The PGA Tour is present process an influence shift on the high.
GOLF.com reported on Monday that the tour plans to “sunset” commissioner Jay Monahan in some unspecified time in the future earlier than the top of subsequent 12 months with incoming CEO Brian Rolapp taking on his energy after a transition interval.
Monahan has confronted criticism for his dealing with of LIV Golf, with the insurgent league taking among the greatest names within the sport away from the PGA Tour.
Monahan initially took a tough stance on LIV, basically banning any participant from the PGA Tour who left for the large assured contracts being handed out by the Saudi-funded league.
Then, in June 2023, he shockingly introduced a take care of PIF — the monetary arm of Saudi Arabia — and revealed {that a} framework of a deal was in place that might probably merge LIV and the PGA.
Two years later, there may be nonetheless no official deal, and Monahan has supplied sparse particulars when requested about it throughout his restricted media availabilities.
“I think anything that I’ve said or we said, the three of us said, is consistent with what should be said when you’re in the middle of a complex discussion to try and reunify the game of golf,” Monahan stated in March, per GOLF.com. “It doesn’t communicate to my confidence degree. It speaks to the second. I view that assembly as an enormous step and so I take a look at that very positively. We had a latest assembly with the President, the Public Funding Fund, thought it was a constructive assembly.
“And we’re thankful for the President for his leadership, extremely thankful for him, for his willingness to host us in the Oval Office, and to help us continue those conversations. I feel like if you look at his commentary last week as ultimately seeing a deal happening and Yasir Al-Rumayyan’s comments at the FII about the good meeting that we had, I think we’ll just continue to move forward on those conversations.”
Barring vital progress within the coming months, it can now fall on Rolapp — who was beforehand a high govt with the NFL — to determine easy methods to get the most important names within the sport competing in opposition to one another past the 4 majors.
“[Brian] is coming from a place where the biggest brands and the biggest stars compete against each other as much as possible in the most high-profile time slots on the biggest platforms to drive the most interesting viewership,” a community exec advised GOLF.com. “The Tour needs help in that regard.”
Monahan, 55, got here to the PGA in 2008 after working at Fenway Sports activities Group and took over as commissioner in 2016 when Tim Finchem stepped down.
