Rolapp’s Vision: Building a Stronger PGA Tour Through Parity
Brian Rolapp isn’t chasing spectacle. He’s after strength.
The new PGA Tour CEO believes that strength comes from a tour that doesn’t live or die by a handful of superstars—whether they’re PGA Tour stalwarts like Rory McIlroy or LIV Golf competitors like Bryson DeChambeau.
“Any sport worth its salt says, if this competition only works if there are a couple people in it, it’s not a sport, it’s a circus,” Rolapp said during CNBC’s CEO Council Forum in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida last month.
Rolapp’s comment came after being asked about LIV Golf, specifically DeChambeau—whom the interviewer called the “most popular” American golfer—and the potential reunification of golf’s fractured landscape. While those talks have cooled since early 2023, Rolapp confirmed he’s had conversations with Saudi representatives. He’s open to a deal, but only if it strengthens the PGA Tour.
Sure, DeChambeau returning would boost the Tour, but Rolapp seems more focused on developing what he calls the tour’s “middle class”—the broader pool of players beyond the headline-grabbing stars.
The data backs his approach. Rolapp pointed to this year’s FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, where Justin Rose and J.J. Spaun battled in a playoff that drew nearly 6 million viewers despite McIlroy’s absence. That’s why he’s “not worried” about the theory that Tiger Woods might siphon viewership if he competes on the PGA Tour Champions next year.
“Every sport has stars, but what really makes sports work is really the middle class,” Rolapp explained. “So, in my old job, sure, we put the Kansas City Chiefs on primetime as much as we can, but that’s not why the NFL was so successful; it was because when the Bengals are good, you watch, and when the Lions are good, you watch. The middle class matters. You cannot build a lifelong sport that outlives your stars if you don’t build a system that works beyond your stars.”
This philosophy suggests the PGA Tour might move away from the signature-event model introduced a couple years ago. Those no-cut, limited-field events have restricted opportunities for many mid-tier players and reduced the parity Rolapp values. Sources tell Golf Channel that Rolapp favors strengthening developmental pathways like the Korn Ferry Tour to create new stars—especially important if the Tour maintains fewer fully exempt members.
Rolapp’s blueprint for the Tour rests on three principles: scarcity, simplicity, and parity. The Tour already has competitive parity—the hardest element to achieve—but the other two remain works in progress.
Harris English revealed during the RSM Classic that the Tour is considering pushing the start of the calendar to after the Super Bowl and limiting it to around 20 tournaments outside the majors. Rolapp confirmed these ideas are being discussed by the Future Competition Committee, which includes Tiger Woods, who has advocated for ending the season around Labor Day before football season begins.
“If you dig deeper into what he said, it’s not that complicated,” Rolapp explained. “Competing with football in this country for media dollars and attention is a really hard thing to do. The majority of golf is played in the summer and gets people’s attention, so looking at schedules that optimize that calendar is certainly something we talk about.”
The CEO sees a fundamental structural issue with the sport: “Part of professional golf’s issue is it has grown up as a series of events that happen to be on television, as opposed to, how do you actually take those events, make them meaningful in their own right, but cobble them together in a competitive model, including with a postseason that you would all understand whether you’re a golf fan or a sports fan.”
Rolapp’s guiding principle seems clear: “I will do whatever makes the PGA Tour stronger.”
