PEBBLE BEACH \u2014 PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp missed his first Super Bowl in 23 years on Sunday, settling for watching it on television rather than in person\u2014a perk that went with the job as a top NFL executive for 22 years.<\/p>\n
Instead, he spent the day in Scottsdale, Ariz., at the WM Phoenix Open. And not just anywhere at the tournament, but in the giant makeshift arena encircling the par-3 16th hole. Yep, he was in there with all the crazies, though not exactly rubbing elbows with the power drinkers and costume-clad crowds. Rolapp was lounging in one of the plush folding chairs next to the tee box, seats that went for an estimated $10,000 a pop. (The tour had four of them reserved.)<\/p>\n
But, hey, good on him for taking in all the chaos, along with some golf.<\/p>\n
Rolapp revealed his whereabouts on Wednesday at a CBS Sports welcome reception at Pebble Beach Golf Links, where the tour\u2019s first signature event of the year, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, begins today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watched my first Super Bowl Sunday in 23 years not being in the Super Bowl,\u201d he told a small gathering of tournament guests. \u201cI spent all day Sunday on the 16th hole at WM Open and loved every minute of it. I am loving my new life here in the golf world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rolapp is attending his first AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am since being named the tour\u2019s first CEO last June, but it is not his first time visiting the Monterey Peninsula, having been in the area in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n
As the NFL\u2019s chief media and business officer, Rolapp negotiated television deals for the league, so for some time he has known quite well Jim Nantz, lead NFL play-by-play announcer and golf host for CBS Sports. It turns out that the two men met long before their professional paths crossed in football.<\/p>\n
After Rolapp wrapped up his brief remarks, he invited Nantz up to the stage. Nantz, who has a home at Pebble Beach, immediately asked Rolapp to share their first encounter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t work this out in advance. Would you tell them how we met?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought you might bring this up,\u201d Rolapp said. \u201cEarly \u201990s, I\u2019m in college waiting tables in the summer at the Bethesda Marriott in Maryland.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMarriott Suites,\u201d Nantz interjected.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it was JW Steakhouse is what it was,\u201d Rolapp continued. \u201cAnd a young dashing sports broadcaster, [Nantz] is there to cover the Kemper Open and sits down, and I wait on him. And I say to Nantz, \u2018It\u2019s nice to meet you. I\u2019m in college. I think maybe one day I might be in the sports business.\u2019 He said, \u2018I hope so.\u2019 And he could not have been more gracious with his time. I was nobody, he was somebody, and that\u2019s my introduction to Jim Nantz. So I\u2019ve known Jim Nantz longer than anybody else [here].\u201d<\/p>\n
After a moment, Nantz had to ask him, \u201cSo how was the tip?\u201d<\/p>\n
After a notable pause, Rolapp replied, \u201cNobody\u2019s perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, Nantz managed to get in the last laugh. \u201cBrian, I want to wish you all the best,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m excited about \u2026 you\u2019re a visionary, and what you\u2019re going to bring as we evolve into the next best and greatest iteration ever of the PGA Tour, I\u2019m very excited for you. And if you take Venmo. \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PEBBLE BEACH \u2014 PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp missed his first Super Bowl in 23 years on Sunday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,755,138747,44,85],"class_list":["post-475786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}