Jay Monahan Is Finally Stepping Down, So Now What?

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan will step down at the end of his contract in 2026, transitioning his day-to-day responsibilities of running the circuit to new CEO Brian Rolapp, the Tour said in a statement Tuesday.

There are a lot of questions that we’ll sort out over time, but here is what we know:

Rolapp will serve as the CEO of the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Enterprises, the Tour’s for-profit entity. The Tour said its management team will report to Rolapp, while he will report to the board of directors of both the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Enterprises. Rolapp comes from the NFL where he worked as their chief media and business officer. He oversaw the NFL’s broadcast and digital rights, NFL Network, NFL Films, sponsorships, consumer products and the league’s private investment entity. Under his leadership, the NFL secured media deals with ESPN/ABC, Amazon, CBS, Fox, NBC, Netflix and YouTube, which reportedly earn the league more than $10 billion per season. Rolapp was introduced to the players earlier today at the Travelers Championship. Monahan is staying involved over the next couple of years, but Rolapp will be starting his new role as CEO later this summer. Monahan will focus the rest of his tenure on being a member of the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Enterprises boards. The Tour had been searching for a new CEO since December.

Monahan’s time as commissioner is coming to a close

We wrote last year about some of the reasons why Monahan should no longer be leading the Tour, and those points still hold true.

Monahan has been a poor communicator, even regularly botching press conferences. And his mishandling of the LIV situation will put a black mark on his legacy.

That’s not to say it has all been bad. On the contrary, Monahan made a handful of moves that strengthened the Tour. He was particularly clever in negotiating a lucrative TV contract, and his ability to salvage corporate sponsorships was admirable. Reshaping the Tour calendar—which was led by the players—has also been moderately successful. And securing a multi-billion dollar private equity investment has helped the Tour become more sustainable on its own.

But ultimately, Monahan was responsible for the Tour product getting watered down from 2022-2025.

He tried to play the morality card with the Saudis, then he tried to make a deal in the dark. More than two years after signing a framework agreement—which saved legal fees but accomplished little else—nothing has happened.

It’s my opinion that a large part of leading the Tour is to look out for the health of pro golf. You have to evolve the product and make sure it stays relevant.

And, for a variety of reasons, the product has worsened over time.

It’s true that the Tour has rebounded in 2025 as ratings have climbed compared to the disaster that was 2024. Most of that has been player dependent as stars like Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Justin Thomas have emerged at the right times.

But on the whole, golf outside of the majors has been pretty flat for a while now. It’s felt directionless.

And the best players are not all together in the same place. Some of the game’s best talents are playing in front of practically nobody.

That could have been avoided. Instead, Monahan spent much of his tenure being reactionary instead proactive. He defended an archaic product until it was forced to evolve. Much of what happened after LIV’s arrival—the reshaped schedule, investing in YouTube golf, creating TGL—probably wouldn’t have happened in the absence of threats.

Great leaders don’t let market forces dictate the terms. They go out and get it. They are constantly working to improve.

Monahan didn’t really do that. He defended until he couldn’t defend anymore.

It’s time for a new voice to infuse some energy and innovative thinking.

Is Rolapp the guy to make that happen? Who knows. His track record looks good, and he doesn’t come from the golf industry, which is a positive.

We’ll have to find out together.

The 3 goals new leadership needs to focus on

What are the most pressing issues moving forward? I think there are three clear answers.

1. Improving the TV product

There have been some slight advances in this category as commercial time is down. However, the TV product largely remains stale.

Rolapp is supposed to be a wizard when it comes to TV rights and sponsorship. Golf fans are asking for innovations like more creative in-round advertising, opening the door for more golf shots to be shown (getting rid of “Playing Through” and “Eye on the Course” would be a start).

The status quo won’t be acceptable here. Golf is not hockey where everyone appreciates TV timeouts because you need to take a breath. This is a slow-moving game driven by storytelling.

Watching four shots and then going to commercial isn’t going to cut it, especially as attention spans get shorter over time. Even if ratings are a little better this year, the Tour has to be proactive about figuring out a more intriguing TV format.

2. Either ignore LIV or figure out an agreement

Pick a lane and go down it.

If the Tour doesn’t have any interest in merging with LIV, then let’s stop pretending that negotiations are still happening. Let LIV fend for itself.

And if getting the best players back together really matters to your product, then let’s see it happen.

More than anything, the Tour needs to make a statement with what direction they want to go.

The golf world is worse off being left in limbo. It’s malpractice. Be a good steward of the game and figure out a path that doesn’t involve everyone standing around aimlessly.

3. Create a more innovative schedule

My opinion is that a boatload of relatively faceless 72-hole stroke play events is not a recipe for long-term success.

This might have been fine in 2002 when Tiger showed up to the Buick Open and boat raced everyone, but that strategy no longer works.

Do you think we’ll be sitting around in 2045 talking about opposite field events and the Cognizant Classic? They already barely have a place on the golf calendar.

The Tour schedule needs to be more compact and interesting. Get the best players together when it matters, cutting off the fat of week-to-week golf nobody cares about.

It’s time to stop catering to the 150th-ranked golfer in the world.

This is an entertainment product. Give us some different formats where the best players in the world can show off their skill and a little more personality.

Serious competition is nice, but golf outside the majors, Players Championship and Ryder Cup—only one of which the Tour owns—is about entertainment.

Hopefully the time has come where someone will recognize that.

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