Two years after the PGA Tour announced a group of high-profile sports owners were investing $1.5 billion in the organization, the Ponte Vedra Beach-based golf organization is still not talking about how the money is being used.
But in a March 11 news conference ahead of this week’s Players Championship tournament at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp sought to clarify the nature of the investment by the Strategic Sports Group.
“There is a misconception, I think publicly, about our investors. I often hear that it is quote-unquote, private equity, and that does not come with a positive connotation,” Rolapp said.
The term “private equity” brings visions of investors who seek to cut costs and position the business for a sale, he said.
“While that might be some people in private equity, I can tell you for sure, that is not our investors. The investor group is smart and they’re strategic, and they’re not private equity people. They are long-term investors in sports businesses,” he said.
The SSG group includes Boston Red Sox owner John Henry, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen.
“The expertise and the long-term vision that they bring to this has been fantastic. I would not have taken the job if it was anything but that,” Rolapp said.
Rolapp, a longtime media executive with the NFL, joined the PGA Tour in June 2025 to succeed PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan as top executive of the tour.
The PGA Tour said in a news release announcing Rolapp’s hiring that he was an ideal choice in the “fast-changing landscape” of sports business.
Excluding government and health care organizations, the PGA Tour is the largest employer in St. Johns County.
It opened a 187,000-square-foot headquarters building in 2021 off of Palm Valley Road west of Florida A1A that now has 739 workers, and it added an adjacent 165,000-square-foot PGA Tour Studios building in January 2025 that employs 232 people.
With an additional 371 employees working remotely or in other facilities, the PGA Tour’s total headquarters employment is 1,342.
The PGA Tour is a nonprofit organization but when the SSG investment was announced, a separate for-profit company called PGA Tour Enterprises was formed.
The PGA Tour also created a Player Equity Program, which granted equity stakes in PGA Tour Enterprises to golfers on the tour.
“The fact that the players own equity in the Tour, it is unlike any other sports model, professional sports model that I can think of,” Rolapp said.
“It’s like the companies you work for. You have an ability to actually get equity and you’re suddenly vested in the interests of the entire Tour,” he said.
The PGA Tour has provided few details of the structure of the for-profit and nonprofit organizations working together, or how the investment capital has been spent.
“I won’t disclose what we’ve done with the capital to date or what we’re going to do with it,” Rolapp said.
“We will use the capital for the long-term benefit of the PGA TOUR and, as I said, to build something lasting that outlives all of us,” he said.
Rolapp also said the PGA Tour remains committed to its focus on charities in the local communities where it holds tournaments, including The Players Championship.
“Just because I’m not spending as much of my time today on that does not mean we’re abandoning charity. The charitable aspect of the PGA Tour is really special and is part of the DNA of the PGA Tour,” he said.
“With all of these changes, no one should expect us taking a backwards step in our commitment to charitable causes.”