Ryder Cupper gets interesting PGA changes: ‘We’ll see’
What does the ‘New’ PGA PGA look like?
It’s a question Golf Fans have been asking for several years now, three or four or more, because the arrival of LIV threw the entire Pro-Golf ecosystem into chaos. We received one response when the tour released its new field, Big-Money event model for the 2023 season; That model has appeared every year since. But the arrival of CEO Brian RolApp this summer put everyone on notice, a much bigger change was coming. He named Tiger Woods as the Chairman of the Committee for Future Tournaments and did not mince words in explaining the future:
“The goal is not incremental change,” RolApp said in August. “The goal is a big change.”
So what will that be like? We will see. And we will look for clues. And we got one on Wednesday, when Harris English – the top-ranked player in this week’s RSM Classic, the last event of the 2025 tour season – removed one “important” type.
“We’ve got some great guys at the helm. Now with Brian RolApp coming in, you see the PGA tour in a different light,” English said. This is an opinion closely related to rolApp, who says that everyone on the PGA Tour is described as “what a healer.” (Maybe it’s because they all love football, and because Rolapp’s previous employer, the NFL, is a Behemoth. That’s the thing: if Rolapp’s leadership is good enough for them, it’s good enough to be on the road.)
But here’s what happens when things get interesting:
“Sometimes change is good,” English said. “I get that they want all the best players playing together more often, and the talk of a tour that might start after the Super Bowl I think is a great thing because we can’t really compete with football.”
Starting after the Super Bowl! That would be really news. Sources familiar with the TOUR have suggested that nothing is set in stone, but it is clear a structure for the year is on the table. English’s proposed schedule raises a red flag – the open WM Phoenix traditionally runs the same week as the big game and is the most attended event on the road; they certainly wouldn’t move that? But his larger point stands. The trip was doing everything possible to leave the NFL schedule to avoid competing on Sundays. It seems logical that the NFL’s Offseason would be a time of travel.
So what was that time like? English suggested that the signature event model could get another major overhaul — or a complete facelift.
“I think that’s what they’re going to change down the road, maybe in 2027, where all the competitions are standardized and they don’t have the top eight events and the regular events. “I think that’s a good model to have. That’s where you’ll see all the top players playing every single event because you can’t really afford it.”
The English proposal can solve what is the biggest problem of the TOUR brand: At the moment it is difficult to define the difference between the signature event and the regular full cow event when both are considered PGA tour events. If there were a few events it would be easier to assign importance to them.
English wants to make one thing clear, however, he feels grateful to play anyone and everyone.
“As high events go, like, I like it – even if it’s not high I would play it all. I have a long time,” he said for a long time, “he said. “Really, Pebble is the only one I didn’t play a good time of my career where it was organized, I like to go where it goes where it goes where the 20 events start, all the points, all the money, all the money, all the money, all the money, all the money, all the money, all the money, all the money, all the money, all the money, all the money, all money, all money, all money, all money, all money, all money, all money, all money, all money, all money, all money, all money, all money, all money, all money, all money, all the same.”
The TOUR tea leaves were difficult to read with perfect clarity. Or as rolapp talks about the lack, his visit could add two new events for the fall of the coming years with new places and new sponsors. There are open questions about Hawaii’s future as part of the schedule; English expressed his regret that the trip will not go to Kapalua this year, where the calendar season begins, and he will be starting to see other places in Hawaii leaving or losing other places following the pines or even fall events. Cutting competitions may sound like a logical move on paper. That doesn’t mean it comes without consequences.
“Competitions like this, I don’t want to see them go because they say how much they mean to this community. I really don’t want to see them go, but I think they will find time and space for some of them,” she said.
English, 36, is used to traveling trends. While some things remain the same – this is his 14th season playing RSM – Most others don’t. You see points, payouts, schedules, properties and rewards change and change and change again. His message here was also clear: Wherever they tell me to play, I will play. And change can be all good.
“If you look at other languages, everything is very competitive and what you did two or three years ago doesn’t matter today,” he said. “The NFL cuts guys all the time. We get a good cutthroat here, but if it makes our product better and more fans watch and more fans come out here to do it.”
