The PGA Tour CEO Search Committee “unanimously recommended” Brian Rolapp for the role, according to Cameron Jourdan of GOLFWEEK. The committee consisted of Falcons owner Arthur Blank, PGA Tour players Tiger Woods and Adam Scott, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and business executives Joe Gorder and Sam Kennedy (GOLFWEEK, 6/17). Woods said Rolapp’s “experience and how he has developed” the NFL “really translates and correlates with what we’re trying to do in our sport.” Woods added Rolapp has “thought outside the box,” which is “what’s needed with our tour.” The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Andrew Beaton notes Rolapp takes over as the leading decision maker in professional golf “on the heels of the most tumultuous period in the sport’s history.” At the same time, “money is pouring in like never before.” Ratings have “shot back up,” and the PGA Tour has “received billions in capital” from a group of investors that includes Fenway Sports Group’s John Henry, Mets owner Steve Cohen, and Blank. When the moment arrived for the Tour to supplant Monahan, the search committee “knew it needed someone who could navigate delicate conflicts while making sure the cash kept flowing.” Blank, who chaired the search committee, said, “Brian’s been one of the chefs in the kitchen helping brew the kind of successful meals the NFL has produced over the years. He’s got the same opportunity in the PGA Tour” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 6/17).
EXCITED FOR WHAT’S NEXT: GOLF’s James Colgan wrote Tour leadership “appears to be” excited about Rolapp’s addition. A source said that HQ “was ‘buzzing’ after the news broke,” while Monahan felt “really good” about the hire. Rolapp will enter a Tour at a “moment of great upheaval and great opportunity.” The challenges “are critical -- and steep” with player division; the direction of the SSG’s $1.5B investment; the future of PGA Tour schedule and overall competitive structure; the development of a more robust PGA Tour postseason; and a modified approach toward TV commercialization, social media and YouTube. That is “to say nothing of the single largest issue facing Rolapp” in LIV Golf, which remains fractured from the PGA Tour two full years after the infamous “framework agreement” of June 2023. In the eyes of many in the media business, Rolapp’s “success in the role will hinge upon his ability to find an equitable path back for the stars who left” (GOLF, 6/16).
