Latest news with #Rolapp
USA Today
4 days ago
- Business
- USA Today
Lynch: Dusting off, reinventing a long-forgotten event could boost both PGA Tour and LPGA
As incoming leaders of organizations that face significant challenges, Brian Rolapp and Craig Kessler — respectively, CEO of PGA Tour Enterprises and commissioner of the LPGA Tour — will, by necessity, take a heuristic approach to problem solving, choosing pragmatic solutions since perfect options don't exist. Rolapp's tasks include stalled negotiations with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, right-sizing the schedule and eligibility amid player opposition, and delivering a return for the investors of Strategic Sports Group, who hand-picked him for the job. And Kessler ... well, he'll have lots of burdens when he assumes his role in a couple of weeks. Too little revenue, too few resources, securing sponsors, adjusting schedules, monetizing media rights, all while the Saudis lurk for a chance to leverage the LPGA for sportswashing and players who'd happily allow them to do so. Hazarding a guess at the landscape either man will preside over a couple of years hence calls to mind a pithy line from the late management theorist Peter Drucker, who likened trying to predict the future to driving down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window. But Drucker also said that the best way to predict the future is to create it. While Rolapp and Kessler will work their own sides of the street, there's a way in which they can be useful to each other. Since Rolapp is only nominally a golfer and Kessler is barely out of short pants by the silvery standards of golf administrators, neither may be familiar with the World Cup, an artifact of a bygone era that has long languished in the vaults of Ponte Vedra. A two-man team competition, it began as the Canada Cup in 1953 and for a half-century was a missionary vehicle for the sport, contested in disparate places like Argentina, Thailand, Venezuela, Greece, the Philippines, and China, and in underdeveloped regions like South Carolina and Florida. It was staged sporadically after 2009, and not at all since 2018. (A women's version existed from '05-'08). The World Cup is technically owned by the long-dormant International Golf Association, but it gave the PGA Tour perpetual license to operate the event. In a ranking of Rolapp's priorities, resurrecting the World Cup probably ranks below taking emergency lessons at the TPC Sawgrass Performance Center but well above replying to the latest filing by Justine Reed's attorney of the week. But therein lies an opportunity. 'My goal as CEO is to honor golf's traditions but not be overly bound by them,' he wrote in an open letter on the day of his appointment. The World Cup has tradition, albeit largely forgotten, but it has potential, if the Tour chooses to rethink the value of a shelved asset. A template worth imitating was on display last month at Congaree Golf Club in the Palmer Cup, which pits the best college players in the United States against their International counterparts. Unlike other team events, the Palmer Cup has men and women partner in an alternate shot format. Thus, Tour-bound Jackson Koivun played with Kiara Romero, and World No. 2-ranked amateur Mirabel Ting paired with Justin Hastings, the Latin America Amateur champion. The World Cup should be reimagined as a mixed team tournament with the PGA and LPGA tours' best playing best ball and alternate shot formats. The advantages for the LPGA Tour are obvious. Instead of continuing a chicken/egg debate about how to draw new eyeballs to the weekly product, it presents a fresh product to new eyeballs by partnering with the guys on a prominent stage that isn't a silly season hit and giggle. Doing so can help organically grow fan interest and support for women's golf by giving it equal billing in a competitive environment. (It would also demolish the lingering prejudice — still popular among the crypto-incel fraternity — that the skills of the top women can't compare to those of the men.) But this wouldn't be just a feel-good giveaway for the PGA Tour. Rolapp has global ambitions, and Ponte Vedra needs products that will aid international expansion into markets both robust and emerging. The Presidents Cup won't serve that end. It's held too infrequently, too many top players are ineligible, too few top players are willing to travel far afield in the fall, it's too much a facsimile of the more popular Ryder Cup, its venues are too commercially safe and convenient, with the last international match held within walking distance of the U.S. border. Having countries field teams comprised of their best man and woman in a reinvented World Cup — operated by the PGA Tour, the LPGA and the DP World Tour — would be a more promising, progressive and portable vehicle for international growth in golf's less traveled precincts, and create opportunities to stage adjacent events around the tournament. And as a fresh new product, it might also enable Rolapp to test the market for streaming services globally. There are challenging times ahead for Rolapp and Kessler, and they're certainly not obligated to elevate each other's business. But there exists an opportunity to do so while advancing their individual agendas and improving the lot of the entire sport. They ought to heed Drucker's caution that the greatest danger in times of turbulence isn't the turbulence itself, but the tendency to act with yesterday's logic.
