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USA Today
2 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Here's what Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth say about new PGA Tour CEO
Here's what Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth say about new PGA Tour CEO The 72 players in the field at this week's Travelers Championship met with Brian Rolapp, the new PGA Tour CEO, on Tuesday at a mandatory player meeting at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn. (Apparently, winning the U.S. Open earned an excused absence as J.J. Spaun was off in New York City doing his post-victory tour.) Not surprisingly, just about every one of the six players that met with the media on Wednesday were asked about meeting the new big man on campus who will soon be calling the shots at the Global Headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Also not surprising: all the comments were glowing with the cameras rolling but here's what the pros had to say about their new, fearless leader. 'I spoke with him yesterday. His resume is incredible. He seems like a really smart guy,' said U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Keegan Bradley. 'I just think the PGA Tour is in such a great spot. A handful of years ago when all this started, I didn't know what was going to happen. I was nervous. I didn't know how this was all going to end up, but now years later, I'm really confident in where the PGA Tour is and where it's going. I'm proud to play on this Tour.' He added: 'It's never been better than it has been right now. That was a worry, and now I'm even more excited about the future. It's going to be great.' More: 2025 Travelers Championship offers a relaxed birdie-fest after the U.S. Open grind What Jordan Spieth said Three-time major winner and past Travelers champion Jordan Spieth also came away encouraged from his initial interaction with Rolapp. Spieth served on the Tour board during a tumultuous time up until this year and brings an interesting perspective on how the Tour operates. 'I really, really liked him. I think he seems like a steal from the most successful sports organization in the world and someone who is on the path to becoming potentially commissioner over there to coming over and taking the PGA Tour forward,' he said. 'I think he resonated a lot with some of the players about challenging some of the networks on how they're showing the product. Then being open and willing to adapt and change while maintaining the integrity of the game. 'I think he said all the right things. From other players to other people that are sponsors that have reached out to me since have all been super excited about that hire and that we're very lucky to have him.' What Rory McIlroy said Rory McIlroy is another former board member and served as an unofficial spokesman for the Tour during the heat of the battle with LIV. He took a lot of bullets for the Tour but has since taken a backseat in his role. 'I haven't met Brian yet, but obviously I followed quite a bit of the news and the coverage yesterday. He certainly said all the right things and has an amazing background, two decades in the NFL, helping them expand internationally and basically become the behemoth that they have become,' McIlroy said. 'So for him to bring that experience to the PGA Tour, I think will be amazing, and I think it's great that Jay is there to help with the smooth transition also. Yeah, I think it's a really positive thing for the Tour.' What Scottie Scheffler said World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler also weighed in but he, too, didn't get a chance to meet and greet the new guy. 'I think it's exciting to have some new leadership. I think Brian will bring some good energy. Literally, the first time I heard him speak was yesterday, so I really don't know much about him. I liked what I heard yesterday,' Scheffler said. 'I think our board and Jay and everybody put a lot of research into finding his successor, and to be able to get somebody from the NFL, especially somebody high up at the NFL, I think is pretty cool. The NFL is obviously a very successful organization. He's got a lot of experience and some new thought processes he can bring to the Tour, and I think it's exciting.' Rolapp paid a visit to HQ on Wednesday and met with PGA Tour staff. He will continue his 'Town Hall meeting' tour next Tuesday with another mandatory player meeting being held in Detroit at the Rocket Classic, which is a full-field event and a chance for those not eligible for this week's Travelers to hear from and introduce themselves to the Tour's first CEO.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Rory McIlroy has become golf's new diva-in-chief
The joy of Rory McIlroy is that he is unlike so many of the charmless androids populating professional golf, that he treats his craft with a passion and a sincerity impossible to fake. Where US Ryder Cup players strong-arm the PGA of America into paying them £370,000 each for deigning to turn up, he believes so fervently in the European cause that he ends up in tears. And where several of his former team-mates exclude themselves from future captaincy by accepting the Saudi bounty at LIV, he holds firm as the game's moral conscience, reminding his peers that money need not be their lodestar. In a sport that can seem awash with greed and entitlement, he so often brings a reminder of its soul. All of which makes his behaviour since winning the Masters so difficult to accept. Out of nowhere, McIlroy has morphed into the diva-in-chief, hurling clubs, smashing tee-boxes, and treating America's national championship with such disdain that he claims to be unbothered about even making the cut. That is before we address him brushing off reporters after six consecutive rounds at majors, breaking this pattern only to give a few petulant remarks about 'frustration with you guys' and shrug that he has 'earned the right to do whatever I want'. It is one of the strangest comedowns witnessed at this level. The diminished motivation that comes with scaling one's personal Everest is well-documented in sport: Nico Rosberg won his solitary Formula One world title in 2016 and promptly retired, exhausted by the psychological needle with Lewis Hamilton, while Pete Sampras lifted a then record 14th men's major singles title at the 2002 US Open and walked away, never to play a competitive tennis match again. The change in McIlroy, though, is something more troubling. It is not just his outlook that has shifted, but his personality, too. His behaviour during the US Open at Oakmont, just as at Quail Hollow for last month's US PGA, was cold, tetchy, hubristic, all traits antithetical to the compassionate character we are used to seeing. More frustration from Rory McIlroy on the 17th 😬 — Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) June 13, 2025 Paul McGinley understands McIlroy better than most. He mentored him as Europe's captain in the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, tellingly noting in the build-up: 'Rory's not arrogant.' But even he has been unsettled by McIlroy's latest conduct, alarmed by the distant and dismissive attitude on display. 