While the long-term future of the game appears to still be up in the air, the PGA Tour has made a significant announcement this week, with the news that Brian Rolapp will replace Jay Monahan as the CEO.
Jay Monahan has been planning to step down after a decade as the commissioner of the PGA Tour. His legacy will certainly be an interesting one to monitor in the years to come.
But the PGA Tour confirmed earlier this week that it will be Brian Rolapp who will take over from Monahan. Rolapp had spent more than 20 years with the NFL in various roles, and had been seen as a potential successor to Roger Goodell as commissioner.
So it would appear to be quite a coup to have him leave the NFL to lead the PGA Tour in the coming years, with Tiger Woods and Adam Scott among those who helped decide Monahan’s successor. The announcement from the tour noted that the decision to appoint Rolapp was unanimous.
Xander Schauffele reacts to Brian Rolapp being announced as the new CEO of the PGA Tour
And it seems that some of the players are excited about the decision.
Speaking on Golf Channel, Xander Schauffele explained why he was happy about Rolapp coming in from a different sport.
“This is just a new animal. It’s almost nice that he’s not been in golf his whole life. The NFL is a booming business and they evolve their product, they don’t sit still. He knows the importance of legacy, tradition that we have on the PGA Tour, wants to use that, keep that in the vehicle as well as some new innovative ideas. I think the fact that he’s not all golf is sort of a good thing for us, and again, the business arm of the PGA Tour is very new so it’s nice to have someone like him on board,” he said.
“Golf has been in a weird space. I think it was maybe in a bit of a reactive state with obvious things that have happened to the game. This definitely seems like a very proactive move by the board and by the tour to get a big guy up front to lead the way. Someone new and someone that’s well versed in handling big media deals or sponsors, you name it that has to do with business. We play golf for a living, so there was a lot of things that he said that were very attractive in that meeting.”
The legacy Jay Monahan leaves behind after a decade as PGA Tour commissioner
As mentioned, Monahan’s tenure has certainly been turbulent. In many ways, he will feel that he did a good job as commissioner with purses increasing and many of the world’s best players remaining on the PGA Tour.
But the arrival of LIV Golf did him few favours. Monahan seemed to hurt a lot of people when the framework agreement was announced having previously welcomed the loyalty of those who did not make the jump.
You could argue that the situation was unprecedented, so expecting Monahan to get everything right would have been naive.
However, it is hard to blame those who believe that a change at the top was very much needed.
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