ORLANDO – How Chairman of Augusta National holds a State of the Masters press conference each year, the PGA Tour has a less grand occasion, in which the tournament commissioner makes a grand entrance into the media center and provides a report on all manner of tournament business. Different commissioners, over the years. Deane Beman, Tim Finchem, Jay Monahanuntil last year. The commissioner, according to the charter and mission statement, had one job above all others: to increase playing opportunities for PGA Tour players and to increase player payouts. It worked well for quite a long time, going back to the early 1970s. Those days are long gone.
Jay Monahan is in his swan song year as commissioner. The guy running the show now, who will be in the spotlight at Wednesday’s Players’ press conference, won’t be the commissioner at all. it will be Brian RolappTour’s first CEO. It is not charged with increasing player opportunities and player salaries. The ultimate goal of his job is to make the PGA Tour profitable. “The goal is not incremental change,” Rolapp said at the start of his term last year. “The goal is an important change.”
Sign in Lucas Gloverthe newly elected chairman of the Tour’s 16-member Players Advisory Council. Next year, he will begin a four-year term on the PGA Tourism Policy Board. He is 46, a former US Open winner and the last man standing in full defense of the Tour’s values from the Beman era, the Finchem era and the Monahan era. Or, to put it another way, in the era of Tom Watson, in the era of Greg Norman and in the era of Tiger Woods.
“My opinion is different,” Glover said Sunday afternoon. He had signed his fourth-round card at Bay Hill – he finished 24th and won $157,000 – and was talking to a quartet of reporters. “The way I look at things is different, and my perspective is mine. You hope (the decision-making) is about the game and not about the score. And the answer to everything (can’t be) ‘Just give them money.'” Glover, who learned his golf under the watchful eye of a grandfather and various members of the Harmon family, despises that approach to problem solving. It is not ahead of its time and it is extremely refreshing.
Glover, who defeated Adam Scott for the PAC leadership, is not strong and mighty about it. It’s not like he’s turning down the payouts that come from playing in Signature events. He’s on the Atlanta TGL team, the entertaining made-for-TV golf treat.
The player Glover most brings to mind is . . . Scottie Scheffler and Glover mentioned it Sunday afternoon.
“Scottie wants to beat everybody here,” Glover said. “That’s all he cares about, playing good golf and winning. And that’s how I grew up.”
;)
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In Glover’s accounting of his professional life, there are four majors, the Players Championship it was better in May because the course was firm and fast and the tournament was better when the players helped each other out on the range, dined together and played cards at night. He said his teacher, Dick Harmon, came to mind A The tournament event in all their years together, and this was in “Moline”. Moline, Ill. You have to be old to refer to the John Deere tour known as the Quad Cities as Moline. The only reason Harmon was there was to visit his brother Butch. The PGA Tour’s driving range, Glover said, is now all “orange boxes and protein shakes.”
“I can’t remember the last time I heard someone talk about the charity we’re giving,” he said.
Glover doesn’t offer a stream of words. He listens carefully and responds carefully.
It was a telling remark. The old tournament was really little more than a collection of charity-minded local golf events.
“I hope we do what’s right for golf,” Glover said.
As Glover spoke, a copy of Claret Jug passed him by, in a protective case. Bay Hill offers a route to the British Open for a player who is not already disqualified. Glover never played well in Opens, which is surprising, given the quality of his iron shots. However, he returned every year he could.
“Look at that,” Glover said. Golf’s oldest trophy. Scheffler’s name only appeared last year.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@golf.com
