PGA Tour Boss Brian Rolapp Uses Backhanded Compliment to Credit LIV Golf for Doing Them a ‘Favor’

PGA Tour commissioner Brian Rolapp credits LIV Golf for doing the professional game a big favor. | Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images

LIV Golf shook up the professional golf world when it was created in 2022. The Saudi-funded league was able to give huge paydays to some of the best players in the world, who in turn said goodbye to PGA Tour for the big bucks and cushier schedules. It left many wondering if the PGA Tour would lose even more players and possibly fall apart.

Well, things have since changed in a big way as LIV Golf is now facing the likelihood of losing the Saudi funding at the end of this year and could come to an abrupt end, or at least look a lot different in 2027 and beyond.

The PGA Tour, meanwhile, is thriving with huge TV ratings and bigger paydays for its players. It could get even stronger if some LIV Golf stars like Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm are eventually able to make their way back, depending on what happens to their league.

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp, who took over day-to-day operations from commissioner Jay Monahan in June 2025, spoke Monday during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show about LIV Golf and how its creation actually helped out the PGA Tour in the long run.

“I think LIV did what the AFL did the for the NFL years ago, maybe what the USFL did for the NFL years ago,” said Rolapp, who spent 22 years with the NFL before jumping to the PGA Tour. “Basically, competition can make you better. Whenever you get competition you end up figuring out what you do well and what you don’t do well. And I think that’s what LIV did, was expose some things that maybe the PGA Tour could do better. How we could make it better for fans. How we could make it better for professional golfers. How we could make it better for our television partners. And that’s a good thing.”

Rolapp then threw in a bit of a backhanded compliment to LIV Golf, saying they did the professional golf world a “favor.”

“I think the changes the Tour made before I got here, the changes that we’re doing now I think shows that when you do those things, fans go to where the best product is and where the best golfers are and where the best athletes are and I think that’s really, really important,” Rolapp said. “So in a lot of ways I think LIV did the professional golf world a favor. But again, I spend most of my time now thinking about the PGA Tour and how we do these things better so I think the future is really bright for us and I think it’s really bright for professional golf.”

Brian Rolapp on McAfee today. Discusses how LIV has helped golf and the PGA Tour pic.twitter.com/DMpuGzwK91

— Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter) April 20, 2026

The PGA Tour has made a lot of changes over the years, with one of the biggest being the eight signature events that are sprinkled throughout the schedule and are designed to get the best players on the Tour competing against each other more often, with bigger purses being paid out than before. Just this past weekend one of those events had a fantastic finish that saw Matt Fitzpatrick, the now-No. 3 player in the world, beat Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, in a thrilling playoff.

We don’t know exactly what’s next for LIV Golf, but it’s clear the PGA Tour is moving full steam ahead. And if you ask Rolapp, he would thank LIV Golf for the push.

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