Atlanta, Georgia The 1920s are demonstrably the most volatile era in the history of Golf, and the center of the decade saw an almost universal leadership revolution. Apart from Fred Ridley who maintains the helm at Augusta National Golf Club, almost every other important organization has a new chef.
The DP World Tour started last year with Guy Kinnings took over as CEO for Keith Pelley. Mark Darbon accepted the reins for the R&A last summer from Martin Slimbers and made a good impression in his first open championship last month. In January, Scott O’Neil took on the role of CEO at Liv Golf, with everything that Greg Norman left him.
Trevor Immelman is now reviving the official world golf ranking and has a new LIV golf application in hand. Derek Sprague took the PGA of America Helm after the steady reign of Seth Waugh. Craig Kessler was selected as the 10th Commissioner of the LPGA in May.
But the biggest Chief Executive Splash started in June, with the PGA Tour Brian Rolapp hiding from the NFL to be the new CEO, with Commissioner Jay Monahan resigned next year after he had helped the transition. Rolapp has already created a buzz with its immediate style and his willingness to take large swings to reform the future of the PGA Tour.
“I like it. I really like him,” said Rory McIlroy, one of the 20 or so players with whom Rolapp has already sat down to get to know during his whirlwind -onboarding process. “I like it that he doesn’t come from golf. I like that he has no pre -set ideas about what golf should look like or what the Tour should look like. I think he will bring a new perspective for everything, and I think he wants to move fairly quickly, so I’m excited.”
Rolapp takes over a PGA tour that is aware. The 2025 season ended on Sunday with a popular new Fedex Cup champion, Tommy Fleetwood, and all eyes are now looking ahead to the Ryder Cup in September and a season 2026 that promises a number of major changes:
Bird: Fleetwood. The greatest successes of the 34-year-old Englishman all came to see Europe-Zeven DP World Tour victories and Ryder Cup Heroics as part of “Moliwood” in 2018 in Paris and the 2023 cup in Rome in Rome. Otherwise he kept the reputation of Golf’s largest bridesmaid: 2024 Olympic silver medal winner, seven near-accident in Majors, including two second place, a record 30 top-five Finishes (12 of them top three and six runner-ups) on the PGA Tour without winning. This summer he passed two of his most painful near-misses and lost late two-shot leads in the Travelers Championship of Keegan Bradley and the Fedex St. Jude Championship Playoff Opener to Justin Rose. He all knew that with a three-shot victory at East Lake, who earned him two trophies, including the FedEx Cup. Fleetwood used it all with flawless grace and continued to hit the door. Good guys sometimes end up first.
Moment of the year: The masters. I am not sure if we will soon see a more meaningful moment than Rory Mcilory’s relieved scream and fall on his knees in tears after one of the most volatile days in wave history that have banished frustration for 11 years and have achieved his biggest goal to have a green coat and to join the career -brotherhood.
Player of the year: Scottie Scheffler. When Rory McIlroy is in full flight, it is hard to think that there might be a larger golfer in the world. But there is. Scheffler’s game does not have the drama that does that of McIlroy, but he just has no mistakes and just seems inevitable to be part of the story he plays every week. His hole-out pitch to conquer the BMW championship was an exclamation mark on a season with two majors. His career Grand Slam will come here earlier instead of later.
Whiff of the Year 1: PIF deal. Despite engaging the power of the White House as leverage, the PGA Tour did not succeed in concluding a deal with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Aarabia, that Liv Golf Bankrolls, to reunite the professional game. The negotiations fell apart completely and have not existed since early spring. The chance that a deal will ever happen seems remote. This is exactly what the golf world is now. It is a pity for the handful of boys at LIV that people care about.
Whiff of the Year 2: PGA from America. The new leadership in Frisco, Texas, is fixed on the Baloprollback – a problem that will have almost zero effect on its club professionals and recreational golfers who will still buy and use just as many golf balls as and hardly noticed a difference. But when asked to tackle rates – who already have an in -depth and potentially devastating effect on manufacturers, retailers and consumers – they were essentially dampening.
Comeback player of the year: JJ Spaun. From a technical point of view, you probably had to be in the first place to come back, and Spaun’s career from before 2025 was just as rank and traffic jam as it was he needed 147 career-start doctor before he won the 2022 Valero Texas Open. Spaun thought that his career was everything but was done in the summer of 2024 when he was outside the top 150 and about to lose his card before the top 10 ended in his last two events that save his status. At the age of 35 he produced a season for ages with a US Open victory and playoff losing with the players and the Fedex St. Jude Championship.
