ATLANTA – After just three weeks of work, new PGA Tour CEO Brian Lolap has promised a “big change” to the tour’s current model.
Rollup spoke to reporters at the tour championships held at East Lake Golf Club on Wednesday, and announced that he has set up a nine-man future competition committee led by 15-time major champion Tiger Woods.
“The goal is not a gradual change,” Rollup said. “The goal is a big change.”
Woods added in a social media post Wednesday that the committee is “shaping the next era of the PGA Tour.”
I am honored to chair the future competition committee. This is to shape the next era of the PGA Tour for fans, players and partners.
Thank you for @BrianRolapp I would like to thank his vision and leadership, and to the committee members for their willingness… https://t.co/d1sedktg4c
– Tigerwoods (@tigerwoods) August 20, 2025
Lolap’s accusations to the committee are “to design the best professional golf competition model in the world for the benefit of PGA Tour fans, players and their partners. We aim for the overall relationship of how we compete on the tour.”
The committee is guided by managing the principles of parity, rarity and simplicity, according to the PGA Tour, and is given a “clean sheet” to “ensure that potential changes will honor the gaming tradition without being overly bound.”
The committee’s goals include strengthening commitment to tour achievements and increasing fan engagement by linking top golfers more frequently and linking the regular season with the postseason.
“The sports business is not that complicated,” said Rolapp, a former NFL executive. “You’ll get the product right, get the right partner and your fans will reward you with their time as they say it’s good and want it.
“Then you have to constantly innovate. If you’ve learned anything in the NFL, I think that’s it. We didn’t change the rules every March. We changed the kickoff rules.
The committee also includes PGA Tour players Patrick Cantray, Adam Scott, Camilo Vilgas, Maverick McNelley and Keith Mitchell, former Valero Energy Chairman and CEO Joe Goder, Fenway Sports Group principal John Henry and Fenway Senior Advisor Theo Epstein.
Rolapp said he appointed Epstein to the committee because he “has a track record in other sports, including baseball, and is working on these same competitive issues and I think we can learn from his experience.”
Epstein, a special consultant for MLB, helped introduce other rules changes, such as pitch clocks, limited pick-off attempts and defensive shifts, and a larger base to speed up baseball play.
“I certainly bring experience from my work in the National Football League with similar issues,” Rollup said. “I think external perspectives are always very good as long as they are applied in the right way.”
Rolapp said he has not spoken to anyone in the Saudi Arabian public investment fund that funds rival Liv Golf League.
The PGA Tour and PIF signed a framework agreement to form an alliance in June 2023. Sources say the side has yet to reach a deal and has not spoken in a few months.
Published PGA Tour Commissioners Jay Monahan, Woods and Scott met with PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan at the White House on February 20th, but were unable to launch the deal. President Donald Trump is also involved in the meeting.
The PGA Tour announced on Tuesday that it will return to Trump National Doral in Miami for the first time since 2016. The president-owned course will host a $20 million signature event over the first weekend of May.
“I think everyone is excited to get back on the course (here) and have decades of experience,” Lollup said. “I think players are excited and I think they’re looking forward to regaining it as a PGA Tour tradition.”
ESPN reported in April that the PGA Tour rejected PIF’s latest offer to invest $1.5 billion in PGA Tour Enterprises. This is a tour profit organisation with warning that the Liv Golf League will remain intact.
PIF also wanted Al-Rumayyan to co-chair the board of PGA Tour Enterprises. Gorder is chairman of the PGA Tour Enterprises Board and Woods is vice-president.
Sources told ESPN last week that Al Lumayan told Liv Golf League players and managers “I can hold my breath like anyone else.”
“I haven’t spoken to anyone in the public investment fund,” Rollup said. “I’ve been here for three weeks so my focus is clearly on the (PGA) tour, focusing on the tour and starting to develop a bit of learning and vision for the future.”
When asked if it was a priority for Rolapp to reach unification and deals with PIF, he said, “I think my main focus is on strengthening the tour. Blank paper means blank paper.
“We offer a collection of the world’s best golfers on the PGA tour,” Lolap said. “From rankings to viewers to what you want to choose, I think there are a lot of metrics that show you leaning on it and bolstering it.”
Rollup, who worked in the NFL for 22 years and was considered by many to be the ultimate successor to Commissioner Roger Goodell, was hired on June 17th as the first CEO of the PGA Tour.
Masters winner Rory McIlroy said he spoke with Lolap for about 90 minutes for the first time last week.
“I like him. I like him a lot,” McIlroy said. “I like that he’s not coming from golf. I like that he doesn’t have the idea of preconceived notions about what golf should look like, or what tour should look like. I think he brings a fresh perspective to everything.
