00:00Get ready, golf fans. The PGA Tour will soon be making significant changes to how it looks and
00:05operates. That's the message from Tour CEO Brian Rolap just three weeks into his new gig.
00:14Rolap made the announcement from Eastlake Golf Club a day before the Tour Championship,
00:19the final event of the season. The goal is not incremental change. The goal is significant change,
00:25he said. To get the job done, Rolap has formed a nine-person future competition committee that
00:31will be led by 15-time major champion Tiger Woods. The goal for Woods and the committee is to upgrade
00:38the model by which the PGA Tour operates. The committee will be given a clean sheet to honor
00:44the traditions of the game without being overly bound to them. The hope is that it leads to
00:50increased fan engagement and bringing together the best players in the world more often.
00:55The sports business is not that complicated. You get the product right. You get the right
01:02partners. Your fans will reward you with their time because they're telling you it's good and
01:09they want more of it. Woods was not in attendance Wednesday but posted his thanks on social media
01:14saying, honored to serve as chairman of the future competition committee. This is about shaping the
01:20next era of the PGA Tour for our fans, players, and partners. Others joining Woods on the committee
01:27include players Adam Scott, Patrick Cantlay, and Camilo Villegas. Boston Red Sox owner John Henry and
01:34his former general manager, now advisor, Theo Epstein. Rolap spent 22 years working at the NFL and was
01:41considered by many to be Commissioner Roger Goodell's eventual successor. He was hired as the PGA Tour's
01:48first CEO on June 17th and said he'll lean into his NFL experience. We did not sit still,
01:56change rules every March, change the kickoff rule, you know, and that's what I mean by honoring
02:03tradition but not being bound by it. I think that level of innovation is what we're going to do here
02:08and I think that's, that's one lesson I've learned. Rolap did not agree with the idea that the changes
02:14coming to the tour's model were sparked by competition from Live Golf, which features team
02:20competition, shotgun starts, and loud music. He bristled when asked if reuniting the rival tours
02:26was a priority and said he's not yet spoken to anyone from the Saudi Arabia's public investment fund,
02:32which finances live. The best collection of golfers in the world are on the PGA Tour. I think there's
02:40a bunch of metrics that demonstrate that from rankings to viewership to whatever you want to pick
02:48and I'm going to lean into that and strengthen that. Rolap said the new committee has yet to meet
02:53but they will get to work as soon as possible. The 2026 PGA Tour season begins with the Century
03:00Tournament January 8th in Hawaii. For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis.
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