LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jordan Spieth pushed back on the idea that the player directors on the PGA Tour Policy Board now have too much power as the leaders try to shape what the new PGA Tour Enterprises will look like and how it might be impacted by investment from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
Jimmy Dunne, prominent in the golf world and an independent director on the policy board, resigned on Monday in frustration over a lack of progress on a deal. Dunne had been one of the select few who secretly negotiated with the PIF and put in place the “framework agreement’’ that was announced nearly a year ago.
In his resignation letter, Dunne said that his role was now “superfluous” and that “players now outnumber the independent directors on the board.”
In the aftermath of last year’s secret agreement, players pushed back against PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and the lack of information surrounding the agreement. Tiger Woods was added to the board, meaning six player directors, including Spieth, Adam Scott, Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati and Webb Simpson.
“That’s a false narrative that the players are determining all these things,” said Spieth during a news conference at Valhalla, site of the PGA Championship. “That’s not even what Jimmy was saying. Jimmy was saying more of the balance of things, and I think that balance is being restored on C-6 (referring to PGA Tour Inc., the non-profit 501c-6) to kind of maybe a place where it probably should be on the C-6.
“And now that things have split up, they’re two very different boards. But I hope and feel like everyone’s trying to row the boat the same direction and get it to where they’re both in a very sound place and that stuff like what’s been happening just doesn’t keep happening.”
Dunne, along with chairman Ed Herlihywas on the policy board of PGA Tour Inc.—not PGA Tour Enterprises—and that board was expanded to 14 members, six of whom are independent.
The PGA Tour Enterprises board has 13 members that includes the six player directors and former player Joe Ogilvie, who serves as a liaison. Four members of the Strategic Sports Group, which has entered into a private equity deal with the PGA Tour Enterprises, are also part of that board.
Dunne, who is a member of several prominent clubs including Augusta National, Seminole and Cypress Point, heads a firm in New York that lost numerous employees during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. His benevolence to those families has been well-chronicled and he was said to be vehemently against any deal with Saudi Arabia due to its alleged ties to 9/11.
But it was Dunne who first reached out to Yasir Al-Rumayyan last year, setting in motion the plan to end the lawsuits between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour as well as setting up a plan to bring the game back together in some form. Al-Rumayyan is the governor of the PIF, which backs LIV Golf.
Under terms of that original agreement, Al-Rumayyan was to become the chairman of the board of the new PGA Tour Enterprises. But with no deal, that has not occurred and the Tour subsequently made its deal with SSG.
“I think Jimmy Dunne not being involved when he was involved is a loss,” Spieth said. “I've spoken with him just he and I quite a few times over the last few months and had really good conversations, and when he explains kind of how everything went about since he came on the board, it makes a lot of sense to me. So I was a bit surprised, for sure.”
Last week, Rory McIlroy said he would not be rejoining the board due to opposition from some of the existing board members, believed to be player directors. He admitted to having differences of opinion on the future of golf with Woods, for example.
But Adam Scott in an interview Sunday also pushed back on any kind of board disagreement and Woods acknowledged that his views and McIlroy’s are not necessarily the same.
“It's good to see it differently, but collectively as a whole we want to see whatever's best for all the players, the fans, and the state of golf,” Woods said at his press conference here Tuesday. “How we get there, that's to be determined, but the fact that we're in this together and in this fight together to make golf better is what it's all about.”
Asked if he was personally open to a deal with the PIF, Woods said: “I’m personally involved in the process.”
As for Dunne’s resignation, Woods said: “Jimmy and the amount of work and dedication that he put into the board and to the PGA Tour, it's been incredible. It was a bit surprising that he resigned yesterday and just how it all came about, but, no, his role and his help, then what he's been able to do for the PGA Tour has been great.”
