The PGA Tour has its next leader.
The Tour announced Tuesday it hired Brian Rolapp as Chief Executive Officer. Rolapp would transition into a lead role for the Tour, with commissioner Jay Monahan stepping down at the end of 2026.
As CEO, Rolapp will lead the PGA Tour into its next phase, serving as the CEO of PGA Tour, Inc. and PGA Tour Enterprises. The PGA Tour management team will report to Rolapp upon his start date, and he will report to both Boards of Directors.
“I’m honored to join the PGA Tour at such a pivotal time,” Rolapp said in a release. “The PGA Tour represents the highest level of competition, integrity and global opportunity in the game of golf, and I believe deeply in the Tour’s mission and its potential to grow even stronger. I’m ready to get to work — alongside our players, partners and leadership team — to build lasting value and deliver an even more dynamic future for the sport and our fans.”
Here are five things to know about the PGA Tour’s new CEO.
He worked at the NFL for more than two decades
Rolapp has worked for the National Football League for the past 22 years, most of which have come dealing with the league’s media business. He had been in his current role with the NFL since 2014. Rolapp helped the NFL land its current deals with CBS, FOX, NBC, ESPN/ABC, Amazon and Netflix.
He played lacrosse at BYU
Rolapp was raised outside Washington D.C., but he attended Brigham Young University for undergrad and played on the lacrosse team, graduating with a degree in English. A devout Mormon, Rolapp then got his Master’s in Business Administration at Harvard. He is a member of the National Advisory Council at the Marriott School of Business at BYU.
He was close with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell
The commissioner of the most powerful league in sports, Roger Goodell, had a close relationship with Rolapp, with the latter even being rumored as someone who could replace the commissioner once he decided to retire. Now, he’s leading the largest professional golf tour in the world. Multiple reports state Rolapp’s position with the NFL won’t be replaced.
He’ll be the PGA Tour’s first CEO
The PGA Tour has never had a CEO, but in the for-profit era of the Tour, Rolapp’s role is expected to be a major infuencer in trying to lead the Tour into the future of professional golf. He’s also likely to become a key piece in the reunification of the sports, trying to help the PGA Tour and LIV Golf come together, with more than 2 years having gone by since the framework agreement was announced on June 6, 2023. Rolapp and LIV CEO Scott O’Neil met at Harvard Business School.
He worked at Congressional Country Club
During his introductory press conference at the Travelers Championship on Tuesday, Rolapp talked about how he got into golf. “My first job in high school I worked at the turn at a country club in Washington, D.C. area, Congressional Country Club. That’s where I got gas money. So that’s how I was actually introduced to the game, on employee day actually learning to play golf.
“I skipped quite a bit of classes in college playing, and then career and family started, and I took a long time off from the game because my career, my family got in the way in a bit, but I’ve taken it up in recent years ago.”
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