Newsweek
7 days ago
- Business
- Newsweek
Jon Rahm Downplays New PGA Tour CEO Role amid LIV Golf Negotiations
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. While the world's best golfers battled the brutal greens and unforgiving rough at Oakmont during the U.S. Open, the PGA Tour's new CEO news caught many off guard. Brian Rolapp, a seasoned NFL executive with over 2 decades of experience, had been appointed as Tour's first-ever CEO alongside Jay Monahan. The timing was curious, but with ongoing rifts between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, players and insiders welcomed the move. Everyone was hopeful that Rolapp's fresh leadership might finally stitch LIV Golf and PGA Tour's broken relationship since its inception in 2022. But Jon Rahm wasn't quick to jump on the optimism train. Jon Rahm Downplays New PGA Tour CEO Role amid LIV Golf Negotiations. (Image Collage | Image Credits: Getty Images) Jon Rahm Downplays New PGA Tour CEO Role amid LIV Golf Negotiations. (Image Collage | Image Credits: Getty Images) Getty Images When asked whether Rolapp and O'Neil's connection could accelerate unity talks, Rahm responded with skepticism. "I feel like that's a question for obviously both the CEOs, right. Whatever I say is speculation. It's not what they know," he stated during LIV Golf Dallas' press conference. "I would hope that them having a close relationship from the past should help facilitate at least the dialogue between them two, but at the end of the day, it's not just up to them." Rolapp and Scott O'Neil reportedly bonded during their time at Harvard Business School and stayed connected throughout their careers. "There's also people behind them and higher up than them that would ultimately make the decision. Things are never as simple as they seem," Rahm added, dropping a stern reminder that it isn't a two-man conversation. But he also admitted, "I would like to be positive about it and think that that would help it out." His words were diplomatic, but the tone cast a doubt over Rolapp's potential to resolve a 2-year-old stalemate. In 2023, both the clubs agreed to a "framework agreement" between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which owns LIV Golf. Breaking: The PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour have merged "to unify the game of golf," it was announced Tuesday. More: — ESPN (@espn) June 6, 2023 Two years have passed, and despite rounds of negotiation with high-profile figures like President Donald Trump, little has moved the needle. Now, Rolapp's entrance into this standstill offers a new face, but not necessarily a new fix. Rolapp himself isn't pretending to have all the answers. Speaking at the Travelers Championship, he shared: "My view is I come in with a pretty clean sheet of paper. I also come in knowing that there's a lot to learn... Everything that works in the football world may not work in the golf world." On the LIV debate, he acknowledged the complexity: "That's a complex situation that's probably something I should learn more about before I speak. But I will say my focus is on growing the TOUR, making it better, and really moving on from the position of strength that it has." So far, the NFL executive has struck the right tone, but for both the Harvard-graduate CEOs, the road ahead is long, complex, and anything but straightforward. More Golf: Viktor Hovland Points to PGA Tour Money Problem vs 'the Saudis'
USA Today
21-06-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Lynch: PGA Tour's new boss has fresh opportunities, but the same old problems need answers
It's probably a testament to Jay Monahan's one-on-one popularity that he managed to remain leader of the PGA Tour for two years and 10 days after announcing the controversial decision that foreshortened his commissionership, but the recent announcement of his successor finally draws to an end the Gethsemane hours of his tenure, when everyone — including Monahan and those closest to him — awaited what they knew was inevitable. The furious player backlash to the June 6, 2023, Framework Agreement with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund wasn't grounded in moral objections to doing business with authoritarians, nor in shock at the about-face Monahan performed to get there. It was the secretive manner in which he went about it, an enormous governance misstep that led to structural reforms that sharply curtailed the executive authority of his office. That altered balance of power is just one of the many challenges awaiting Brian Rolapp, the newly-named CEO of PGA Tour Enterprises and de facto head of the entire organization. Rolapp represents a departure from his predecessors at the top of the Ponte Vedra pyramid, beyond not having the commissioner title quite yet (Monahan will remain in that role through '26). He's an outsider, not a product of the Tour's conclave nor even of the broader golf ecosystem. He's barely a golfer at all, despite his game efforts to disguise that reality. None of those facts are inherently negative. While there was no doubt who Rolapp worked for in his last job at the NFL — team owners — the PGA Tour's constituencies are more complex. There's one that wants to be owners (fans), one that thinks they're owners (players), and one that are actually owners (Strategic Sports Group, which invested $1.5 billion). Rolapp's credentials, management style and innovative thinking have been widely praised, and he'll need them to navigate his many stakeholders, who are not always aligned. For example, every entity with whom the PGA Tour partners — sponsors, broadcasters, tournaments — focuses on the same end user of its services: fans. But headquarters sees the end users of its services as the players, and that's who is always prioritized. Rolapp seems conscious of the need to bridge that divide. 