The PGA Tour looks set to enter into a new era with the news that Brian Rolapp has been appointed as the CEO after nearly a decade of Jay Monahan as commissioner.
It is a fascinating time to follow what goes on behind the scenes on the PGA Tour, although many fans have clearly grown fatigued by the divide caused by the formation of LIV Golf.
It is now more than two years since the framework agreement was announced, with Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan seemingly confirming their intention to work together to bring the sport back together. However, there has seemingly been little progress since.
It did appear that 2025 may be the year which would see a merger. Tiger Woods confirmed that a deal was close at the Genesis Invitational, while meetings did take place at the White House. But the stalemate continues.
How LIV Golf has reacted to Brian Rolapp’s appointment at the PGA Tour
So of course, one of the main questions following Brian Rolapp’s appointment is what will be the implications for the future of the relationship between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf?
And speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard explained how those on LIV did react to the news of Rolapp’s arrival from the NFL.
“As it applies to LIV Golf, and this was always going to be fascinating, day one in the job, I can only imagine how difficult it would be for anyone to parachute into a job and immediately get peppered with questions about how are you going to fix all of it? Give me the answer right now. I can only imagine how difficult that’s going to be. He was honest: ‘look man, this is an ongoing problem. Clearly, I want the best players in the game playing together more often’. Because I asked him specifically about reunification and I thought it was telling that instead of using the word reunification in his answer, he said: ‘I want the best players playing together more often’. So it will be interesting going forward on that one. There aren’t any easy answers. I don’t think just because the PGA Tour has a new CEO that suddenly everything’s going to come together with LIV Golf and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. I think the boundaries, the walls, the disagreements, the problems we still have are still there,” he said.
“The one thing I did report, I reached out to LIV Golf and asked them did they want to comment on the new CEO, and they did not. But they confirmed the idea that there is a relationship between Scott O’Neil, the CEO of LIV Golf, and Brian Rolapp. They were in business school about the same time together and there is a relationship there. That doesn’t make it easier or more difficult, but what it does, at least you can pick up the phone, because a year ago when it was Jay Monahan and Greg Norman, neither one of them were going to pick up the phone.”
Brian Rolapp has arrived at a good time as the PGA Tour starts to regain some popularity
While golf trails in terms of popularity compared with several other sports, Rolapp arrives at a time when the PGA Tour appears to be in a really strong position in negotiations.
One of the big criticisms of LIV has been that their league lacks credibility. It certainly does not help when Joaquin Niemann wins four times before the halfway point in the year but cannot make any impact on the majors.
If the PGA Tour was completely honest about which LIV players are missed, it is arguably not a particularly long list.
Viewing figures appear to be up from last year on the PGA Tour, and their players continue to dominate on the biggest stages. No LIV player has won their first major since making the jump – though Tyrrell Hatton and Carlos Ortiz were in contention at Oakmont at the US Open.
So once he gets to grips with the role, Rolapp will arguably feel quite optimistic about the position the PGA Tour finds itself in.
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