LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY | The news Monday that Jimmy Dunne was resigning his spot on the PGA Tour’s powerful Policy Board was no great surprise – and he might not be the last independent director to step away from the 11-member board – but it added to the cacophony that is as relentless as the cicadas this spring.
The pieces and people keep changing – say hello to the Strategic Sports Group, say slow down to Rory McIlroy and thanks for your service, Mr. Dunne – but the larger issue remains essentially unchanged.
There is still no sign of an impending agreement between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund since the announcement 11 months ago of a “framework agreement” as a precursor for a binding deal.
“We made some progress, yes, for sure. But there’s a long way to go still,” Tiger Woods, one of six player directors on the Policy Board, said Tuesday between rainstorms that dampened Valhalla Golf Club, site of this week’s PGA Championship.
It’s easy to wonder whether this process is still closer to the beginning than to the end.
“I don’t know if that takes one, two, three, five, six years. I don’t know what that might be like. But I don’t feel like I’m in any rush to make something happen today,” said Jon Rahm, who jolted the PGA Tour with his defection to LIV Golf late last year.
Depending on who’s talking, it’s hard to tell the metaphorical nighttime from the day.
Dunne’s departure had been rumored for a while, and he joins Randall Stephenson as the second independent director to resign since the June 6 agreement was announced. Dunne has a large and meaningful presence in the game. He and Policy Board member Ed Herlihy initiated, at tour commissioner Jay Monahan’s request, the super-secret contact with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan last year that led to the surprise “framework agreement.”
Tom Williams, CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
In his resignation letter, Dunne said his influence has been devalued, leading to the decision to step away.
“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,” Dunne wrote.
The addition of Woods as a sixth player director, tilting the voting balance in favor of the players, along with bringing the Strategic Sports Group and its billions in as a minority partner in the new for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises, has shifted the landscape.
There is a perception that the tour’s leadership with its various factions is dysfunctional and, depending on perspectives, that may or may not be true. There are questions about Monahan’s influence and job security, given the situation.
Some directly involved in the process are frustrated by what they say is too much influence from the six player directors. Some player directors privately acknowledge that they are open to allowing SSG guide the process from here, relying on their business acumen in what will be an enormously complicated deal should it ever happen.
“If you’re in the room, it’s very obvious that players are not dictating the future of golf and the PGA Tour,” said Jordan Spieth, who as a player director is in most of the rooms.
“You need to have everyone’s perspective on both sides of it, and everyone that’s involved within [PGA Tour] Enterprises. You have a lot of strategic investors that know a heck of a lot more than any of us players. So that’s a false narrative that the players are determining all these things.”
Spieth went so far Tuesday as to scold the media for pushing the idea that the players are making the decisions.
“It’s just balanced. It’s not player-driven,” Spieth said. “You guys have got to stop saying that. Like, it’s not the case. It’s balanced in a way that – at least from what I’ve heard – the investors, tour management, and independents feel it should be. I think we’re in a place where that’s the case. We’re being told that this is how it should be as well …
“I think things are, unfortunately, put in a really bad light right now, and I think things are actually in a really, really good place, based on what I know, which is quite a lot in this situation.”
“The PGA Tour is for the players and by the players. So, we have an influence, and there’s roles for the player directors and there’s roles for the independents. We’re trying to make the PGA Tour the best it can be day-in and day-out” — Tiger Woods
McIlroy said last week that he and Woods see the path forward differently but are working toward a common, if so far unresolved, result.
“The PGA Tour is for the players and by the players. So, we have an influence, and there’s roles for the player directors and there’s roles for the independents. We’re trying to make the PGA Tour the best it can be day-in and day-out,” Woods said Tuesday.
“That’s one of the reasons why we have arguments and we have disagreements, but we want to do what’s best for everyone in golf and the tour. Without those kind of conflicts, I don’t think there’s going to be that much – the progress is not going to be there.”
Then there’s the whole question of perception versus reality. From the outside, it looks as if the tour is scrambling and the pro game is teetering (one bright spot: final-round ratings for the Wells Fargo Championship were up more than 30 percent Sunday when McIlroy romped to victory).
Here’s a snippet of a conversation overhead on the way into Valhalla and the PGA Championship on Tuesday morning:
“Golf is losing me,” one person said.
“It’s trying really, really hard to lose me, too,” the other person said.
That may be the most significant accomplishment to this point in the whole churning mess.
It feels as if the house is on fire and there’s an argument over whether to call the fire department or find a fire extinguisher.
“If you spend a lot of time on the internet, it does feel like professional golf is crumbling,” Max Homa said. “It’s tough to decipher, because when we’re on the grounds of events, it’s amazing. Last week at Quail Hollow was awesome. Felt no different at Bay Hill. The Players felt no different.
“So, it’s odd. It doesn’t feel like it’s dying, yet you hear a lot of very valid complaints on the internet. So, I think it’s been, it’s very troubling. I don’t like where it’s going. It’s got to be exhausting to be a casual golf fan at this point in time.”
Homa hit the bull’s-eye again.