Brooks Koepka returned to the PGA Tour through a side door.
According to the Associated Press‘ Doug Ferguson, Koepka reportedly entered the PGA Tour’s moated headquarters for an all-important reunion meeting with new CEO Brian Rolapp through a side entrance in the building — hiding his appearance from the wandering eyes of all within the golf world curious about the five-time major champ’s next destination … including fellow Tour employees.
In many ways, it was only fitting for Koepka to return to the PGA Tour this way after four seasons and (conservatively) close to $100 million with the rivals at LIV. If not a side door, what else would we call the unprecedented rule changes enacted to grant Koepka (and potentially his LIV counterparts Cameron Smith, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau) a viable pathway back to Ponte Vedra Beach?
Much has been made about Rolapp’s deftness in opening the window for the Koepka return with minimal penalty (a one-time, $5 million charitable donation and a handful of other financial slaps on the wrist). Much more has been made of Koepka’s words of contrition — of his acknowledgement that he will need to earn back the trust of the Tour players he left behind. But comparatively little has been said about the extraordinary use of power Rolapp showcased with the creation of the so-called “Returning Member Program.”
The truth is that Rolapp offered the first clear glimpse into his leadership style with his handling of Koepka’s return, and for those paying close attention, the side door told us everything.
A ‘simple’ job
Long before he entertained the idea of bringing Koepka back, Brian Rolapp started his tenure at the PGA Tour with a mission statement.
“Look, the sports business is not that complicated,” Rolapp said at the Tour Championship last August. “You get the product right, you get the right partners, your fans will reward you with their time because they’re telling you it’s good and they want more of it, and then the commercial and the business part will take care of itself.”
In recent months, the Tour has embarked upon a tireless effort to reimagine its “product” — including employing an all-star team of golf and sports industry voices to dream up the most compelling vision for the Tour’s week-in, week-out events (the so-called “Future Competitions Committee”). But the simplest path to improving the PGA Tour has been clear to even the casual observer: the players.
Golf is a sport of rugged individualists, and as such, its power is concentrated disproportionately in the hands of the stars. It was this rationale that made LIV a compelling gamble for the Saudi PIF: If LIV could convince the lion’s share of stars to join, the rivals could seize the dominant market share in the sport overnight.
Rolapp recognized that the same logic worked in reverse: If the Tour could convince the lion’s share of LIV’s major stars to leave their employers, the Tour could meaningfully grow its share of the revenue pie without needing to enact a single change to its business.
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Of course, winning back those LIV stars would be harder than losing them: The “big 3” on LIV — Koepka, DeChambeau and Rahm — were each contracted through the end of this year, and it was believed that each would need to sacrifice significant sums of money to be freed from their contracts. But even if those stars wanted to leave LIV, there was also a PGA Tour-created roadblock in the way: Koepka, Rahm and DeChambeau each faced lengthy suspensions and a litany of fines from the PGA Tour for leaving for LIV.
Making matters thornier for Rolapp: He would need to work any changes past the leering eyes of a PGA Tour working class already witnessing a dwindling number of cards available and an ever-shortening list of spots in the Tour’s highest-paying events. In other words, Rolapp was stuck between the same rock and hard place that had spurred inaction in his predecessor, Jay Monahan.
This is the pretext that makes Rolapp’s creation of the “Returning Member Program” so meaningful — and so telling. In cultivating a small, significant exception for only LIV’s best players, Rolapp is showing he’s not afraid to make politically risky decisions for the betterment of the Tour. Equally important, he is also showing that he is willing to be calculated about those maneuvers, eschewing the Tour’s longtime affinity with fairness for all in favor of a relatively direct brand of favoritism.
The benefits of this approach work two ways for Rolapp: First, it encourages those who truly matter to golf’s bottom line to see the upside of working within the boundaries of the PGA Tour rather than ejecting from it; and second, it shows those on the fence that the path back to the Tour might not be paved in gold, if it exists at all.
Why has Rolapp adopted this approach? Because he understands, as he told us in his first press conference, that the business of the PGA Tour is attention. If those watching at home are interested, then there will be more sponsors. If there are more sponsors, then the players will make more money, and if the players make more money, well, Rolapp won’t have to worry much about his job approval rating. That’s how he makes sports business “not that complicated.”
In Rolapp’s PGA Tour, the rules are flexible but the outcome is not. If you’re someone who can help make a more interesting (and more profitable) PGA Tour, then you’re someone the PGA Tour is willing to work with.
The path might be circuitous, but Rolapp will find a window of opportunity. If you’re lucky, he might even sneak you in through a side door.
