{"id":472893,"date":"2026-03-13T06:15:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T06:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/472893\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T06:15:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T06:15:20","slug":"make-golf-more-like-premier-league-with-relegation-says-pga-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/472893\/","title":{"rendered":"Make golf more like Premier League with relegation, says PGA chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

Football-style relegation battles and a schedule of about 16 signature events are part of radical plans to overhaul the PGA Tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Tour\u2019s chief executive, Brian Rolapp, said the plans on the table would create a two-tier system, with 120-player fields and a cut in the top flight. The season would start in late January and finish in early September, with an added emphasis on taking the PGA Tour to new markets including New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington DC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rolapp said \u201cthis was not a baked cake\u201d and nothing had been decided, but the ideas, some of which could be implemented next year, are designed to ensure the best players compete more often in a meritocracy. \u201cWe are evaluating the role of promotion and relegation between these two tracks,\u201d he added. \u201cYou see this work powerfully elsewhere, including in English football, where clubs move between the Premier and the Championship based on performance. Applying elements of that approach to the PGA Tour creates real consequences. For our members the message is pretty simple \u2013 play well and you earn the opportunity to compete in our biggest events for more money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"THERolapp addresses the media before Sawgrass where he unveiled an array of new plans for the PGA TourCliff Hawkins\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The new man at the helm of the PGA Tour also said he wanted to overhaul the post-season, possibly introducing match-play events and \u201cwin-or-go-home moments\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On wider issues, there was no hint of an olive branch for LIV Golf, and Rolapp said the Returning Member Programme, which enabled Brooks Koepka to rejoin his home tour, was a one-off deal. \u201cThat was designed for a set of circumstances that arrived on our doorstep a bit unexpectedly,\u201d he said. \u201cBrooks told us he was out of contract and so we had a situation to deal with. We were very explicit that that was a one-time situational Returning Member Programme and I stand by that.\u201d He said other LIV players would have to follow the Patrick Reed route. The 2018 Masters champion left LIV in January and cannot play on the PGA Tour for a year since his last appearance on the Saudi circuit.<\/p>\n

And despite the PGA Tour\u2019s obvious mischief in fuelling the debate about whether The Players should be a major, Rolapp said there were no plans to change the entry criteria so LIV players could strengthen the field. \u201c That\u2019s not something I\u2019ve considered. That\u2019s not a priority I\u2019ve put on my list,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"THEShane Lowry, the 2019 Open champion, pauses for autographs ahead of The Players, which starts this week Kevin C. Cox\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

If LIV does not appear to be bothering the PGA Tour top brass these days, the issue of the \u201cstrategic alliance\u201d with the DP World Tour did get an airing as Rolapp addressed the media and Tour partners at Ponte Vedra in Florida. There is a financial break clause next year, but Rolapp said: \u201cWe\u2019re fortunate to have an alliance and it\u2019s one we value. We would like to extend that and, in fact, we made a proposal to do that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The devil will be in the detail, though, and he did not say if he was offering the same, or reduced, terms. The PGA Tour owns 40 per cent of European Tour Productions and provides more than \u00a320million to cover shortfalls in prize pots and operational costs. If a new deal is not struck, the DP World Tour will find the Saudi Public Investment Fund increasingly attractive.<\/p>\n

Rolapp said the plans would at least double the number of signature events from eight. Add The Players, four majors and the Ryder or Presidents Cup, and the top players would have 21-26 events. \u201cTo be clear we will have a second track of tournaments which will ladder up to those elevated events,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After years of Jay Monahan\u2019s more corporate State of the Union spiel, Rolapp was clear on the concept, even if details are all to be worked out. \u201cThe\u00a0PGA Tour competes in only four of the top 10 largest US media markets,\u201d he said with palpable bemusement. \u201cThat is an opportunity. We are evaluating markets like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, and many others, places where there is a strong fan demand for our sport.\u201d He added that they wanted to \u201cdo more internationally\u201d.<\/p>\n

All the proposals coming from the nine-man Future Competition Committee, which is led by Tiger Woods and includes Liverpool owner John Henry, will need to be approved by the PGA Tour board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Football-style relegation battles and a schedule of about 16 signature events are part of radical plans to overhaul…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-472893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}