Jack Nicklaus is always outspoken about the state of golf, and he expressed some concerns about the PGA Tour’s schedule.
The 18-time major winner spoke extensively about the sport before the Memorial Tournament and expressed his opposition to the current season schedule.
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Nicklaus said, “I don’t want to comment on the Tour’s schedule because I’m not exactly in favor of what they’re doing right now. But I really haven’t had a conversation. I want to sit down with Brian and Jay and have that conversation.
“I mean, I hate to see tournaments bunched too much together with too many big tournaments too close together. That’s a problem, I think. And I think that’s going to be a problem for the Tour in the future.”
The Tour are planning major changes in 2028 to make every event equally valuable. That goes against Nicklaus’ opinion of what the tour should be. That’s creating some natural friction between one of the Mount Rushmore players of the sport and the PGA Tour.
Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images
Brian Rolapp and Jack Nicklaus disagree on the PGA Tour’s future
When Rolapp was announced as CEO of the PGA Tour, he said he wouldn’t be overly bound by golf’s traditions as he sought the best path forward for the sport. So it’s natural that he’ll clash with Nicklaus, one of the all-time greats of the game who was instrumental in making the tour what it is today.
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Rolapp comes from the NFL and is clearly taking inspiration from his former employer’s model with his vision for the PGA Tour. And if he believes that this is the best way forward, then the conversation between him and Nicklaus is going to be a little uncomfortable.
Dan Rapaport had this to say on Dan on Golf, “It’s got to be hard for Brian Rolapp, a guy who comes from outside of golf, to hear Jack Nicklaus say this stuff, and he’s going to have that conversation.
“I’m sure he’s going to be very diplomatic, but he’s going to have to explain that like the PGA Tour as you knew it is not what the PGA Tour of tomorrow is going to look like.
“And that’s, you know, probably Jack is 86 years old. He’s just going to say what he thinks, you know, and he’s not invested in the 15 or 20-year window in the same way.”
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If golf wants to compete with the major sporting markets in America, some real changes will have to be made, and some of the old guard won’t like it. Unfortunately, that’s just a part of Rolapp’s job.
Why Jack Nicklaus is right about the PGA Tour schedule
Nicklaus is correct about one thing: having big events lined up one after another is a disaster for the PGA Tour.
The players have made it consistently clear that they do not want to play in more than three events in a row. Justin Thomas said that it’s brutally tough to do that week after week, and that’s the consensus among many of the players.
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So when there are big events bunched together, as we saw in the stretch between The Masters and the PGA Championship, big-name players sit out. We don’t see the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy going head-to-head week to week.
So when Rolapp is building the new schedule, he must allow some time to breathe before the biggest events of the year, otherwise players simply won’t be playing against one another at each event.
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