Newcomer of the year: Luke Clanton. The Rookie-of-the-Year Award of the Tour will probably amount to tournament winners Aldrich Potgieter (on 20 The Youngest Player on Tour) or Ryan Gerard. But the PGA Tour University accelerated and former amateur no. 1 from the state of Florida spent time in the OWGR Top 100 for its pro results as an amateur. It has not come so easily since he has recorded his card, but he can find his pass in the fall.
Bird: Keegan Bradley. His reboot is a work of art after he had left Zach Johnson and the Ryder Cup team in 2023 so prominently. The PGA of America was doing well with the shocking announcement of the now 39-year-old as an American captain for Bethpage, and all Bradley has put his place in a road a road in a right in a way that is his place, he potentially plays his place to play a road in a road in a straight role in 1963.
DNP: Bubble burst. Bradley should just ask one question tonight to his vice captain Jim Furyk: Should he choose him if he was the captain? If the answer is yes, someone who demonstrably deserves will get the terrible call that Keegan received in 2023. To be honest, it should probably be Collin Morikawa, but it won’t be. The gamble here is that the putter of Sam Burns will get the nod over Ben Griffin tomorrow as Bradley decides to play.
Bogey: Moody media. What started with Morikawa who said that he did not owe the people who cover the game after throwing out interview requests when he expanded the Arnold Palmer Invitational, spread in a mild attitude of players who choose not to talk after bad days or finishes. It is not new, and they should not be necessary to talk, but it is always a better move to speak, even if it is not comfortable. See Tommy Fleetwood.
Bird: Cameron Young. It took him four full seasons too long to finally put together the winning pieces in the regular seasonal Wyndham championship, but it was a very timely time to break through with a likely choice for the Ryder Cup as his ultimate reward. It helped that Young went from one of the worst putters of the Tour in 2023-24 to one of the 10 best in 2025. Just like David Duval, who took it frustratingly to break through, Young can quickly become elite.
Bird: Maiden winners. Young is one of the 12 players who win for the first time in 38 PGA Tour events in 2025 – four of them Rookies (Aldrich Potgieter, Karl Vilips, William Mouw and Ryan Gerard) and three of them do it twice (Griffin, Ryan Fox and Brian Campbell). The others were Thomas Detry, Joe Highsmith, Min Woo Lee and Andrew Novak.
Bogey: Planning. Just like 2026, another exclusively characteristic event really needed that the center of the schedule is satisfactory, but the PGA Tour capitulated the demand of the US President and Ego to add a ninth tournament with a limited field in the middle of the Majors grind. It returns to the blue monster of Doral for a $ 20 million event of $ 20 million a decade after leaving it as a WGC location probably because it had no sponsor. “An extra characteristic event without title sponsor on a president’s course. This is a joke, right?” James Hahn told Golf week. There will be three characteristic events and two majors will be from the Masters to the PGA in six weeks. Absurd!
Bird: Reviews. CBS Sports reported that 2025 was the most viewed golf season in seven years, on average 2,969 million viewers for golf broadcasts-a rise of 17 percent compared to 2024 and the highest figure since 2018. Ratings across the board have been recovered since NBC and CBS in 2024 suffering by a one-year drop of 15 percent. In the meantime, Liv Golf has still not caught at all with Fox. The PGA Tour has won the battle for the hearts and spirits of American wave viewers.
Par: Rickie Fowler. His increase in the late season pulled him from outside the FedEx Cup Top 90 at the beginning of June to almost reach the Tour Championship. His T6 and T7 in the first two Playoff events were the reinforcement for the soon 37-year-old, but his double bogey on the 15th Sunday in Caves Valley cost him a place on East Lake and major exemptions for 2026.
Bogey: Frederik Kjettup. After Finishing Eighth in PGA Tour University at Florida State and Receiving Pga Tour Americas Status, the Gifted Dane Became the First Player to Win Three Times On The 2024 Canada Swing to Earn Immediate Exembers Tour Membership and Full Tour Membership Away to sign with the Cleeks on Liv Golf, where he failed to finish better than 30th or earn a single decimal point to lose his card via relegation. Now the 25-year-old cannot play anywhere in 2026.
Bogey: Jordan Spieth. Even 38th in FedEx Cup points after the monument, the triple big winner suffered from a Desultory summer and dropped from 48 to 54th after the Fedex St. Jude Playoff-opener-Waardoor access to the now nine characteristic events in 2026 is lost. But it is disappointing.
Bogey: Max Homa. It is painful to see how far Homan – one of the good guys from the Tour – has fallen, from No. 7 in the world at the beginning of 2024 to no. 116. He still has a tour for 2026, and most people hope that the 34 -year -old American will find something to get his mojo back.
TOP: Rory Mcilroy (Joel Marklund, Augusta National Golf Club)
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