In hiring Brian Rolapp to oversee the continuing evolution of the PGA Tour as its chief executive officer, the tour has taken the bold step of going outside its orbit to find its new leader who will be charged with navigating professional golf’s changing landscape.
If the PGA Tour previously operated on a business-as-usual model, that changed with the arrival of LIV Golf and the change is ongoing both internally and on the public-facing side.
By bringing in the well-respected Rolapp and setting in motion commissioner Jay Monahan’s gradual exit, the tour has demonstrated its intention to pursue new opportunities while building on its current momentum.
It is not just about putting together a schedule of tournaments and relying on the competition to carry everything. That remains the essence of the PGA Tour but how the brand is presented, how it is consumed and how it grows will fundamentally guide Rolapp in his new position as CEO of both the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Enterprises, roles he will assume later this summer.
No doubt, Rolapp comes to the tour with ideas and intentions but in visiting with the media Tuesday at the Travelers Championship following a meeting with players, he made it clear his first order of business will be getting to know what he doesn’t know.
“I think ultimately what has attracted me about this opportunity is that it’s unique in sports in that the players own the tour. It’s their tour. They are the shareholders. They are the owners, so I certainly work for them,” Rolapp said.
“Having said that, and we talked a little bit about this in our player meeting, I think they know what’s good for fans is also good for the tour. Working in the sports business as long as I have, sometimes it’s not that complicated. If you think what’s best for the fan, it’s usually best for everybody involved. So I think we’re going to keep that mindset here.”
Rolapp has spent more than 20 years at the NFL, most recently as the league’s chief media and business officer, a role in which he was instrumental in overseeing broadcast and digital rights deals, the NFL Network, NFL Films, sponsorships and consumer products. He was directly involved in the NFL’s expansion beyond traditional broadcast partners, adding Amazon, Netflix and YouTube to the league’s portfolio.
Putting a Thursday night NFL game on Amazon Prime and adding the RedZone to NFL Plus so fans could get in on their phones and tablets were among Rolapp’s initiatives.
It seems logical the PGA Tour will look to do something similar. Insiders anticipate a significant restructuring of the tour’s media rights deals when the current deals end in 2030.
“He had great vision not just in making the media deals that he negotiated but in understanding where the audience is and how to reach it,” said Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network.
“One is you sort of relentlessly focus on the game, getting the competition right, getting the highest level of competition is extremely important. That’s something we obsessed about.” – Brian Rolapp
As Rolapp moves from the NFL to the PGA Tour, he said he will be guided by three key learnings from his time at the NFL.
“One is you sort of relentlessly focus on the game, getting the competition right, getting the highest level of competition is extremely important. That’s something we obsessed about,” Rolapp said.
“Second, finding the right partners. That’s not only sponsors, but media partners could help grow the game, distribute the game, reach as many fans as possible. That’s something we’ll look at.
“And I think third is a constant mindset of innovation. You have to change. I think I said it in my fan letter, we’re going to honor tradition, but we’re not going to be unnecessarily bound by it, and where it makes sense to change, we’re going to do that.”
Rolapp brings a fresh set of eyes to the tour’s business at a time when the professional game remains divided.
The tour leadership that unanimously approved Rolapp’s hiring – policy board executives Arthur Blank, Joe Gorder and Sam Kennedy, players Tiger Woods and Adam Scott, and Monahan – has been involved in the creation of the for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises last year that brought in a $1.5 billion private equity investment, the bulk of which has not been invested yet.
“Where we deploy that capital, I have ideas,” Rolapp said. “I don’t think I want to share them now, but that’s going to be part of the job to get in there and talk about it. But I think they saw what I saw, which is a great opportunity, and just getting sort of the right alignment and the right capital to do that, that’s what really drew me to it.”
Rolapp will guide how the investment is spent and he has begun an aggressive effort to educate himself on where the tour stands today and where it can go.
“He wants to hear from everyone and I wouldn’t be surprised if he talks to every player,” Rapoport said. “And when he asks you a question, he really wants to hear the answer whether it’s unpleasant or not. He will seek a lot of opinions on where golf will go next.”
To this point, negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund have not produced an agreement and may not, though Rolapp and LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil attended Harvard Business School together and have remained connected through professional sports.
While the tour is on a roll with increased viewership numbers this year, fans have continued to express their desire to see the tour and LIV Golf figure out a livable compromise to bring the best players together more often. When the PIF proposed a deal to the tour earlier this year, it was rejected and there is no indication a potential deal is forthcoming.
“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,” said Rolapp, who acknowledged he has not been part of any discussions between the two sides.
Meanwhile, the end of Monahan’s tenure as commissioner is not a surprise. He indicated last year in announcing the search for a CEO that his role with the tour would likely change when his contract ends in 2026.
Monahan was in charge when the tour signed its current lucrative media rights deal that extends through 2030 and he also had to cope with the disruptive impact of LIV Golf’s arrival in 2022.
The commissioner drew sharp criticism for refusing to talk with Saudi leaders before the new league began poaching several of the PGA Tour’s biggest stars and, later, for springing a surprise on everyone when he announced a framework agreement with the PIF in June 2023, a deal which so far has produced no tangible result.
In a statement, Monahan said he will continue to focus on his responsibilities to the tour’s policy board and PGA Tour Enterprises while maintaining the title of commissioner.