Brian Rolapp is leaping over to the PGA Tour.
Rolapp is leaving his place as an NFL government vice chairman to turn into the subsequent PGA Tour CEO, in response to ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Seth Wickersham. Rolapp is anticipated to steer the Tour.
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Rolapp has been with the NFL for 22 years, and was extensively believed to be a possible successor to commissioner Roger Goodell each time he leaves his publish.
Goodell sent a memo to all workforce executives and presidents to inform them of Rolapp’s departure on Thursday. The Tour has not confirmed the information, which got here in the course of the opening spherical of the U.S. Open. That main championship is run by the US Golf Affiliation and is separate from the PGA Tour.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has held his publish because the Tour’s commissioner since 2017, when he changed longtime commissioner Tim Finchem. Monahan is simply the fourth commissioner within the Tour’s historical past. He stepped away briefly from his post in 2023 as a consequence of an undisclosed well being difficulty, which got here only a week after his announcement that the Tour was entering negotiations to join forces with LIV Golf — one thing that drew an immense amount of criticism from each contained in the Tour and out.
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Monahan and the Tour are nonetheless in negotiations with LIV Golf, which got here after years of turmoil within the sport and Monahan’s robust condemnation of the Saudi Arabian-backed league. It is unclear if such a deal will get finished, nonetheless, as the 2 sides are nicely previous their self-imposed deadline.
The Tour introduced final 12 months that it could start searching for a brand new CEO to work alongside Monahan, and that the job could be tasked with rising the industrial facet of the enterprise. The CEO function will report on to each the PGA Tour’s Coverage Board and the Board of Administrators for PGA Tour Enterprises, which is the brand new for-profit arm the Tour has launched in an effort to compete with LIV Golf. PGA Tour Enterprises acquired an preliminary funding of $1.5 billion from the Strategic Sports activities Group to get off the bottom.
“This can be a sign that we’re heading in the right direction,” Tour chief advertising and communications officer Andy Weitz stated in December of the brand new CEO place, via the Golf Channel. “That is one other instance of constructing positive we have now the correct folks in the correct roles. To come back collectively and actually create some thrilling experiences for followers in 2025 and past.”
Whereas Rolapp’s function will embody the PGA Tour Enterprises facet of issues, it isn’t anticipated to be restricted to the for-profit entity.
