The biggest issue PGA Tour players had with new schedule that they raised privately with Brian Rolapp
· Yahoo Sports
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has confirmed his new plans for the PGA Tour schedule.
He spoke at length at the Travelers Championship, outlining his new plans. They include two tiers on the PGA Tour, featuring promotion and relegation, matchplay for the Tour Championship, and a smaller calendar.
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These changes have been largely popular among golf fans, but they weren’t the only ones Rolapp had to convince to get them through. There are so many plates to spin, as Rolapp seeks to please sponsors, television partners, and perhaps most difficult of all, players.
Rolapp had the approval of most PGA Tour players who voted to get this across. But Maverick McNealy, who sat in on meetings throughout the process as a member of the future competitions committee, identified the biggest crux of the players’ issues with the proposal.
Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty ImagesMaverick McNealy named the biggest issue with the PGA Tour schedule
McNealy, speaking after Rolapp’s press conference, walked the media through the process of securing the players’ approval for the new schedule. It took 10 months and a lot of meetings, but McNealy is confident that the new schedule will be a positive for the tour.
He said, “A lot of Zoom calls, but I think it was great. We really went through a pretty formulaic process to figure it all out. It started with all the key parties, the media partners, sponsors, fans, and obviously the players, and really figured out what everyone wanted to see if they had a blank sheet of paper and could draw up the perfect PGA Tour.
“I’m really confident that the proposal voted on yesterday addressed most, if not all, of that. There’s nothing perfect, and as Brian says, the first five-year business plan that he writes, if it’s exactly the same in five years, it’ll be the first.
“But I think we’re at a really good starting point, but still a lot of details to be worked out over the next six months, and I’ll be wearing out those Webex calls, but we’re almost there.”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing, and there were plenty of issues to iron out. McNealy said the biggest issue the players raised to Rolapp is the rest between events, and their ability to build their own schedule.
He continued, “I think the questions we’ve had that the players have pushed back on is one of the best things about our job is that we’re not mandated when we have to play.
“So, figuring out the number of events that, one, allows for the strength of field that everyone, golf fans, media partners, and sponsors want to see, while still allowing us the flexibility to take a week off if we need a break, optimize our schedule, life gets in the way, things like that.
“I think one of the best benefits of the schedule that hasn’t been talked about as much is how much of our membership is going to have schedule predictability now. It was really something that was reserved for the top 30, maybe the top 50 players, knowing what they were going to play in at the start of the year, and now we’ve got over 200 members that are going to know January 1st every tournament that they’re in.
“That’s going to be a huge quality of life thing, and for a huge portion of the membership, they’re going to be playing for much elevated financial opportunities, while still maintaining a much cleaner system to move up and down and through and identify the best players.”
Brian Rolapp responds to PGA Tour players’ biggest issue
One of Rolapp’s best traits as CEO of the PGA Tour is that he seems to genuinely take on board the concerns of all parties when making decisions. He has clearly considered the players’ concerns about building their own schedules and addressed them during his press conference.
Rolapp explained that which PGA Tour events players take part in will remain at their discretion, but he thinks he’s building something that players will want to partake in more often.
He said, “I think it’s important to note that it had a lot of conversation because we’ve been very clear we’re trying to create a competition in times of the year when we think we can get the most attention, and we think this time of the year, we think that’s an opportunity to do that.
“We also understand that PGA Tour members cannot play every week, nor are we requiring them to do that. So we aren’t changing the model. They’re not under contract. We’re not going to force them to play anything.
“But we do think we’ve designed a model that will allow them to take some tournaments off and still compete for the regular season title and other things.
“I think if you look at the math, we think we will deliver very, very strong fields week in and week out, and that’s the entire point.”
That’s the players’ biggest issue addressed in a very diplomatic manner. The Tour would likely prefer to have the players under contract and guaranteed to play in every event, but this is what negotiations are all about: compromise.
There’s been give and take from both sides, and that bodes well for the future of the Tour.