idea. Why not have some sort of bonus pool associated with the signature events? It is a way to perhaps spread out some of the FedEx Cup riches. Keep a points list for the events and pay out the top five or 10 finishers at the end of the last one.
LIV Golf And The Open
This week’s LIV Golf Dallas event is the cutoff for earning a spot into next month’s British Open at Royal Portrush.
Earlier this year, the Open announced that it would be giving a spot to the top points earner through LIV Dallas not already exempt among the top five players at the end of what is the ninth event of the schedule.
With Joaquin Niemann, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm holding the top three spots and already qualified, Sergio Garcia is in prime position to earn a place in the Open after missing out on the U.S. Open for the first time in 25 years.
Garcia could have wrapped this up long ago when he played the International Series Macau event that was an Open Qualifying Series event that gave three spots. LIV’s Carlos Ortiz, Patrick Reed and Jason Kokrak took the first three spots. Garcia missed a 3-footer on the last hole that would have tied Kokrak and given him the spot due to a higher place in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Lucas Hebert and Sebastian Munoz are Garcia’s closest pursuers. Garcia has 78 points followed by Herbert with 71.9 and Munoz with 69. Marc Leishman is also in the mix with 64.88 points. Technically, anyone within 40 points has a chance to catch Garcia.
That is the number of points that a winner gets. Second place gets 30 and third place gets 24. But anyone who finishes outside of the top 24 gets nothing. Garcia, who won LIV’s Hong Kong event and finished third in Miami, has finished outside of the 24 in four of the last five events.
The end of season points race is also important because not only does the winner get an $18 million bonus, but the top points earner not otherwise exempt will earn a spot in next year’s U.S. Open (among the top three places) and the Open (top five places.)
This article was originally published on www.si.com as For the First Time in PGA Tour History, an Outsider Will Be In Charge.