{"id":715112,"date":"2026-06-04T16:31:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/715112\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T16:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:31:19","slug":"brian-rolapp-says-substantial-changes-coming-to-pga-tour-depend-on-progress-made-in-upcoming-weeks-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/715112\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Rolapp says substantial changes coming to PGA Tour depend on progress made in upcoming weeks \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Photo: Orlando Ramirez]<\/p>\n

For the better part of five years, the PGA Tour has promised a re-imagined schedule\u2026 and for the better part of five years, the calendar has looked essentially the same. Now, with that change finally within reach, chief executive Brian Rolapp says whether it actually happens depends on progress in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Jack Nicklaus, like most in golf, is anxious to see what the revamped PGA Tour will look like. Here\u2019s his worry<\/a><\/p>\n

The PGA Tour is expected to announce sweeping schedule changes at the Travelers Championship in three weeks, with implementation targeted for 2028. General frameworks have been pitched to players and the advisory council in recent weeks, centred on a new two-tiered system. The top circuit would feature roughly 20-plus events (majors included), fields of about 120 players and purses of $US20 million. The bottom 20-30 finishers at season\u2019s end would be relegated to the second tier; the top performers there would earn promotion back up. As Golf Digest\u2018s Tod Leonard reported<\/a> earlier this week, Torrey Pines would open the 2028 season, with the calendar wrapping up late in the American summer.<\/p>\n

None of this arrives without resistance. Rolapp signalled<\/a> consequential change at his Players Championship press conference in March, but pushback has come from multiple directions \u2013 players, sponsors and tournaments alike. Some players see the proposal as little more than the existing PGA Tour\/Korn Ferry structure with a smaller event count. Tournament officials likely slotted into the second tier are asking why they\u2019d offer substantial prizemoney for what amounts to a feeder league. Media partners want clarity on what they\u2019re actually paying for under their current deals.<\/p>\n

Nothing has been officially decided. At Memorial Tournament on Wednesday, Rolapp briefly addressed the media, offering only that his future committee\u2019s work has been \u201cgoing really well\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been incredibly impressed with the players about how much time and thought they have put into it. And I think we have a lot of work to do before the [announcement],\u201d Rolapp said at Muirfield Village Golf Club. \u201cI think we\u2019ll update you more where we are on the 22nd. But the amount of change and the questions we\u2019re asking ourselves are not easy by design. But I think we\u2019re making substantial progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the points still being discussed is playoff format. There\u2019s a chance the postseason is reduced to two events, with matchplay being implemented. Rolapp said everything is still up for discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting there. We have a meeting on the 9th [of June],\u201d Rolapp said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to talk a lot about that. It was a subject of our meeting last time. So we have more work to do. I think what has been most encouraging about those discussions is we\u2019re talking about different formats, but I\u2019ve been a big believer that you can come up with any format you want, if it doesn\u2019t feel authentic to the players, like it\u2019s real authentic competition, it\u2019s not going to feel authentic to anybody. And most of the ideas now about how to actually think about formats for the playoffs are coming from the players, which is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, for that change to come, Rolapp said it\u2019s very much coming down to the wire, specifically the time between the Memorial and Travelers Championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt depends how much work we do between now and then. That\u2019s how much real time we\u2019re doing. We\u2019ll give an update exactly where we are. Depending upon what we do in the next handful of weeks will determine how substantive that is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: Orlando Ramirez] For the better part of five years, the PGA Tour has promised a re-imagined schedule\u2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,62094,755,138747,343008,343009,44,1747,15343,85],"class_list":["post-715112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brian-rolapp","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-memorial-tournament","tag-muirfield-village-golf-club","tag-news","tag-pga-tour","tag-schedule","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715112","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=715112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}