The PGA Tour appears set to look drastically different in the near future, with Brian Rolapp tasked with unlocking its full potential.
It seems highly likely that the PGA Tour schedule will be significantly reduced in the coming years. There have even been suggestions that there could be as few as 20 events on the calendar.
With the number of cards being reduced, there is likely to be much more of a Champions League feel to the PGA Tour. Every single result is going to be much more important – and with that, the PGA Tour will likely hope that all players tee it up at each tournament.
One player who has seemingly ruled out going along with that however, is Rory McIlroy.
How Scottie Scheffler will feel about Rory McIlroy’s comments on his future schedule
McIlroy spoke ahead of the Dubai Desert Classic about only playing in the events he wanted to. He made sure to play in India and Australia in the latter stages of 2025. He has also started his year on the DP World Tour once again, rather than play in the first few tournaments Stateside.
So Brian Rolapp may have work to do to win McIlroy over. And speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard suggested that Scottie Scheffler may throw an additional spanner in the works.
“Let’s say it’s 120 players. 110 of them are going to play where and when the PGA Tour tells them to play, because the PGA Tour’s going to make it so lucrative. They’re going to give them so many points and so much money, it’s going to be the courses they want to play. That’s not going to be the issue,” he said.
“The issue is what Rory sort of voiced last week at the event last week in Dubai – the idea being that LIV Golf didn’t sign any ‘high profile’ players in the last few years and he doesn’t think they will. Let’s be honest here, the definition of high profile doesn’t go too far beyond 10, 15 at the most that truly move the needle the way the TV networks would want them to move the needle, the way the corporate sponsors would want them to move the needle, the way you want to see the clicks, the way you want to see the retention. There isn’t a whole lot of those players.
“And Rory is siloed off, and he is at a different stage. I don’t think it’s that far though to say that I can imagine Scottie Scheffler; I was amazed, I don’t think I ever locked in on it, his schedule has remained almost the exact same schedule for the last four or five years.
“He is a guy of routine. And if suddenly you’re going to break up that routine and tell him, ‘no, no, you’re not going to play those six or seven events, we want you to play these six or seven events’, I don’t think what Rory has voiced today in Dubai is that far off what Scottie would be thinking, that, ‘I’m not going to be forced to go to a tournament and a community and play an event that I don’t want to’.”
Scheffler dealt a small blow to the signature event model in 2025
The PGA Tour will almost certainly seek the advice of McIlroy and Scheffler before announcing any drastic changes.
While they will not want to give the players all of the power, they will surely be wary of upsetting their two biggest stars. Ultimately, the PGA Tour will not benefit if the two best players in the world skip a number of the events on a schedule of just 20 tournaments.
Scheffler was prepared to sit out the Truist Championship – a signature event – in favour of playing in the Charles Schwab Challenge and The CJ CUP Byron Nelson either side of the PGA Championship last year.
And given that he ended up winning at Quail Hollow, it is fair to say that he was vindicated for that decision.
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