Jay Monahan took over as the fourth PGA Tour commissioner January 1. Succeeding Tim Finchem, who helmed the Tour through two decades of Tiger Woods-driven growth, Monahan has his work cut for him, perhaps most significantly in re-negotiating TV deals that expire in 2021 and renewing the FedEx Cup title sponsorship (which he sounds optimistic about).

Interestingly, Monahan is taking a different tack than his predecessor in some arenas, as noted by his remarks (per the AP’s Doug Ferguson) ahead of the SBS Tournament of Champions. Monahan reflected on a trip to California last summer to meet with executives from Silicon Valley giants Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple.

”As much progress as we’ve made with our platforms, we weren’t moving fast enough. We’re not producing enough video content. Our players are their own networks and have their own profiles. We had — and I’ll take full responsibility for this — a tendency to think about what we didn’t want to have happen at our tournaments. … We’re taking away from our ability to grow.”

This is a far cry from the “protecting our content” attitude of the Tour during the Finchem era. Monahan added (per Golf Digest‘s Dave Shedloski) that the fan experience is central.

“The world is so dynamic. The rate of acceleration and change is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, and we’re not immune to that. So really, for us to grow, it all starts with the fan, and really understanding the fan, not just here in the U.S., but throughout the world. As we have more international stars on Tour, making certain that we’re relevant in those international markets and we’re starting to continue to present our product in a way that the fan wants to consume it.”

With Monahan’s attitude toward technology and the fan experience, then, the PGA Tour’s announcement of a partnership with Twitter makes sense. If you missed the news, Twitter will host live early-morning action from more than 30 tournaments this season, building on a successful live streaming collaboration during last year’s FedEx Cup Playoffs. The more than 70 hours of live coverage will be distributed freely. The Twitter live streaming will begin with the CareerBuilder Challenge on January 19 and run through the Tour Championship.

Coverage typically will include the first 60-90 minutes from the early Thursday and Friday morning hours of PGA Tour Live’s subscription window. This coverage will include pre-game analysis, interviews, range coverage, and live competition from the first two holes of each day’s PGA Tour Live featured groups.

A couple of interesting quotational tidbits from Monahan. This one, per Golf Channel, about the possibility of a PGA/LPGA co-sanctioned event.

“You could see men and women [playing together] at the Tournament of Champions…That is something we are thinking about and talking to Mike [Whan] and the LPGA about. We would like to see that happen. We have some interest from sponsors.”

Also, it doesn’t seem like Monahan has any intention of reversing course on the Tour’s controversial policy of not announcing fines and suspensions.

“I think the system works. I know there is a desire to know everything that happens, but we’re a family. If there is an issue in your family you deal with it with your family. That has worked really well for us.”