'What has attracted me about this opportunity is that it's unique in sports in that the players own the Tour. It's their Tour. They are the shareholders. They are the owners, so I certainly work for them,' he said. 'Having said that, and we talked a little bit about this in our player meeting, I think they know what's good for fans is also good for the Tour. "It's not that complicated. If you think what's best for the fan, it's usually best for everybody involved.' What of the stalled PIF negotiations that came to define the Monahan era? Will that prove uncomplicated too? Yasir Al-Rumayyan has been incommunicado since leaving the White House in a snit on February 20. Even if he (or H.E. to his supplicants) adopts a more conciliatory tone, is there any upside to Rolapp wading into the same quagmire that trapped Monahan? A new leader who inherits a failed negotiation and widespread player apathy about any deal could be more inclined to cut bait and move on. His comments on Tuesday hinted as much. 'When it comes to the situation with LIV, I think that's a complex situation that's probably something I should learn more about before I speak,' he said. 'But I will say my focus is on growing the Tour, making it better, and really moving on from the position of strength that it has.' When pushed on the PIF negotiations, he didn't slam the door, but nor did he sound like a man eager to wait around until Al-Rumayyan's ego is sufficiently stroked. 'Again, I'm not close enough to any of those discussions, but I will say what I saw regardless of that is a very strong Tour. I see a strong product.' It may be that the only avenues for the PGA Tour to work with PIF/LIV involve TGL, the indoor team league in which the Tour is a partner, or an international series staged in concert with the DP World Tour outside of the FedEx Cup season, from September through January. Rolapp expressed enthusiasm about golf's potential for global expansion, but he also doesn't need the Saudis for that. What he does need is buy-in from players and from SSG on spending its investment dollars. 'Where we deploy that capital, I have ideas. It's an investor group that is experienced in sports. They're smart,' he said a few days ago. 'And the player directors are bright and motivated and focused, and that was really great to see. I think what I've seen from the board have been very focused on growing the game, looking out for players, and so it was all positive.' At some point, those stakeholder interests will begin to arc in different directions. Rolapp will never be more powerful than in his first year, and he's been bought valuable breathing space by the tailwinds Monahan leaves behind, like robust TV ratings and a healthy book of sponsor business. But he's still at the mercy of the players, who control votes on the board. Striking a balance between what players are willing to do, what fans are willing to accept, and what SSG is willing to pay for will be a time-consuming task. It's a good thing he's not worried about maintaining an index.
USA Today
21-06-2025
- Business
- USA Today
New PGA Tour CEO must focus on television rights as much as LIV golf split
There are likely many reasons that Brian Rolapp was hired as the new CEO of the PGA Tour, and several reasons that he will take over day-to-day operations of the men's tour while Commissioner Jay Monahan slowly heads toward the end of his contract in 2026. In many ways, it seems like Monahan beat the odds by staying in his job so long, two years after his announcement of a deal with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund caused questioning and even anger from rank-and-file tour members over the proposed deal. Rolapp will have to deal with the continuing efforts to end the split in the game between the PGA Tour and LIV Tour. But pretty high up among those reasons Rolapp has the new CEO job has to be Rolapp's previous position with the National Football League, the unstoppable steamroller of American sports. Rolapp, you see, was most recently the chief media and business officer of the NFL. In that capacity, he was an integral part of media rights negotiations for the league, and we all know that it is media money that pushes the NFL to higher and higher heights each year. Schupak: Can Brian Rolapp make the PGA Tour a 'ham sandwich business' again? That's important because the looming renewal of television rights for the PGA Tour is going to be a priority. Where golf will be seen in the future, or at least how consumers can view the PGA Tour, will be key to the growth of the game in the coming years. The tour's current contracts with CBS, NBC and ESPN run through 2030, contracts that bring in $700 million. Those contracts do not include events like the Masters or the U.S. Open, non-PGA Tour events that have separate deals with the networks. So Rolapp might well focus on two main issues when it comes to broadcast rights deals. First, in an era of spotty ratings, should the deals be renegotiated before the completion of the contracts in 2030? Second, in looking beyond 