ATLANTA — A quick, simple reaction to Brian Rolapp’s first official media gathering last week at the Tour Championship: the man is not messing around.
While it can’t happen overnight, there are likely to be considerable changes to the PGA Tour, perhaps as soon as 2027, under the edict of the former NFL executive who made no secret of his interest in enhancing the product for the fans and the television partners.
Rolapp was the chief media and business officer in his most recent job at the NFL and when asked somewhat playfully if he rooted for the New England Patriots—in response to his quest for parity—Rolapp said:
“I didn't cheer for teams, I cheered for television ratings. So whoever is behind, that's who I'll cheer for. How's that?”
Not bad. And telling. Rolapp is in charge of a for-profit business that is expected to bring a return to investors at Strategic Sports Group and eventually pay out equity grants to players.
It’s not going to happen with the status quo, which has seen the Tour operate as a non-profit entity. While a majority of its tournaments are and will continue to operate as 501(c)(3)s, which means they are charitable operations that give proceeds to charity, they are expected to give a chunk of revenue to the Tour each year.
The Tour is already making money from title sponsors and TV contracts.
But clearly more needs to be done in order to return the kind of massive investment—$1.5 billion—that SSG put in last year.
And Rolapp seems poised to get on with it.
He put forth three areas of interest that he hopes a new committee headed by Tiger Woods and some of the SSG businessmen will tackle: parity, simplicity and scarcity.
Aside from Scottie Scheffler, there seems to be plenty of parity. And there’s nothing wrong with having a dominant player like Scheffler, just as Woods’s dominance was hardly a hindrance.
But "simplicity" is an area that needs work, and it hints at some significant changes.
The Tour schedule and the conclusion to the season have never been simple in the FedEx Cup era, especially with the way the season-long competition is settled.
“Competition should be easy to follow,” Rolapp said. “The regular season and postseason should be connected in a way that builds towards a Tour Championship in a way that all sports fans can understand.”
Scarcity is an interesting goal. The Tour Championship was the 38th event of the year following a 35-tournament regular season—not counting the fall. There has long been a belief that the PGA Tour season is too long, that the number of events makes it difficult for there to be true meaning for all of them in the grand scheme.
When PGA Tour officials tout the FedEx Cup points leaders in January, there is a bit of a collective eye roll. The sense is that the points race doesn’t matter at that point.
Rolapp comes from the NFL, where there is tremendous interest and importance placed on each of the 17 regular season games.
How to achieve that in golf? Do you shorten the schedule? Add to the nine Signature events, which are already an addition to four major championships and the Players Championship?
“A focus on the Tour's top players to compete together more often in events that feel special for fans and feel special for the players,” Rolapp said.
That might be the trickiest part of all of this. Going back to the days of commissioner Deane Beman, followed by Tim Finchem and—until the signature events came along—Jay Monahan, the mandate was to look at the entirety of the group as a whole. The idea was to cater to the entire Tour, not just the stars.
That has clearly shifted, and how it's juggled with regular events will be an interesting dynamic. Already there is concern over the number of signature events, the diminished playing opportunities for rank-and-file players and how regular events fit into a new structure.
“I don't think we have a particular number in mind,” Rolapp said. “That's an important part of the work that we'll work with the committee on. I think the focus will be, as I mentioned, to create events that really matter.”
While he didn’t say so, there’s a clear implication that there could be some contraction. Or at least, some diminishing of events, which might mean smaller purses but better profit margins for the Tour.
“I hadn't met him up until last week,” Rory McIlroy said of Rolapp. “And I was able to spend a good 90 minutes with him just talking through everything to do with the Tour and the whole thing over the past three or four years and what the future looks like.
“I like him. I like him a lot. I like that he doesn't come from golf. I like that he doesn't have any preconceived ideas of what golf should look like or what the Tour should look like. I think he's going to bring a fresh perspective to everything, and I think he wants to move pretty quick, so I'm excited.”
Trouble Ahead in 2026 PGA Tour Schedule
The 2026 schedule and its inclusion of a ninth signature event is undoubtedly going to be a source of discussion as the new year unfolds.
While it is undoubtedly great for the 50 players who are automatically in all nine of them next year due to finishing in the top 50 of the FedEx Cup standings, it is sure to cause angst—not just for those on the outside looking in, but for those who want to play all of them.
Consider the stretch from the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am through the Players Championship.
Pebble precedes another signature event, the Genesis Invitational. The Cognizant Classic is next, followed by the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players Championship.
That’s three Signature events and the Tour’s flagship tournament in a five-week stretch, leaving the Cognizant in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, alone as a regular event.
