Questions about the PGA Tour-LIV Golf unification? Tour CEO says he only has 1 goal

The PGA Tour’s new executive director, asked about reuniting the men’s game, says there is a goal.

He is focused on one tournament.

“Make the PGA Tour better,” said Brian Rolapp.

But it was unclear Wednesday whether that meant a merger of the Tour and LIV Golf, leagues that have operated against each other since LIV began playing in June 2022. In June 2023, the Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which finances LIV, had agreed to begin talks on a financing deal, but those discussions have stalled.

However, thoughts of the game between the parties, beyond the great ones, have continued and, at a press conference before the tournament Players ChampionshipRolapp was asked if the merger was still part of his ongoing “summary.”

He answered thus:

“I think I’ve been clear about that — my brief is to make the PGA Tour better,” Rolapp said. “I’m open to anything that makes the PGA Tour better. That’s my summary. Better for the fans, better for our members.

“So that’s where I’ve focused and that’s where I’ve put all my efforts.”

What it is likely to mean for the foreseeable future is continued separation; this week, specifically, the Tour is playing its showcase event, while LIV is playing in Hong Kong. But Scott O’Neil, CEO of LIV Golf, said he had spoken with Rolapp. At the end of last year, during Sportico’s “Invest in Sports” Conference, O’Neil said The conversations also focused on improvement, although they were in terms of professional golf as a whole.

“Overall we have a shared view of what the golf landscape could be or should be over the next several years,” O’Neil said. “There’s an opportunity for the entire golf world to come together and grow this pie.”

On Wednesday, Rolapp answered two more questions related to LIV Golf.

LIV golfers at The Players Championship?

Ahead of this year’s Players Championship, there were again whispers that the event would seek major status, although Rolapp appeared to shut that thought down on Wednesday. (“I think what’s important,” he said, “that’s not for us to decide.”) However, the Players remain without LIV professionals, and Rolapp was asked if they would ever be allowed in the event.

“That’s not the kind of priority I put on my list,” he said. “So that’s not something I’ve considered to date. There are other priorities besides that.”

Expansion of the Returning Member Program

It’s January 12th, the PGA Tour said Brooks Koepka was returning to the tour through the newly created “Returning Member Program,” a policy that was also open to three other LIV players (Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith) through their major championship wins over the past four years and featured a series of financial penalty deadlines on Feb. 2. The program was created after LIV and Koepka announced on December 23 that he was leaving the league he joined in 2022.

On Wednesday, Rolapp was asked if the program would be expanded. Notably, just over a month after Koepka’s announcement, Patrick Reed also said he was leaving LIV to play again on the PGA Tour, although the Tour said he would serve a one-year suspension.

“The returning member program was really designed for a set of circumstances that arrived on our doorstep a little bit out of the blue,” said Rolapp. “As I mentioned, we heard from Brooks on December 23. He informed us that his contract had expired and so we had a new situation to deal with.

“We created a very short-term program that applied to Brooks or anyone who might have been in his similar situation. It turned out that others weren’t. We were very clear that it was a payback membership program, and I stand by that.

“I don’t know the contractual relationship or the terms of the others on the LIV tour, and they have contracts and they have to be respected. But we have a path; Patrick Reed is clearly taking advantage of that path as he is, I think, outside of his contractual commitment. And so I think the LIV players know what those paths are and until they change, they are the path.”

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