'I didn't enjoy them,' McGinley said, in response to the off-hand answers McIlroy gave at Oakmont when he eventually decided to speak. 'I don't like to see that. Rory's better than that. He looks fed up to me, like he has had enough of everything. He's not himself. Something is eating at him. He hasn't let us know what it is, but there's something that's not right.' The idea that it is just a natural cooling-off period, a reaction to the overwhelming emotional release of completing the career grand slam, does not quite hold water. McIlroy has savoured moments of profound catharsis before and soared immediately to even greater heights. His encore after lifting the Claret Jug at Hoylake in 2014? Winning a World Golf Championship in Akron a fortnight later, and a second US PGA at Valhalla the following week. This time, the upshot is not simply ragged golf – his recent nine-over-par total for 36 holes at the Canadian Open counted among the worst performances of his career – but a peculiarly contemptuous demeanour. You wondered, for example, what all the US Open volunteers felt when, asked what his hopes were for his final round, he shot back: 'Hopefully a round in under 4½ hours and get out of here.' This mentality is hardly unusual in McIlroy's realm. The finest golfers are such a pampered breed that their entire existence consists of riding in courtesy limousines, staying at seven-star resorts, then firing up the private jets back to Florida. But there are reasons why McIlroy is held to a higher standard. For a start, he has long been unmoved by money: his father Gerry once told me he never had any cash on him, a claim later backed up by his admission that he had bought a huge mansion near the Bear's Club, Jack Nicklaus' Florida enclave, but only lived in four of its rooms. But it is also the fact that he has earned a reputation for sparing time for anybody. He reflected how, growing up, the memory of being snubbed for an autograph by Roy Keane had never left him. As such, he has tended to stay uncommonly long after range sessions to sign whatever a young fan thrusts in front of him. Now, he is in the mood to disregard everyone. Never mind snubbing the press pack of late, he has even neglected his manners towards the great Nicklaus, skipping the Golden Bear's Memorial Tournament in Ohio and failing to give any advance notice. 'I didn't have a conversation with him,' Nicklaus said. And did that surprise him? 'A little bit.' You wonder if the time has come for him to offer McIlroy a pep talk. After all, Nicklaus made it his habit to talk with humility even on the rare occasions when his form deserted him. He also had zero tolerance of poor etiquette, recalling how tossing a club as a child had earned him ferocious dressing-down from his father. McIlroy threw not one club at Oakmont but two, while totalling a tee-box for good measure. A sincere hope is that McIlroy rediscovers his irrepressible spirit soon, that he is energised by his imminent relocation to Wentworth with his wife Erica and their four-year-old daughter, Poppy. It is wise not to put anything past him: his abundance of talent is so vast that he could conjure a victory at this week's Travelers Championship in Connecticut, or even an Open triumph for the ages at Royal Portrush next month, in front of the people who remember the boy wonder who would become an icon. But as it stands, the evidence is undeniable: something is very wrong.
The Sun
3 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
Monahan to step down as PGA Tour commissioner
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan will step down when his contract ends next year, the tour announced in a statement on Tuesday. Monahan, who replaced predecessor Tim Finchem in 2017, will gradually hand over his day-to-day responsibilities to newly appointed chief executive Brian Rolapp. Rolapp joins the tour after two decades with the National Football League, where he recently served as chief media and business officer. 'A year ago, I informed our boards that upon completing a decade as Commissioner, I would step down from my role at the end of 2026,' Monahan said. 'Since then, we've worked together to identify a leader who can build on our momentum and develop a process that ensures a smooth transition. 'We've found exactly the right leader in Brian Rolapp, and I'm excited to support him as he transitions from the NFL into his new role leading the PGA Tour.' Monahan will depart his role after a turbulent final few years of his tenure, which saw golf erupt into a virtual civil war with the rise of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit. A staunch critic of LIV, Monahan infuriated many players after it emerged the PGA Tour had secretly brokered an agreement with LIV to form a partnership with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which bankrolls LIV. Negotiations aimed at a final agreement between the PGA Tour and LIV are ongoing. Speaking at a press conference ahead of this week's Travelers Championship, incoming chief executive Rolapp said he hoped to unify the sport. 'I think the fans have been pretty clear,' Rolapp said. 'They want to see the best golfers competing against each other. I agree with that. 'When it comes to the situation with LIV, I think that's a complex situation that's probably something I should learn more about before I speak. 'But I will say my focus is on growing the Tour, making it better, and really moving on from the position of strength that it has.'
