PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA | Precisely at 10 a.m. last Wednesday morning, the considerable noise created by more than 1,000 chattering people in the PGA Tour’s new building in Ponte Vedra Beach – formally known as the Global Home and informally as Glo-Home – quietened as a man of medium height and middle age with black hair walked to the podium. Brian Rolapp, the chief executive officer of the PGA Tour, was about to begin a state-of-the-nation address. His dark jacket, with a PGA Tour badge in its left lapel, matched the colour of his hair. Tieless and with an open top shirt button, he was the very acme of business smart but casual.
Right from the start Rolapp made it clear who was in charge. There was no need for a master of ceremonies to introduce him. He did that himself. For the 50 minutes he talked and took questions, TV never moved its camera from him. He outlined plans for the PGA Tour crisply, concisely and with clarity. It was a virtuoso performance.
One question was about the PGA Tour’s strategic alliance with the DP World Tour, entered in 2020 and in place until 2035 with a break clause next year. On the watch of a new CEO who brings fresh eyes to such arrangements, it is being scrutinised, in particular the annual financial commitment from the PGA Tour to the DPWT, reported to have been £21.5 million (or about $28.4 million) in 2024. “We’re fortunate to have a strategic alliance,” Rolapp answered. “… We would like to extend that. In fact we made a proposal to do that … to actually create even a more mutual-benefit relationship. So we hope we can do that.”
(A subsidiary question brought some levity to a serious occasion: how was Rolapp getting on with the pink shirts and pink ties of Guy Kinnings, chief executive of the DPWT. “Guy is sitting here and, as I said, is the best-dressed man in golf and continues to keep that reputation,” Rolapp said. The question highlighted the reputation the Englishman has for these vivid hues, as a result of which Tiger Woods refers to him as “Mr. Pinky.”)
The fact that Rolapp merely said he “hoped” to make the strategic alliance more mutually beneficial rather than something stronger caused some speculation among golf’s chattering classes, though not by Kinnings. “I wouldn’t listen to the chattering classes,” Kinnings said. “I would listen to what Brian said. He said he valued the strategic alliance now and valued the opportunity to continue [it]. We appreciate the relationship but until you’ve worked it out you haven’t worked it out.
“You’ve got to remember why we did the original strategic alliance,” Kinnings continued. “It was because it made sense to the two tours to work together as collaboratively as they could and should. That has worked very well, whatever the terms were.
“We’ve just come off maybe our best year … Rory becomes the first European to win the [career] Grand Slam, the Euro Ryder Cup do their heroics at Bethpage. But in the parts of the schedule where we are able to shine as much as we can, which is post-FedEx [playoffs], on our ‘Back 9,’ in the [DPWT] playoffs, the national opens around the world which we support and into the Middle East in January we’ve had record performances in terms of sponsorship sales, in terms of fan engagement, crowd numbers and TV figures.
“Crowd numbers? Up.” He banged the table. “TV numbers? Up.” Bang. “Sponsorship? Up.” Bang. “Doubled our sponsorship since ’19.” Bang. “The relationship from my perspective is working very well.
“I recognise that until you get deals done you haven’t got deals done,” Kinnings continued, stressing how closely the two tours worked together, on a weekly if not daily basis. “… For me I think there is a great opportunity to further elevate international golf. We say we are golf’s global tour with 54 years of history. We go to double the number of countries around the world than any other tour. We have double the number of nationalities playing on our tour. We have dual members so Rory is wearing his green jacket when he plays in the Australian Open, when he plays in Delhi, when he plays in his national open in Ireland, when he plays in Dubai, Abu Dhabi. Talent is emerging around the world. I think the same building blocks that were there when we did the original deal are there now.”
There is no doubt these are challenging and difficult times. The Middle East conflict must imperil the DPWT’s tournaments in that part of the world. How is the challenge from LIV Golf going to change in coming months? Though those DPWT players who earn one of the 10 cards to graduate to play on the PGA Tour are happy at that privilege, many lesser-ranked players are not, seeing it as giving away the best talent from one tour to another. What will be the long-term effect on the strategic alliance of the investment in the PGA Tour by the Strategic Sports Group?
But are these issues any more than the normal concerns of a large organisation? Isn’t the principle of a strategic alliance between the PGA Tour and the DPWT, and with it the terms, almost sacrosanct? It is hard to conceive a situation in which the two biggest tours in the world are at odds with one another, one that might send the DPWT seeking financial solace from the sheikhs in Saudi Arabia.
“When I was on the board we wanted the best players in the world to all get together more,” Davis Love III said. “We can’t try to run the DPWT off. You need places for the top players to play. I know we always have – at least for the past 10 years – we have tried to support the DPWT so hopefully it continues.
“Look at the guys who have come off of there, not only the Rory McIlroys that live there but Brooks Koepka and the guys that go over there and work their way back. That’s the thing about another tour that isn’t a DPWT or a PGA Tour or a Korn Ferry [Tour]. You have to have a way for players to come up to the majors and the PGA Tour and Australian tour, for a guy to come out of Australia or Asia or wherever. Everybody has to work together so hopefully they will continue to do that.”
Top: PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp says the tour is “fortunate to have a strategic alliance” with the DP World Tour.
Tracy Wilcox, PGA TOUR via Getty Images