Atlanta – After just three weeks of work, new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has promised “significant changes” to the Tour’s current model.
Speaking with reporters at the East Lake Golf Club tour tournament on Wednesday, Rolapp announced that he had set up a nine-person future competition committee that will be led by 15-time champion Tiger Woods.
“The goal is not a gradual change,” Rollap said. “The goal is a major change.”
Woods added in a social media post Wednesday that the committee “is going to shape the next era of the PGA Tour.”
It is an honor to serve as Chairman of the Future Competition Commission. This is to shape the next era of the PGA Tour – for our fans, players and partners.
because @BrianRolapp For his vision and leadership, and thank the members of the committee for their wishes… https://t.co/d1sedktg4c
— Tiger Woods (@tigerwoods) August 20, 2025
Rolapp’s allegation against the committee is “designing the world’s best professional golf competition model for the interests of PGA Tour fans, players and their partners. It’s aimed at re-engaging our competition on the tour as a whole.”
Under the PGA Tour, the committee will be guided by the principles of managing equality, scarcity and simplicity and will be given a “clean form” to “ensure potential changes respect the tradition of the game without being overly bound by them.”
The committee’s goals include strengthening the Tour’s commitment to the elite structure, increasing fan engagement by bringing top golfers together more frequently, thereby better connecting the regular season to the playoffs.
“The sports business isn’t that complicated,” said former NFL executive Rolapp. “You get the right product, you get the right partners, and your fans will reward you with their time because they tell you it’s good, they want more, and then the business and business parts will take care of themselves.
“Then you just have to keep innovating. I think if I learned anything in the NFL, that’s it. We’re not sitting there [and we] Change the rules every March. We changed the kick-off rules. That’s what I mean is respecting tradition but not being bound by it. I think this level of innovation is what we are going to do here, and I think this is a lesson I have learned. ”
The committee will also include PGA Tour players Patrick Cantlay, Adam Scott, Camilo Villegas, Maverick McNealy and Keith Mitchell, as well as former Valero Energy Energy Energy Chairman and CEO Joe Gorder, Fenway Sports Group Chief Owner John Henry and Fenway Senior Advisor Theo Epstein, former Boston Red Sox and Chicagogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogogic Cubs.
Ropp said he appointed Epstein as the committee because he had a trail in other sports, including baseball, and wrestled on these same competitive issues, and I think we can learn from his experience. ”
Epstein is a special counsel for Major League Baseball (MLB), who played a role in introducing pitch clocks and other rule changes, such as limited choice attempts and defensive shifts, and a larger foundation to speed up the baseball game.
“I’m sure to bring experiences with something similar in the work of the NFL,” Rollap said. “I think it’s always a very good thing to just apply an external perspective in the right way.”
Ropp said he has not spoken to anyone from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which funded rival Liv Golf League.
Sources said the PGA Tour and PIF signed a framework agreement to form a league in June 2023.
The outgoing PGA travel agency Jay Monahan, Woods and Scott met with PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan at the White House on February 20 but could not reach a deal. President Donald Trump also participated in the talks.
The PGA Tour announced Tuesday that it will return to Miami’s national Doral next season for the first time since 2016. The president-owned course will hold a $20 million signature event on the first weekend of May.
“I think everyone is excited to get back to the course [where] We have decades of experience,” Rollap said. “I think the players are excited. I think we look forward to it as a PGA Tour tradition. ”
ESPN reported in April that the PGA Tour rejected PIF’s recent $1.5 billion proposal to invest in PGA Tours, a for-profit entity for the travel agency, which has raised a warning that the LIV Golf League will remain intact.
PIF also wants Al-Rumayyan to serve as co-chair of the PGA Tour Enterprises board. Gorder is the chairman of the board of directors of PGA Tour Enterprises, and Woods serves as vice chairman.
Sources told ESPN last week that Al-Rumayyan told LIV golf league players and managers that he “can hold his breath as long as anyone”.
“I haven’t talked to anyone from the Public Investment Fund,” Rollap said. “I’ve been here for three weeks, so my focus has obviously been on the spot.” [PGA] Tour, focus on tour, study and start to learn something about the future. ”
When asked whether Rolapp unified and reached a deal with PIF is preferred, he said: “I think my main focus will be to strengthen travel, and blank paper means blank paper. I will be actively pursuing it anyway. That’s what I think.”
“I’ll give you a collection of the best golfers in the world,” Rollap said. “I think there are a lot of metrics that show, from ranking to ratings to whatever you want to choose. I’m going to rely on that and strengthen that.”
Rolapp, who worked in the NFL for 22 years, is considered by many as the ultimate successor to Roger Goodell, was hired as the first CEO of PGA Tour on June 17.
Masters champion Rory McIlroy said he had spoken with Rolapp for about 90 minutes for the first time last week.
“I like him. I like him a lot,” McIlroy said. “I like him not from golf. I like him that he doesn’t have any preconceived ideas about the look of golf or the look of the tour. I think he’ll bring a new perspective to everything, I think he wants to move quickly, so I’m excited, so I’m excited.”
