The PGA Tour has zeroed in on longtime NFL executive Brian Rolapp as its top candidate to be the entity’s first CEO and work alongside commissioner Jay Monahan, according to multiple people familiar with the search process.
In December, the PGA Tour officially launched a search process for the new position as it continues its negotiations with LIV Golf and its backers, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Monahan has been commissioner since the start of 2017, replacing Tim Finchem.
Longtime Tour sponsor Korn Ferry, which is leading the commissioner search, did not respond to a request to comment on the process.
Rolapp has emerged from a group of four leading candidates, who all have deep backgrounds in sports. They included Steve Phelps, who was recently elevated to NASCAR’s first commissioner after previously serving as NASCAR president.
TaylorMade Golf CEO David Abeles and Jared Smith, CEO of ski resort giant Alterra Mountain, were also in the final mix. Smith previously spent 17 years at Ticketmaster, where he was president and global chairman.
Rolapp started with the NFL in 2003 and has been its chief media and business officer since 2017. He’s spearheaded the league’s media strategy, with its current agreements worth more than $120 billion over 11 years. Rolapp has been deemed a potential successor to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and has long been courted by outside firms, due to his success running the NFL’s media business.
Monahan’s tenure has faced several major challenges, starting with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and then the launch of LIV Golf in 2022.
In June 2023, the PGA Tour and LIV reached a “framework agreement” that was intended to create a new for-profit entity and lead to a stand-down in the battle between the two sides. A final agreement has still not been reached, but the legacy tour got a boost with a $1.5 billion investment from a syndicate of well-heeled investors that could rise to $3 billion for a new PGA Tour commercial venture, PGA Tour Enterprises.
The syndicate, Strategic Sports Group, is led by Fenway Sports Group and includes more than a dozen people, such as Home Depot co-founder and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, FSG owner John Henry, New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, RedBird Capital Partners founder Gerry Cardinale and Marc Lasry’s Avenue Sports Fund. Cohen, Henry, Lasry and Blank are four of the six franchise owners of TGL, the team golf league backed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Blank has led the search committee for the new PGA Tour CEO. Other members of the committee include players Woods and Adam Scott, as well as Monahan, FSG CEO Sam Kennedy, and PGA Tour Enterprises board member and former Valero CEO Joe Gorder.