Tiger Woods returned to the public spotlight Tuesday for the first time since being arrested after a rollover car crash in March, as he threw his support behind the PGA Tour’s newly approved schedule changes that will be implemented in 2028.
Woods, who hasn’t played any tournament golf this year, introduced PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp at the Travelers Championship as he broke down the tour’s new model and fielded questions from the media.
“Over the past eight months, the Future Competition Committee has spent a lot of time on a very important and fundamental question,” Woods said. “How do we build the strongest possible version of the PGA Tour?”
Woods is chairman of the aforementioned Future Competition Committee, which was created in August. The committee continued its work this spring temporarily without Woods, who stepped away from the public eye after his accident and arrest.
“This work was never about any one player or person,” Woods said. “It was about bringing together different perspectives, having honest, hard conversations, and thinking boldly about what is best for the game that we all love. It has been a privilege to work with all the committee members and especially my fellow player directors.
“I’m proud of the work we’ve done and am grateful to everyone who’s contributed along the way. We have to look forward and beyond today and over the horizon to set up the PGA TOUR and our sport for the future generations of players and fans.”
Woods did not take questions from the media. It remains unclear when, or if, he plans to return to competitive golf.
Rolapp on Prize Money, Media Rights
Rolapp spoke for roughly 40 minutes, shedding more light on the PGA Tour’s new two-circuit structure that will divide its schedule, beginning in 2028, into a Championship Series with $20 million purses and a Challenger Series with $4 million in prize money per event.
“We feel very confident that we are building an economic model that can support those purses,” Rolapp said. “We wouldn’t have announced them if we didn’t. So we feel very good about those purse levels, and we feel very good about the economic growth of the PGA Tour that this new model will produce.”
The PGA Tour’s current media rights deals with CBS Sports, NBC Sports, Versant, and ESPN run through 2030, worth a combined $700 million annually. The new structure in 2028 will come just as the tour is hitting the market for new broadcast contracts.
“The demand for live sports programming is still at an all-time high, but not all live sports programming is the same,” Rolapp said. “You need to compete. The distribution options and the financial backing or rights fees available are not limitless, so you need to innovate and be the best you can. I believe these changes put us in a much better position to compete with all of the alternatives that any media partner has for their programming dollars.”
Tour Economics
The PGA Tour’s season-long points race, long known as the FedExCup for sponsorship reasons, could be getting a new look, too, as that deal expires after the 2027 season.
Rolapp called FedEx “an amazing partner.” He added, “The PGA Tour is blessed to have tremendous corporate support. This system is really designed to bring more value to our partners. The details of how all of our commercial agreements will work, we’re going to work that out. But our hope is to create more value for FedEx and everybody else.”
The PGA Tour also announced Tuesday that Rolapp will become the tour’s fifth commissioner in 2027, taking over for Jay Monahan, who will retire after his contract expires at the end of this year. As CEO, Rolapp had already assumed Monahan’s day-to-day responsibilities as commissioner.
Rolapp’s new title, beginning Jan. 1, will be PGA Tour commissioner and CEO.
