Jay Monahan became the commissioner of the PGA Tour in January 2017. And over the last nine years, he has constantly been criticized for his strategic approach. Some of his biggest failures include the Player Impact Program, his scheme with the PIF, and the recent FedEx Cup fiasco. Now Brian Rolapp is being forced to sort it all out, and he revealed what made him take up the CEO position.

The new leader of the PGA Tour joined CNBC for an exclusive interview. That’s when Scott Wapner asked him what he thought wasn’t working in the PGA Tour.

Rolapp told Wapner, “I wasn’t looking for a job. I had the best #2 job in sports at the NFL. But the more I studied the golf industry and the PGA Tour specifically, I felt it was an extremely unique opportunity. It has grown tremendously. The last growth spurt started during COVID.”

The new PGA Tour CEO worked as the Chief Media and Business Officer for the NFL. He played a vital role in leading the digital initiatives of the organization. Rolapp also explained that it was the perfect job because the spotlight wasn’t on him. But he was still able to execute impactful strategies that moved the needle in football.

But he still found the PGA Tour opportunity intriguing. It was a challenging role, one that would require him to clear a lot of mess. But the PGA Tour had still seen a lot of growth. Despite the rise of LIV Golf and the competition from the DP World Tour. That’s probably what impressed the new CEO. He also explained it with numbers.

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“It was getting on a Sunday afternoon, 3-5 million average viewers. That was higher than a first-round NBA game. That was four times the viewership of Sunday night baseball.”

The PGA Tour’s average viewers per event are quite high. So much so that first-round NBA games and Sunday baseball matches aren’t able to compete with them. That shows that the Tour is sustainable despite all the problems. Reflecting on the problems and how he perceived them, Rolapp had something more to add.

“Yet, the entire narrative around golf was, it’s fractured, it’s messy. There’s some truth to that, but I look at that as an opportunity. No sport had become relevant without a crisis. If you do things right, it’s only opportunities after the crisis.”

Yes, Jay Monahan may have created many roadblocks for Rolapp and his team. The PGA Tour is fractured to a certain extent. But he views the crisis as an opportunity. It can’t fall below this point. And under the right management, he believes that it will only make a strong comeback. That should open doors to many big opportunities.

In fact, Brian Rolapp has already taken major steps to resolve some big issues on the PGA Tour. And some of them have received a lot of support from the golf community.

Brian Rolapp’s efforts to resolve Jay Monahan’s mess are already being recognized

Greg Norman, Scott O’Neil, any of the PGA Tour players, and Brian Rolapp himself all had the same opinion. They believed that there were a lot of issues in the Tour. Not everyone has pointed fingers, but the general direction of the blame has gone to Jay Monahan. However, Rolapp hasn’t shied away from sorting a lot of it out.

There was a lot of tension between the PGA Tour & LIV Golf with regard to the merger. But Rolapp shifted the focus away from it by clarifying that it is not a priority.

He also set up a plan of action for the $700 million sitting in the treasury of the PGA Tour. Rolapp didn’t specify anything, but he did mention, “We need to go where the fans are. Increasingly, the fans are spending their time on digital, and I imagine a big priority of mine.”

There was also a lot of noise around the reduced field size from 2026. Brian Rolapp couldn’t overturn Jay Monahan’s decision. That’s because he was not the CEO when the changes were originally made. However, he recently announced compensation for players who get relegated from the PGA Tour through the Member Support Program. That should motivate them to stay loyal to the PGA Tour.

It has only been a few months since he joined as the CEO. It will be interesting to see what Brian Rolapp does next to improve the PGA Tour.