Jay Monahan kept coming back to one word before handing over the PGA Tour commissioner’s reins — “regenerate.” It’s easy to miss amid talk of private equity deals and LIV Golf reconciliation, but it’s the lifeblood of the Tour’s future.
“We consistently as an organization regenerate talent and create stars,” Monahan said at The Players Championship earlier this year, when Saudi negotiations still carried optimism.
During his final press conference in August at the Tour Championship, he highlighted 11 first-time winners before introducing new CEO Brian Rolapp, pausing deliberately to emphasize: “Further proof that talent regeneration is alive and well on the PGA Tour.”
That number has now climbed to 15 first-time winners this season. The latest? Michael Brennan, perhaps the most unexpected breakthrough of all.
The Wake Forest grad was planning for life on the Korn Ferry Tour after winning three times on PGA Tour Americas (think Double-A baseball) this summer. The big leagues seemed at least a year away.
Then came a sponsor exemption to the Bank of Utah Championship, where he unleashed his powerful swing and earned a two-year Tour exemption.
Is Brennan the next big star? That’s where context matters. Talent gets discovered rather than created, requiring time and opportunity to develop. While Brennan wasn’t battling Scottie Scheffler or Xander Schauffele down the stretch — he held off Rico Hoey and Pierceson Coody — his accomplishment remains remarkable.
Now he’ll compete on bigger stages. He’s locked into at least one $20 million signature event next year (the RBC Heritage, which replaces Sentry as the entry point for winners) and sits at No. 43 in the world rankings, giving him a realistic shot at a Masters invitation by staying in the top 50.
It’s all about opportunity — something the newly formed Futures Competition Committee should prioritize as it maps out the Tour’s 2027 structure.
The Future of Tour Competition
Rolapp announced this committee in August, with Tiger Woods serving as chairman. The group includes five players — Adam Scott, Patrick Cantlay, Camilo Villegas, Maverick McNealy and Keith Mitchell — plus three business advisors, including forward-thinking Theo Epstein. They formally met for the first time last week.
Rolapp made waves when he declared, “The goal is not incremental change. The goal is significant change.” He talked about starting with a clean slate and being “as aggressive as we can.”
The mission: make every tournament meaningful. The 2026 schedule — essentially a bridge year — could feature up to 46 events. About 30 of those are more like “opportunities” than marquee tournaments.
But that’s precisely the point — those opportunities generate stars.
Will players like Brennan have a place in the new Tour model? Yes, because sponsor exemptions will still exist, like the one that got him to Black Desert.
The Korn Ferry Tour pathway remains intact too — the same route that produced Scheffler and Schauffele over the last decade, and stars like David Duval and Justin Thomas before them. The best players always find their way. Some just get there faster.
Take Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth, who both narrowly missed at Q-School’s second stage in 2012. Spieth leveraged sponsor exemptions into a Tour card, then a trophy, then a Presidents Cup appearance all within a year. Koepka took the European Challenge Tour route, a longer journey that eventually led to five major championships.
The new model will likely cater to the stars, creating more opportunities for the best to compete against each other. That’s what Rolapp means by “meaningful competition.” He also emphasized “scarcity” — the idea that less can mean more.
It’s not hard to envision a schedule centered around signature events, The Players Championship, the four majors, and FedExCup playoffs. This effectively creates two tours — not unlike what exists today.
Whatever shape it takes — and the committee has significant work ahead — the key is allowing enough movement from “opportunities” to “meaningful tournaments” to keep regenerating talent.
That might be the biggest difference between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, and why the Saudi league couldn’t secure Official World Golf Ranking recognition. LIV begins and ends with the same 54 players (barring occasional alternates).
Chris Gotterup is a perfect example of the Tour’s meritocracy. He got his chance in Myrtle Beach, then capitalized by defeating Rory McIlroy a year later at the Scottish Open. For every success story, though, there are players who get their shot but can’t sustain success against elite competition.
The jury’s still out on how Brennan and other recent breakthroughs — Jake Knapp, Ryan Gerard, Andrew Novak — will fare against golf’s best week after week.
Rolapp may be new to golf after his NFL career, but he seems to understand the sport’s fundamental principle. While he talked about parity, scarcity and simplicity, he emphasized the most important word in golf — meritocracy.
“Whatever we do, wherever we end up on a competitive model, let’s just make sure that I can earn my way into it,” he said. “And if I earn my way into it, I deserve to be there.”
For now, Michael Brennan knows exactly how that feels.