“I’ll most likely skip the event in Palm Beach Garnes because it’s between four huge events,” said 2009 U.S. Open winner Lucas Glover. “It’s where I live and I won’t play.”
Glover, who will be exempt for all of the Signature events, is an interesting source on the subject because he’s made clear his disdain for the elevated events despite earning his way into them.
He knows the $20 million tournaments—six of which will not have a 36-hole cut—are great for the bottom line. But he believes they are potentially not so great for the Tour at large.
“Here’s as eloquently as I can put it,” said Glover when reached by Sports Illustrated over the weekend. “It’s a shame that we’re continuing to trend in this direction. It’s legitimately becoming two tours, which is sad.”
Glover, who will be 46 later this year, said he has his own concerns about trying to cut back on his schedule. But he absolutely believes some of the top players will skip some of those nine signature events. Rory McIlroy missed three this year. Scottie Scheffler missed one.
The period from the Masters through the PGA, which includes two major championships and three signature events, leaves just two events—the Zurich team event and the opposite-field Myrtle Beach tournament—for players not exempt for the majors or the signatures.
“How do you bring something up that affects our Tour in a bad way and call out the BS without sounding like you’re complaining?” said former Policy Board member James Hahn in an interview with Golfweek. Hahn will be one of the players on the outside looking in next year and likely not alone in his frustration.
Rory McIlroy's Next Move
It was a lackluster FedEx Cup playoffs for Rory McIlroy. He skipped the FedEx St. Jude Championship, and although he finished tied for 12th at the BMW Championship, he was never really in contention.
At the Tour Championship at East Lake, where he had won the FedEx Cup title three times, he had a poor weekend after a decent start, shooting 1 over par to finish a disappointing T23 in the 30-man field.
“The season is not over me,” he said. “I’ve still got a lot of golf coming up. I refuse to call this the end of the season. I hit it better. The things that I wanted to improve on this week, I did. Off the tee was much better. I'm probably leading strokes gained off the tee.
“I just couldn't get the speed of the greens all week, and I struggled to see lines and to feel the speed. That was really the story of the week.”
After winning the Masters for his third victory of the year, McIlroy never quite found the same groove. He had four top-10 finishes but only contended at the Scottish Open.
But a busy stretch awaits.
Next week, he plays in the Irish Open followed by the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, near his new home outside of London. Following the Ryder Cup, McIlroy is scheduled to play a new DP World Tour event in India, plus the season-ending events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. He’s also scheduled to play the Australian Open in December.
“Yeah, it means a lot. Those are two big weeks for me to try to extend my lead in the Race to Dubai,” he said. “That's become a pretty important thing for me. I'm chasing a little bit of history there. I want to put my head down and play well those couple weeks.
“They're sort of like two home tournaments for me, Ireland being my national open, and then we live pretty much on the course at Wentworth. Big couple weeks to try to play well but also sharpen up different aspects of the game going into the Ryder Cup.”
Scottie Scheffler's Final Tally
He didn’t win the FedEx Cup title this year, but it hardly takes away from an incredible year for Scottie Scheffler. Not only did he win two major championships at the PGA and British Open, he led the FedEx Cup points through the regular season (good for an $18 million bonus) through the BMW Championship (another $5 million) and then tied for fourth Sunday, worth another $2.616 million.
Scheffler pulled close to the lead with birdies at the 8th and 9th holes on Sunday and then again at the 14th but a double-bogey 5 when he found the water at the 15th ended his chances.
“Looking at this year, multiple major championships, a couple big-time PGA Tour events,” he said. “It was another really great year out here for me. I gave myself some chances to win and was able to capitalize on those. And any time you have a year where you can win multiple major championships, I think it's a pretty special year.
“Got off to maybe a bit of a slower start than I would have hoped to, but I had a really good start at the Byron (Nelson) in May and that kind of propelled me to having a really great year.”
The one thing that slowed him was his Christmas hand injury that delayed his start to his season. He played eight events without winning, but still had five top-10 finishes in that stretch.
He ended the year with 14 consecutive top-eight finishes, which included five victories. His last finish outside of the top eight was a tie for 20th in March at the Players Championship.
“For me, nothing really changes,” he said. “I'm not satisfied with where I'm at. I'm always trying to get a little bit better. I think that's just part of the game. I think that's what I love about golf is you're always trying to get a little bit better.”
Scheffler still has some business to take care of. He said nothing will change in the short term as he will play next month in the first FedEx fall event, the Procore Championship, followed by the Ryder Cup two weeks later.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as The PGA Tour's New Boss Means Business.