Has there ever been such a positive reaction to a news conference laid on by the PGA Tour hierarchy as there was on Wednesday when Brian Rolapp addressed the media?
The answer to that question is almost certainly no. Rolapp seems like the real deal, and he’s clearly not afraid to rip things up and start from scratch in his quest to make the PGA Tour so strong that they don’t even need to enter negotiations with LIV Golf.
The new PGA Tour CEO quite obviously means business, and he seems to be far more affable than Jay Monahan ever was.
That said, he is definitely not a ‘yes man’.
Rolapp has made it clear that the PGA Tour will not be overly bound by tradition under his leadership.
Monahan offered high words of praise for PGA Tour CEO Rolapp during the pre-Tour Championship press conference on Wednesday.
One thing that Rolapp said which was very interesting was when he insinuated that the PGA Tour do not need to merge with LIV, and that they are the ones with leverage due to the fact that they have the best players in the world.
Brian Rolapp warned the PGA Tour could become just like LIV Golf
One of the buzzwords used by Rolapp during his press conference on Wednesday was ‘scarcity’.
By that word, he meant how he would like to trim the PGA Tour schedule down in order to have more ‘prestige’ events, so to speak.
However, nothing was mentioned about field sizes – something that he has just received a very big warning about.
Golf Channel journalist Ryan Lavner offered a really interesting take on Rolapp’s press conference ahead of the Tour Championship.
While Lavner was impressed by what he heard, he shared a warning for Rolapp when speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast alongside Rex Hoggard.
Lavner explained: “One thing they’re clearly going to have to hit, and I completely agree with scarcity, you know, sort of reading the tea leaves and sort of trying to follow along with what he’s saying, there are going to be fewer events on the PGA Tour schedule. We don’t know how many, we don’t know in what order they’re going to be, we don’t know how many players there are going to be, but it’s going to be, I think, of utmost importance that they nail the field sizes if they sort of shift into that model.
“Right now, you just can’t have 72 man signature events 15 to 20 times on the PGA Tour schedule. That’s basically just a bloated version of LIV golf at this point. He still made a point that he wants to have meritocracy and making sure people can earn their way into those spots.”
“You still, the PGA Tour has always been trumpeting the fact that they regenerate talent better than any other circuit in the world. And you look at some of the players who were not in the signature events at the start of the year and played their way into career years, whether it was a Maverick McNeely or a Ben Griffin or an Andrew Novak or a Jacob Bridgeman, there still have to be players like them who can alter their career trajectories by either playing their way into those tournaments via a secondary circuit or just having access to them sort of writ large as a member of the PGA Tour playing this potentially scarcer schedule.”
What Lucas Glover said about the PGA Tour welcoming back LIV golfers
While the two parties appear to be at a standoff right now, there is always a chance that a merger could be negotiated at some point in the future.
However, Lucas Glover recently lashed out at the mere suggestion of a merger.
Glover let rip at the LIV golfers who left the PGA Tour, insisting that he ‘doesn’t want to play with them again’.
He said: “I don’t want to play with them, me personally. I don’t think they should be back here, I don’t want them here. They made their decision, and I don’t blame any of them. I don’t care, but they also went away from this tour, and they chose to.
“As a PGA Tour player, and somebody who dreamed of playing on the PGA Tour, and have poured my heart and soul into this tour and game for 21 seasons now, I don’t want somebody who chose another path – a path of less resistance, I don’t want them back competing and taking part of my pie and these kids’ pie who are trying to make it now. I don’t want that.
“We as golf fans, yeah, the top four, five six players over there, if they were playing on the PGA Tour it would benefit all of us, because our TV deal in 2030 would be great.
“That’s the big question now in my opinion is; does it behove us as tour members who have equity now to grow our sport by bringing some of those guys back?
“I’m having a hard time with it and I got some good advice from somebody who’s had the same issues as me, you’ve got to take emotion out of it, but it’s still very hard for me. This is still my dream and I chose to stay, and after I chose to stay I had success.
“As far as a stalemate goes, ‘we’ being the PGA Tour, I don’t think we even care anymore, we’re focused on going forward. They’re not coming away from the team thing, and that’s fine. Our focus now is forward, forward, forward. We’re going to grow our sport, and grow our tour. All that being said, I don’t think we care anymore about this unification and I don’t think they do either. That’s fine with me but it’s also kind of shortsighted of me, because if five, six, seven, eight of them still move the needle for the public, that would help us grow even bigger.“
Glover is clearly not alone regarding his opinion about LIV golfers potentially returning to the PGA Tour one day.
And judging by Rolapp’s comments during the PGA Tour press conference on Wednesday, that will not be happening anytime soon.
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