Welcome to Issue #25
"Putts get real difficult the day they hand out the money.”
Lee Trevino
What’s on my mind this week
I got my pre-sale link for Ryder Cup tickets and now I just need to rob a bank, who’ll be jumping in Poppies Pond on Sunday, will Lydia Ko top the ladies money list, Furyk to lead US in Adare, PGA Tour to start calling out slow players, The Cadillac trophy is a work of art, Zurich team event always a standout for me in the calendar, Anthony Kim’s secret..10hrs practice a day for 100 days – I’ll start tomorrow.
In the news
Why it matters: In the same week the Tour confirmed Hawaii's removal from the 2027 schedule, it laid off 56 staff and closed 73 open roles. The clearest signal yet that a fundamental restructuring is underway.
Our Take: Read these two decisions together and a single strategic logic emerges. Dropping Hawaii removes a tournament that had become increasingly difficult to justify on a purely commercial basis, thin galleries, negligible corporate footprint, January broadcast slots competing with NFL playoffs. Laying off 4% of a 1,300-person workforce, based on recommendations from FTI Consulting brought in at the end of 2025, is part strategic reset, part overdue efficiency exercise. The distinction matters: with PIF co-investment stalled and SSG's remaining $1.5 billion not guaranteed, there is real financial pressure sitting alongside the philosophical ambition. Rolapp is applying a consistent filter, does this serve the Tour's commercial future, or does it exist because it always has, and simultaneously creating 30 new senior roles to replace what's being cut. The clubhouse era of PGA Tour management is being dismantled.