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Jimmy Dunne notified his fellow directors that he was resigning immediately from his role on the PGA Tour’s Policy Board. Any final deal between the tour and LIV Golf’s Saudi owners needs the votes of the influential board.
“As you are aware, I have not been asked to take part in negotiations with the PIF since June 2023,” Dunne wrote in a resignation letter first reported on by Sports Illustrated.
“Since the players now outnumber the independent directors on the board, and no meaningful progress has been made towards a transaction with the PIF, I feel like my vote and my role is utterly superfluous.”
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🚨🇸🇦❌ #NO MEANINGFUL PROGRESS — In his resignation letter to the board, Jimmy Dunne says there’s been little done in regards to a deal between the PGA and PIF: “The players now outnumber the Independent Directors on the Board, and no meaningful progress has been made towards a… pic.twitter.com/C1SD6Jxyqd
Last August, Tiger Woods was added as a player-director, giving PGA Tour players a 6-5 majority on the board. Earlier this year, Rory McIlroy — a close friend of Dunne’s — gave up his seat on the board before last week attempting, and failing, to supplant Webb Simpson and regain his position.
“I think with the way it happened it opened up some old wounds and scar tissue from things that have happened before,” McIlroy said. “I think there was a subset of people on the board that were maybe uncomfortable with me coming back on for some reason.”
Once a PGA Tour hardliner, McIlroy has changed his perspective and is now seen as the tour’s biggest proponent for a deal with the PIF. If the Northern Irish star had resumed his role, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume he could side with Dunne should a fracture in unity develop on the board.
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That’s a non-issue now as McIlroy and Dunne are both on the outside looking in.
McIlroy will still have a say in negotiations as he was named a member of the transaction committee, which will have a role in negotiations but is not nearly as powerful as the board of directors that will vote on any deal.
As the golf world unites for the PGA Championship at Valhalla, a deal to end golf’s civil war between the PGA Tour and the Saudi LIV Golf owners looks further away today than it did yesterday.
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