LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil this week said that he believes the PGA Tour having new CEO Brian Rolapp on board will offer more chances for the world’s best men’s golfers to compete together. “Are there opportunities for our golfers to play more golf together? Absolutely. Is Brian being here going to facilitate that at a faster pace than otherwise? Of course,” O’Neil said on the “Rick Shiels Golf Show.” “I’m still the new guy at six months, Brian’s still the new guy at six minutes. Hopefully it leads to good things.”
O’Neil delved into his relationship with Rolapp, as the two were Harvard MBA students at the same time and also worked in U.S. pro sports for 20 years. “We’re friends. I can say that, in the U.S., I’ve been in the sports business for so long and he’s been in the sports business, there’s only so many people in the world of sports in the U.S.,” O’Neil said. “We go to the same church (LDS), and so, we’re friends.”
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Asked if he’d invite Rolapp to a LIV event: “I’m sure. He’s someone I know really well and have a lot of respect for. I doubt he’ll come, it’ll be too much of a new circus. I don’t think I would encroach on his energy too. I imagine he’ll come to the Open and we’ll spend some time.”
Meanwhile, O’Neil touched on the possibility of LIV entering the women’s game: “I think in the next 2-3 years you’ll see us (LIV) enter women’s golf, and fortunately on a platform of incredible investment by the kingdom and through Aramco and through Golf Saudi” (“Rick Shiels Golf Podcast,” 7/1).
O’Neil also spoke to GOLF.com’s Art Stricklin, who asked the CEO if LIV needed an eventual deal between Saudi Arabia’s PIF and the PGA Tour. “A lot of us are trying to do what’s best for the world of golf. The platforms that we have between what the PGA Tour is doing and what LIV is doing are very different. The audiences are very different. We have a global platform, and we love this notion of taking this game to the world. I would say that almost everyone I’ve met in golf wants to do what’s best for the sport” (GOLF.com, 7/1).
