Serving up an idea for the PGA Tour's competitive future that everyone could love

There seems to be conflicting messages.

On one hand, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp argues that the middle class matters. “You cannot build a lifelong sport that outlives your stars if you don’t build a system that works beyond your stars,” Rolapp said last month during a CNBC leadership forum.

On the other, Rolapp and Tiger Woods, head of the PGA Tour’s new Future Competition Committee, preach the need for scarcity in the league’s competitive model, along with simplicity and parity, the latter of which, Rolapp says, the PGA Tour already has in abundance.

But for how long? How does parity coexist with scarcity? How does the PGA Tour, which just trimmed its number of fully exempt members, scale back and simplify its season without also further reducing the number of playing opportunities?

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