Jordan Spieth reveals details of players' only meeting with PGA Tour chief and Tiger Woods

Jordan Spieth says the PGA Tour's new boss is "adamant" changes to the circuit's structure will benefit every member and not just the top players. 

The PGA Tour's new chief executive, Brian Rolapp and 15-time major champion Tiger Woods, met with all 20 members of the field before the Hero World Challenge to discuss what is in the works. 

It is understood the PGA Tour is considering a dramatic restructure, with the season beginning in February to avoid clashing with the NFL and reducing the number of events to around 20-22. 

Rolapp insisted last week that nothing has been decided whilst Woods offered a few details in his pre-tournament news conference. 

As well as being a player director, Woods is the chairman of the future competition committee. The group, which has already met "multiple times", is exploring various models. 

Spieth attended the meeting before the Hero World Challenge and, according to Golfweek, liked what he heard. 

"Brian and Tiger did a great job answering questions on stuff," Spieth told the publication. 

"It seemed they were laying out how they plan on making our product better, like the different categories to do so, and you could tell they have a little further down the line than what they've told us, but they're giving us kind of (a rough sketch).

"They're still a lot of things in consideration, so they're gonna try to make sure they get it right, and then they're gonna pass it down to (the player advisory council) to pass it back up (to the board of directors), make sure everybody's happy, and they're using the networks and partners that we have on the media side now and some potential new players and asking them how to make it better as well as our sponsors, and that should be a good representation of what the fans want, too."

One big change the Tour has made has seen the circuit reduce the number of fully exempt members from 125 to 100. 

Access to the $20m signature events is also by no means easy, with some fields limited to 72 players. 

Spieth told Golfweek that Rolapp was adamant that going forward the changes won't mean less opportunities for the members. 

"He was adamant about pointing out that," Spieth added.

"This doesn't mean that we're going to make it more exclusive or less opportunities at all. 

"We're gonna fine tune what we have and the eligibility side of things as well because he thinks it's a little confusing at the end of the (FedEx Cup) season to (FedEx Cup Fall), like, we want to make it just a little more easier for the fan to understand, like, who's going to be at, what events."

What did Tiger Woods say?

Woods spoke to the media for the first time since undergoing back surgery in September on Monday. 

The 49-year-old offered an update on his latest comeback, revealing he still doesn't have a timeline for his potential return. 

Woods also discussed taking on the United States Ryder Cup captaincy and where his teenage son Charlie will go to college. 

He also said he hoped changes to the PGA Tour will be introduced in 2027. "Hopefully we get there," he said. 

Asked about recent comments made by Harris English about the potential changes, Woods said: "We're trying to figure out what is the best schedule possible so we can create the best fields and have the most viewership and also the most fan involvement and what does that look like."

He added: "We have some incredibly smart player directors, some independents and some leaders that have led in change in other sports. 

"So trying to pull all of that together with Brian's leadership and stewardship, that's what we're trying to implement all these different things."

Woods said he has been impressed with Rolapp so far. 

"I was part of the search committee that was part of finding him and going through all the different interviews of about nine months to finally land on Brian," Woods said.  

"An amazing CEO, an amazing leader. 

"What he's done so far in a short time in his leadership skills and his personality and how he handles situations, his calmness, his thoughtfulness, his directness, transparency, all the things that we were looking for and we needed on the Tour he has delivered in spades."