He’s not at the Tour Championship, but Tiger Woods’ presence remains

Rolapp has tasked the group with what he called “a holistic relook of how we compete on the tour” and evaluating the “model of the entire sport. The goal is not incremental change. The goal is significant change.”

If Rolapp wanted to make headlines and demonstrate that he truly intends to shake things up, he could have done no better than to include Woods.

What change does Rolapp have in mind?

One is the often-discussed possibility of the regulation of the golf ball. Souped-up equipment and strength development have changed the game, quite arguably for the worse. In the same way that skills such as hitting behind the runner and pitching to soft contact have become lost arts in baseball with the emphasis on home runs and strikeouts, so have golf’s subtler skills.

One proposed solution has been the rollback of the ball’s potency, which would harness players’ ability to hit the ball a mile and neutralize courses’ defenses off the tee such as fairway bunkers, trees and water hazards. With less distance, players would be forced to hit more creative shots and be skilled in all aspects of the game.

Most players are not in favor.

Guess who is?

Hint: He won a lot of tournaments at a certain course in Augusta.

For golf, it would be a dramatic shift, but one that Rolapp, who came to the tour from a high-ranking job at the NFL, doesn’t seem afraid of. He spoke of approaching his new job with a “blank sheet of paper” and emphasizing the need to innovate.

“I think if there’s anything I learned at the NFL, it’s that,” he said. “We did not sit still, changed rules every March.”

Who better to effect a dynamic shift in the game than the one person who has arguably changed the game more than anybody alive?

As for Woods’ other mention Wednesday, that was from Scottie Scheffler, the world’s top-ranked player since May 2023. Scheffler brought him up when asked about how he stayed motivated as he dominates the game.

He told a story from the lone competitive round that he has played with Woods. It was at the 2020 Masters, played in November of that year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The defending champion, Woods had fallen out of contention after the third round, 11 shots out of the lead.

“Then we showed up on the first hole, and I was watching him read his putt, and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this guy is in it right now,’” Scheffler said.

The tutorial continued. On the famed par-3 12th, Woods put three balls in the water for a 10. It was the highest single-hole score of his pro career, according to Golf Digest.

Yet, Woods stormed to the finish, scoring five birdies on the final six holes to finish with a 4-over 76. Scheffler was astounded.

“It was like, ‘What’s this guy still playing for?’” Scheffler said Wednesday.

It was a mere 18 holes in Scheffler’s first year as a tour member. But it altered his playing career forever. Eighteen tour wins, including four majors, have followed.

“That was something that I just thought about for a long time,” Scheffler said. “I felt like a change I needed to make was bringing that same intensity to each round and each shot.”

He went on to say that he’s not the longest player off the tee, that the things he can do on the course, others can, too.

“I think it’s just the amount of consistency and the intensity that I bring to each round of golf is not taking shots off, not taking rounds off, not taking tournaments off,” Scheffler said.

Pretty good story.

The tour’s new chief needs Woods’ help. Its far-and-away best player credits him for changing how he approaches competing.

Woods’ competitive days are long gone. His influence, though, is not.