2030, will Rolapp and the PGA Tour look for something other than traditional television platforms like broadcast television? Anyone who watched the U.S. Open last week knows that at least some of the broadcast hours were exclusively on Peacock, NBC's streaming platform. You could also watch the event on Peacock while the championship was being shown on NBC. Streaming is becoming the new normal in American sports, with Netflix showing NFL games, particularly on Christmas Day, Peacock grabbing NBA games under that league's new deal with NBC and even the PGA Tour having a digital deal to show its tournaments on ESPN+. Other NBA games are moving from TNT this year to Amazon Prime next year. It seems logical that more and more of the PGA Tour's product will find its way behind paywalls as cable continues to bleed subscribers. Yahoo Finance reports cable subscriptions were down by 1.6 million in the first quarter of this year and 6 million since the first quarter of 2024. Options for streaming for the tour include ESPN+, which already works with the tour. Could the tour put its own streaming app together, like other sports and teams are doing? Peacock and potentially Paramount+ are natural partners because of their association with NBC and CBS. We haven't mentioned yet that Comcast, which owns NBC, is spinning off many of its cable networks in the coming year to the highest bidder. Part of that package will be Golf Channel, which shows at least the first two rounds of most PGA Tour events and all four rounds of numerous events, including The American Express in La Quinta each January. It could be that the tour has to negotiate separate deals with Golf Channel once it splits from Comcast. If the PGA Tour found another outlet to show its events, would Golf Channel even exist? It's a lot to take in, especially with just four and a half years left in the current contracts. You know the tour and the networks would rather have a new deal done much earlier, not waiting until the last minute. That is at least part of the landscape that Rolapp will inherit as the first-ever CEO of the PGA Tour. It might not be as front-burner headline worthy as the negotiations with LIV, but in the long term, television rights might be just as important. If the NFL has streaming for its games, it might make sense that Rolapp at least explores that area for the PGA Tour.
Newsweek
19-06-2025
- Business
- Newsweek
Jordan Spieth Gives Specifics on How New PGA Tour CEO Will Make a Difference
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Jordan Spieth is among the stacked field at the Travelers Championship for the last 2025 PGA Tour Signature Event. The Tour also recently announced that it has a new CEO, Brian Rolapp, as it appears that Jay Monahan will step down at the end of next season. Spieth met with Rolapp on Tuesday and weighed in on his first impressions of the new head honcho. "I thought his comments to the players that were there— I really, really liked him," Spieth said. "I think he seems like a steal from the most successful sports organization in the world and someone who is on the path to becoming potentially commissioner over there, to coming over and taking the PGA TOUR forward." Those are bold words from Spieth, but he seemed to be impressed by Rolapp for a few reasons. The new boss seems to have ideas to help the game grow even more. CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT - JUNE 18: Jordan Spieth looks on at the eleventh hole prior to the Travelers Championship 2025 at TPC River Highlands on June 18, 2025 in Cromwell, Connecticut. CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT - JUNE 18: Jordan Spieth looks on at the eleventh hole prior to the Travelers Championship 2025 at TPC River Highlands on June 18, 2025 in Cromwell, Connecticut. Photo by"I think he resonated with some of the players about challenging some of the networks on how they're showing the product," he continued. "Being open and willing to adapt and change while maintaining the integrity of the game — he said all the right things. From other players to people that are sponsors that have reached out to me since, have all been super excited about that hire and that we're very lucky to have him." For years, fans have complained about how the PGA Tour chooses to broadcast its product. Many feel there are better ways to do it, but there has not been much change. It seems Rolapp wants to make some of those necessary fixes to make golf more enjoyable, and he mentioned that right away. The emphasis on improving the product should show that this hire could be just what the PGA Tour needs to keep moving forward. Spieth also noted that Rolapp encourages players to contact him with their perspectives. He wants to know how to make things better for professional golf. "It just seems like he can bring a wealth of experience in a lot of places," Spieth noted. "He's super open to learning more about golf and the PGA TOUR's business and the product itself from those that know more about it until he gets caught up." The former Texas Longhorn clearly likes him so far, and it appears that other players, like World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, also like what Rolapp has said so far. Tiger Woods, who was on the search committee, also seems excited about the new hire. Time will tell, but it seems like the new CEO is off to a quick start. More Golf: Paige Spiranac Has Hilarious Request of New PGA Tour CEO
