PGA Tour boss defends controversial change: "It produces drama"

PGA Tour boss Brian Rolapp says a two-tier system will produce great drama for golf fans. 

Rolapp, who who was appointed the Tour's chief executive last June, revealed before the 2026 Players that a promotion and relegation system had been proposed by the Tiger Woods-chaired future competition committee. 

The former NFL executive said the idea was to eventually double the number of signature events, bring back cuts and increase field sizes to at least 120 players. 

Although nothing has been decided, critics have suggested the proposal doesn't improve competition but rather formalises inequality. 

Rolapp dismissed the notion, telling a group of reporters before the the Memorial that the 'Track 1' and 'Track 2' system will lean into meritocracy and produce drama.

"At the end of the day, sports is about how good the athletes are and what the competitive consequence are," he said.

"I think you'll see that in Track 2. And I think you'll see people fighting to stay on Track 1. 

"And I think we have lost a lot of that with the smaller fields, no-cut events, the competitive meritocracy that makes this sport great and unique is we've gotten away from we're getting back to." 

Rolapp denied it was the case that opposite-field events would be removed as Track 1 and Track 2 events will sometimes be staged during the same week. 

And he also believes his use of the word 'scarcity' has been misconstrued. 

"I think there's a bit of misconception about the scarcity thing that I always said about there was this view of we were dramatically reducing playing opportunities in tournaments," he added.

"I think when you see where we land, you're not going to see that," he said. 

"But what you are going to see is an elevation of tournaments. 

"And you're going to have a collection of Track 1 that are field special, that are bigger. 

"I think what we have found as we've talked to sponsors both for Track 1 and Track 2, there's a lot of demand for both. 

"And the price points will be diffrent. The bigger events may not, not everyone can afford and may not be sort of consistent with their business goals. That's great. 

"There's other price points too for it, and I think there's plenty of demand for both Track 1 and Track 2 in that regard because there's definitely people who want to invest different amounts in these events."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it"

Rolapp also doubled down on what he previously said about the prospect of LIV Golf players making their way back to the PGA Tour. 

The future of the breakaway tour is uncertain beyond 2026. 

Several players, such as major winners Patrick Reed and Brooks Koepka, have already had their PGA Tour memberships reinstated. 

But what about everybody else?

"I will cross that bridge when we get to it," Rolapp said. 

"But, you know, they're under contract, as long as they're under contract there's not a lot to talk about. I don't know what's going on over there. I read what you read. 

"I think you look at a situation like Brooks, who is the same thing, I think he wanted to come back and we said, you need to remove yourself from whatever contractual obligations you have. He did that. 

"And then once he did that, it opened a discussion and we created something that sort  of worked for us and for our members. 

"I think we're always open to that, but we're an organization of rules, and rules have to be enforced or you might as well not have an organization. 

"But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. 

"Right now we're just sort of focused on controlling what we can control."