PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- As Brian Rolapp concluded his lavish press conference with 1,100 people surrounding him across three floors at the PGA Tour Global Home, the first song to play on the speakers was Elton John's "Rocket Man," beginning with the words, "I think it's gonna be a long, long time..."
Rolapp's plans may have been a long time coming, but they are still a long way away.
Speaking on Wednesday before The Players Championship, the first-year PGA Tour CEO outlined the core tenets of a proposed new-look tour. He was sparse on details but focused on a reduced, centralized schedule with a simplified promotion and relegation system.
No formal schedule or structures have been finalized, and all of these changes remain dependent on approval from various boards.
But Rolapp plans to move from a 34-week schedule with an event every week to one focused on fewer events, featuring bigger fields and the return of 36-hole cuts. Then, the majors and a changed playoff model would fill out the calendar.
The other core tenet is creating a two-tier PGA Tour structure in which players and events not in that top-tier structure are now part of what Rolapp called a "second track" of the PGA Tour.
The hope is that more has been finalized by June, with some changes for 2027 and more in 2028. But here's everything we know so far.
The top-performing players will play on one tour, which Rolapp coined the "first track." Move down the ranks, and the next batch of players will compete on a "second track" of tournaments. The second track will reside between the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour.
The structure of these first-track tournaments will not resemble the current signature events, which include approximately 70 players and minuscule cuts, if any at all. Instead, it'll shift to roughly 16 regular-season events with around 120 players playing. If you add in the Players, the four majors, and events like the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, the golden number of top-tier events comes out to somewhere between 21-26. The goal is a full schedule of meritocratic, pure competition with the best players in the world consistently present.
Rolapp also said that the second track will feed into the first track, and vice versa, with a promotion/relegation system best known from English football. All the tour's events will have consequences, by design.
There are several benefits to this sort of system: Fields in all of the tour's events will be much more consistent. Fans will turn on their TVs and hopefully know exactly who is teeing it up each week, and where. The tour's sponsors will understand exactly what kind of product they are purchasing. And since the top events will be expanded to 120-player fields, the journeymen of the tour will not feel as though they've been cast aside.
But what if Tiger Woods wants to play again, and he's not one of those current top players? The answer to that is supremely up in the air, and conceptually, it gets at one of Rolapp's biggest conflicts: Delivering meritocratic competition while still giving fans what they want and delivering on TV ratings.
The key to understanding the proposed new schedule is thinking of it as 16 core regular-season events starting in late January instead of New Year's.
Compare that to the 45 events that currently exist from January to November. There are currently eight signature events, but after that, Rolapp and company will have difficult decisions to make about which ones make the first track. But where do those extra events go? In this proposal, many will become part of the second track.
Some of the smaller-tier tournaments on tour that historically struggled to attract stars would no longer try to toe the line between both worlds. An event slated for the second tier, in theory, would be a tournament between golfers No. 121 and beyond.
Another key detail, according to PGA Tour sources, is these events won't overlap often, if at all. No more opposite-field events. First-track events are the main event of their week, and whenever the second-track events are played, they will likely be the sole attraction that week. Rolapp talked often of not treating the second track as a demoted tour but of trying to elevate both levels to feel more significant.
What remains undecided is how those schedules will be structured. Rolapp suggested using the fall. It's also still unknown which events will be in which tier, other than the safe assumption the current eight signature events remain core parts of the first tier.
Rolapp was firm in saying that change is coming to the FedEx Cup playoffs. Format, locations, courses -- all of it is being reconsidered to simplify and improve the entertainment experience. The committee is currently evaluating an implementation of match play into the playoffs, too. The idea already had some legs last season. TV partners were willing to adapt to try something new, but players promptly shut it down. It doesn't sound like Rolapp is going to let that result stop him from exploring the idea again.
Rolapp confirmed that the tour wants to introduce events in American markets where it does not currently visit, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Boston. He also said he wants to "go big" at the season-opening event on the West Coast, perhaps an allusion to the WM Phoenix Open.
It was a fascinating choice by Rolapp to unveil the broad strokes of a plan with almost zero concrete details and very little assurance that his proposals would be approved. Several of Rolapp's proposals are sure to ruffle feathers with players, and this is the rare sports league where the players are essentially the team owners.
There is indeed a risk of publicizing plans that could be denied. At the same time, word from Rolapp and PGA Tour officials is that the elements he unveiled are the parts on which there's widespread agreement among stakeholders. It would be a major surprise if anything he suggested is totally shut down.
Still, the June PGA Tour Enterprises board meeting will be a key date to watch. That leaves three months to iron out specifics, ease any concerns and come together with a product that actually achieves Rolapp's goals.