PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp Sounds Disinclined to Work With LIV Golf

While outlining his vision for the future, Rolapp revealed little interest in unification or allowing LIV players into the Tour's flagship Players Championship.

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said that allowing LIV Golf members to compete in the Players Championship was not among his priorities. | Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The “framework agreement” that was to end the divide between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf appears to be far from a priority for PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp.

In a news conference on Wednesday at PGA Tour headquarters where Rolapp unveiled the framework of a new competitive model for the PGA Tour in the coming years, the question of LIV Golf was broached in a couple of different ways, all of which were more or less downplayed by the former NFL executive.

“I think I’ve been clear about this: my brief is to make the PGA Tour better,” Rolapp said when asked a question about reunification. “I’m open to whatever makes the PGA Tour better. That is my brief. Better for fans, better for our members. So that’s what I’m focused on, and that's where I put all my efforts.”

But when asked if he’d consider inviting LIV players to the Players Championship—the PGA Tour’s flagship event and the one that aspires to major-like status—Rolapp more or less shut down the notion.

“That’s not sort of a priority I’ve put on my list,” Rolapp said. “So that’s not something I’ve sort of considered to date. There’s other priorities other than that.”

It would seem the “framework agreement” between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which backs LIV Golf, is farther away than when it was first announced on June 6, 2023.

As recently as a year ago at the Players Championship, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said the sides were still working toward a resolution, even after meetings earlier in the year had apparently failed.

“As part of our negotiations, we believe there’s room to integrate important aspects of LIV Golf into the PGA Tour platform,” he said. “We’re doing everything that we can to bring the two sides together.”

And yet, the sides appear headed on their own paths, with LIV Golf into its fifth season—it has an event in Singapore this week and next week in South Africa—while the PGA Tour forges on with its investment from the Strategic Sports Group and a new focus on a better competitive model going forward.

As has been the case since its inception, LIV Golf players have been banned from PGA Tour events, with a penalty period before a return is allowed.

The idea of inviting them to the Players based on their status in the Official World Golf Ranking seemed to have some merit, especially as it relates to enhancing the Players Championship.

But Rolapp was firm in that answer and didn’t allow much wiggle room for the return of LIV players when asked about Brooks Koepka, who came back this year under the terms of a Returning Member Program that has allowed him to play on the PGA Tour, with some notable restrictions and monetary penalties.

Brooks Koepka returned to the PGA Tour from LIV Golf but Tour CEO Brian Rolapp called that "a one-time situation." | Reinhold Matay-Imagn Images

“The returning member program was really designed for a set of circumstances that arrived on our doorstep a bit unexpectedly,” Rolapp said of Koepka’s departure from the LIV Golf League. “As I mentioned, we heard from Brooks on the 23rd of December. He informed us that he was out of contract, and so we had a new situation to deal with.

“We created a very short-term program that applied to Brooks or anyone who may have been in his similar situation. Turns out others were not. We were very explicit that that was a one-time situational returning member program, and I stand by that.

“I don’t know the contractual relationship or the terms of others on the LIV Tour, and they have contracts and those should be honored. But we do have a pathway; Patrick Reed is clearly taking advantage of that pathway as he’s, I guess, out of his contractual commitment. And so I think the LIV players know what those pathways are, and until they change, those are the pathways.”

The Returning Member Program was only offered to Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cam Smith as they had won majors between 2022 and 2025 and would have eligibility status on the PGA Tour via those wins.

Reed is unable to play on the PGA Tour until September, when he will be allowed to compete as a non-member. In January, he can reclaim membership and is on his way to securing a spot via the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai standings which gives a full exemption to the top 10 players who are not otherwise members. Reed leads the Race to Dubai standings and has won twice this year.