Tiger Woods has been named chairman of the PGA Tour’s new future competition committee by CEO Brian Rolapp, who is tasking the nine-person panel to bring ‘significant change’ to the current model for tournament golf.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of this week’s season-ending Tour Championship, Rolapp said that the goal of the committee is to optimise the game for players, fans and Tour partners. Woods was told to apply a ‘clean sheet’ mentality and invite input from all the PGA Tour’s stakeholders.
“The sports business is not that complicated. You get the product right. You get the right partners. Your fans will reward you,” Rolapp said. “The goal is not incremental change. The goal is significant change.”
Woods, who has not played competitively since last year’s Open Championship, is one of four player directors on the new committee, with Patrick Cantlay, Adam Scott and Camilo Villegas joined by Maverick McNealy and Keith Mitchell from the PGA Tour’s player advisory council.
Joe Gorder, chairman of the PGA Tour Enterprises and Policy boards, Red Sox and Fenway Sports Group owner John Henry, and former Cubs and Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein are also on the committee. Epstein currently serves as a senior advisor to Fenway Sports.
PGA TOUR CEO Brian Rolapp has given the Future Competition Committee the challenge of coming up with a new model for the PGA Tour’s tournament structure and schedule (photo by Tracy Wilcox/PGA TOUR)
Regarding the on-going split in professional golf caused by the arrival of LIV Golf in 2022, Rolapp said he has not had been in contact with anyone from LIV since taking office last month and said that his focus was exclusively on the PGA Tour.
“I have not spoken to anyone from the Public Investment Fund. I’ve been here for three weeks, so my focus has obviously been on the Tour and starting to develop a bit of a vision for the future,” Rolapp said.
“I would offer to you that the best collection of golfers in the world are on the PGA Tour, I think there’s a bunch of metrics that demonstrate that, from rankings to viewership to whatever you want to pick. I’m going to lean into that and strengthen that.”
