Brian Rolapp warns that the PGA Tour faces worsening issues as top players are set to skip the Cadillac Championship. The event will take place at the Blue Monster course, a former staple of the tour.
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Brian Rolapp has been warned that he is facing a problem on the PGA Tour that is only going to get worse, with several top players set to skip the Cadillac Championship this week.
The PGA Tour returns to the Blue Monster course at Doral in the coming days. The venue was previously a stalwart of the calendar until a decade ago.
More recently, Doral has featured on the LIV Golf schedule. However, it is the PGA Tourâs best that will be playing the famous Blue Monster this week.
Or, should we say some of the PGA Tourâs best.
Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele, Robert MacIntyre, and Ludvig Aberg are all set to sit this tournament out, despite it being a signature event.
It must be noted that Doral will be followed by the Truist Championship and the PGA Championship. The RBC Heritage was also played the week before the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
And speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Ryan Lavner insisted that the notable absences this week act as a warning to Brian Rolapp as he looks to increase the number of signature events in the future.
âWe have talked about this before. This is load management coming to the PGA Tour. Itâs only going to get worse,â he said.
âIf we go towards this future which Rolapp and the rest of the Tour wants, where we only have major championships, Players Championships, and Signature events.
Top players are skipping the Cadillac Championship due to ongoing issues within the PGA Tour.
The Blue Monster course at Doral was a key venue for the PGA Tour until it was overshadowed by LIV Golf events.
Brian Rolapp indicates that the challenges facing the PGA Tour are likely to escalate, particularly with player participation.
LIV Golf has affected the PGA Tour by attracting top players away from traditional events like the Cadillac Championship.
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âWe are going to have windows where players are not going to play consecutive weeks in a row.
âIt is interesting that Matt Fitzpatrick won with his brother in New Orleans, won last week in Hilton Head, played well the week before that at The Masters, so him taking the week off should be no surprise whatsoever. The fact he was willing to play three in a row is a bit shocking.
âIt is no big surprise to see Rory take off back to back weeks. He clearly does not like Hilton Head as a stop.
âI am a little surprised he did not show up at Doral. Simply because itâs close to home and it seems like that is the sort of the golf course he would like.
âAfter Doral you have the Truist Championship, which is a Signature Event, followed by the PGA Championship.
âIt does not let up. It is only going to get worse if this new reality comes into play. If Brian Rolapp gets his way and the PGA Tour schedule goes to that tier one and tier two structure, this is going to be a real problem.
âWe see it all the time in other sports, the NBA being a primary example here, and Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, still has not figured out an answer.
âI think Brian Rolapp is going to have to start thinking long and hard about how he can make this version work.â
Rolapp obviously had very little say in how the 2026 schedule looked. He was appointed as the CEO midway through last season.
But it is clearly not ideal to not have a full-field, 72-hole stroke play event between the first two majors of the year.
Yes, the PGA Tour could condense the schedule in future. It may be that we only see Scottie Scheffler playing between mid-February and August, with every appearance coming at an elevated event or a major.
But that will not work as well for the likes of Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Ludvig Aberg. They are among those who will look to be involved in the final stages of the DP World Tour season.
So playing in a signature event most weeks between the four majors simply will not work as they will have nothing left in the tank for when they return to the European circuit.