ATLANTA, Ga. — As Jay Monahan shook hands with Brian Rolapp, welcomed him to the podium and stepped off the stage, it felt like a meaningful transition for the future of professional golf.
The contrast was obvious. It was even sartorial: Monahan in a structured blue blazer handing off to Rolapp in a more casual light gray, the low-handicap golf lifer handing off to the man who barely plays, the longtime commissioner forged in the fires of the PGA Tour handing off to the longtime NFL executive, a literal and figurative move towards something new.
Rolapp has only been in the job a few weeks, so it’s far too early to judge any type of performance. It might be silly to read into an introductory press conference at all. But if Step 1 is talking a good game and Step 2 is making it happen, Rolapp seems to at least have the first part down. The word “impressive” is used a lot when people are asked about him, from players to media members to Tour staffers. And on Wednesday at the Tour Championship, in his first in-depth public appearance, three moments showed why.
1. “The goal is significant change.”
Rolapp stressed several times that he has been encouraged by the state of the PGA Tour that he’s inheriting. He cited a “strong roster” of partners. The sport is growing and the business is growing with it. He actually said twice that “the strength of the Tour is strong” and it’s a credit to his delivery that it almost seemed to make sense when he did.
But his emphasis was on change. He recycled a phrase from his initial letter: We’re going to honor tradition, but we will not be overly bound by it. And he declared that one of his first acts as CEO is to create the “Future Competition Committee” aimed at revisiting the Tour’s competitive model.
“The purpose of this committee is pretty simple: We’re going to design the best professional golf competitive model in the world for the benefit of PGA Tour fans, players and their partners,” Rolapp said. “It is aimed at a holistic relook of how we compete on the Tour. That is inclusive of regular season, postseason and off-season.”
And then he doubled down on that idea of a holistic relook.
“The goal is not incremental change,” he said. “The goal is significant change.”
Feel free to believe it when you see it, of course. This is not a league known for its dynamic decision-making, and while this committee will have golf gravitas — Tiger Woods is serving as chair — it’s largely made up of establishment figures that have served on other Tour boards and committees like Adam Scott, Patrick Cantlay, Maverick McNealy, John Henry and Joe Gorder. The addition of baseball’s reimagination wizard Theo Epstein is intriguing, as is the committee’s entire directive. But it’s also fair to hold a little skepticism that real change starts with the formation of another committee.
Rolapp outlined three pillars the Tour wants to double down on: further committing to a meritocratic structure (he called this parity), making it feel special when the Tour’s best players come together (this was “scarcity”) and doing a better job of connecting the regular season and the postseason to elevate the entire product (he called this “simplicity”).
All would be welcome.
2. “The sports business is not that complicated”
What draws people to Rolapp is not that he’s particularly dynamic but instead that he makes complex stuff sound simple. I asked him whether there have been any jarring changes coming from the NFL and its kajillion-dollar business to the PGA Tour, which is a decidedly different sport and, I would think, a completely different business. He more or less shrugged.
“It’s a lot hotter in Ponte Vedra than it is in Manhattan this time of year,” he said.
“No, I don’t think it’s any jarring changes. I think a lot of what I learned at the NFL can be applied here, and look, the sports business is not that complicated. You get the product right, you get the right partners, your fans will reward you with their time because they’re telling you it’s good and they want more of it, and then the commercial and the business part will take care of itself.”
From the outside, the sports business does seem complicated — as does getting the product right. So the idea that Rolapp isn’t daunted by the challenge is either naive or tremendously encouraging. Golf fans will root for the latter.
As for big-time changes? He hopes they’ll be made and then continue to be made.
“You just have to constantly innovate. I think if there’s anything I learned at the NFL, it’s that,” he said. “We did not sit still, changed rules every March. We changed the kickoff rule. That’s what I mean by honoring tradition but not being bound by it. I think that level of innovation is what we’re going to do here, and I think that’s one lesson I’ve learned.”
3. “Well, ask a LIV question”
The closest thing we got to a testy exchange came near then end of Wednesday’s presser, when a U.K. reporter raised a common refrain from the LIV era, which is that fans want to see the best players in the world more often than they currently do.
Reporter: I think it’s been surveyed already they want to see the best players together on a more regular basis. Should that not be a priority for you?
Rolapp: Are you asking a LIV question?
Reporter: Essentially, yes.
Rolapp: Well, ask a LIV question.
It was a level of bluntness that we’re not necessarily used to on this beat. Rolapp was direct in his response and requested directness from the media. There’s something refreshing there — and the implication is that he has nothing to hide.
Ultimately his answer was that the Tour’s main priority is on its current players and product rather than prioritizing any sort of deal with LIV. And while he added that he’d “pursue aggressively” anything that could improve the Tour, he largely projected strength.
“I’m going to focus on what I can control. I would offer to you that the best collection of golfers in the world are on the PGA Tour,” he said. “I think there’s a bunch of metrics that demonstrate that, from rankings to viewership to whatever you want to pick. I’m going to lean into that and strengthen that.”
Eventually the questions slowed down, Rolapp took a final question and then came down from the podium, where he met various members of the media as they filtered out of the room — most of them for the first time.
He’s new here, after all. Thus far that seems like a good thing.
Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
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