France 24
3 days ago
- Business
- France 24
Monahan to step down as PGA Tour commissioner
Monahan, who replaced predecessor Tim Finchem in 2017, will gradually hand over his day-to-day responsibilities to newly appointed chief executive Brian Rolapp. Rolapp joins the tour after two decades with the National Football League, where he recently served as chief media and business officer. "A year ago, I informed our boards that upon completing a decade as Commissioner, I would step down from my role at the end of 2026," Monahan said. "Since then, we've worked together to identify a leader who can build on our momentum and develop a process that ensures a smooth transition. "We've found exactly the right leader in Brian Rolapp, and I'm excited to support him as he transitions from the NFL into his new role leading the PGA Tour." Monahan will depart his role after a turbulent final few years of his tenure, which saw golf erupt into a virtual civil war with the rise of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit. A staunch critic of LIV, Monahan infuriated many players after it emerged the PGA Tour had secretly brokered an agreement with LIV to form a partnership with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which bankrolls LIV. Negotiations aimed at a final agreement between the PGA Tour and LIV are ongoing. Speaking at a press conference ahead of this week's Travelers Championship, incoming chief executive Rolapp said he hoped to unify the sport. "I think the fans have been pretty clear," Rolapp said. "They want to see the best golfers competing against each other. I agree with that. "When it comes to the situation with LIV, I think that's a complex situation that's probably something I should learn more about before I speak. "But I will say my focus is on growing the Tour, making it better, and really moving on from the position of strength that it has."
Irish Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Graeme McDowell backs down over comments on US Open star after vandalism claims
LIV Golf star Graeme McDowell has retracted remarks he posted on social media in relation to the vandalism allegations against Wyndham Clark, admitting his comments were "unfair". Clark narrowly missed the cut at the US Open by just one stroke on Thursday and Friday, as numerous players contended with challenging conditions at the Oakmont Country Club. However, after lockers in the iconic dressing room at Oakmont were damaged in an apparent act of frustration, the 31-year-old was identified by some as the culprit. In the midst of the controversy, McDowell, 45, took to his socials to voice support for Clark and hinted at an unnamed player who had allegedly engaged in comparable antics years ago. "This is minimal regards what I've seen other players do. Players you would never expect. Oakmont will test any players mental fortitude. Seen it in person. Guess who? 2016," The Northern Irishman teased on X. The 2010 US Open champion later walked back his earlier statements. "Just to clarify a couple of things from my tweet on Saturday," McDowell posted on Monday. "No, I do not condone that type of behaviour and damaging property in historic sites like Oakmont. I'm sure Wyndham will pay for any damage and apologise to relevant people. I also believe sporting locker rooms are a sanctuary and what happens there, should stay there. "The part when I said 'guess who' was unfair on my part because I would never out a fellow pro in that scenario. What happens in those private sporting areas is not for public consumption in my opinion." The notoriously difficult Oakmont course saw some of golf's biggest names lose their cool, as J.J. Spaun secured his first major. However, none matched the severity of the allegations levelled at Clark after images of heavily damaged lockers in the clubhouse were shared online. Tron Carter from No Laying Up cited 'multiple sources', claiming that Clark 'really got after it' in the locker room upon learning he missed the cut. The Nuclr Golf account also picked up on the post and stated: "Wyndham Clark allegedly damaged several lockers in the change room at Oakmont Country Club following a missed cut." Clark's manager, Rob Mougey, did not respond to a request for comment. Clark, the 2023 US Open champion, also found himself in trouble at last month's PGA Championships after a wayward drive on the 16th led him to throw his driver at the advertising boards in anger, narrowly missing a course marshal. He later apologised for the incident. "As professionals, we are expected to remain professional even when frustrated and I unfortunately let my emotions get the best of me," he posted on Instagram afterwards. "My actions were uncalled for and completely inappropriate, making it clear that I have things I need to work on. I hold myself to a high standard, trying to always play for something bigger than myself, and yesterday I fell short of those standards. "For that I am truly sorry. I promise to better the way I handle my frustrations on the course going forward, and hope you all can forgive me in due time."
