Innovation, evolution, revolution - golf's new faces championing change

Golf

While this golfing year will be remembered for historic and thrilling action, manoeuvres off the course in 2025 also provide a highly significant legacy.

A group of new bosses are laying groundwork for rapid evolution, if not revolution, in the professional game.

We know that the world's best players create captivating sport, as Rory McIlroy's dramatic Grand Slam completing Masters victory, Scottie Scheffler's ruthless domination that has led to him being named PGA Tour player of the year, and Europe's sensational Ryder Cup victory all proved in 2025.

Now it is up to the people who have stepped into the most significant administrative roles to make the most of a growing perception that golf is suddenly cool again.

There has been unprecedented churn with new bosses installed at the PGA Tour, PGA of America and LPGA while Mark Darbon has just completed his first full year as head of the R&A.

Guy Kinnings has been in charge of the European Tour group for less than two years and on the breakaway LIV Golf League Scott O'Neil is only months into his role as Greg Norman's successor leading the Saudi-funded disruptors.

And the presence of Darbon, O'Neil and the PGA Tour's new chief executive Brian Rolapp at golf's top table is most fascinating. All three have come from outwith the traditional confines of the sport they now run.

Rarely, if ever, has golf had such an influx of fresh perspectives and they have hit the ground running. It means 2026 is a transitional year and by 2027 the pro game could be significantly altered.

By taking charge of the game's premier tour, Rolapp has become a key figure. He moved from the NFL, one of American sports' greatest success stories.

He insists that sport requires three crucial components; competitive parity, simplicity and scarcity. He feels golf currently only has one of those ingredients.

Competitive parity is a real strength, the number of potential winners at any tournament is greater than in most sports. But golf's structure is hard to follow and it is ubiquitous, with multiple tournaments across the globe every week.

"How do you make a competitive model simple to understand?" Rolapp said at a recent CEO Forum event in Florida. "And how do you make scarce events that actually fans want to follow?"

Already it is speculated that future PGA Tour seasons will start after the February date for the Super Bowl and finish before then NFL restarts in August. "Yeah, I could see that," Rolapp said.

"Competing with football (NFL) in this country for media dollars and attention is a very hard thing to do," the American said.

He has an outsider's view of how professional golf is structured. "It has grown up as a series of events that happen to be on television," he told the forum.

"So how do you take those events, make them meaningful in their own right, but cobble them together in a competitive model?"