No stranger to the bumps and bruises of a volatile post-LIV landscape, the PGA Tour has this week been shaken once more.
On the eve of the PGA Championship, the architect of the framework agreement that would change professional men’s golf forever, Jimmy Dunne, abruptly quit from its policy board.
You may not have heard of Dunne, but no figure encapsulates the state of play in golf’s 12-month trainwreck better than the Wall Street powerbroker.
One year ago, Dunne was secretly meeting with the PGA Tour’s trillion-dollar disrupters, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), to broker a deal many thought couldn’t be done.
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A month later, jaws dropped globally when it was revealed the PGA Tour had agreed to form a new entity with its sworn rival, effectively merging the US circuit with the PIF-funded LIV Golf.
The year following the agreement has been marked by lawsuits, political concerns, intra-organisational squabbling and player power moves — but no official deal.
Which brings us to Tuesday (AEST) when the mastermind of the agreement was washing his hands of the deal altogether, deeply exasperated by the failure to will it into reality.
Golf is to this day in a deeply fractured state despite the promise of total reunification, which tauntingly lingers just out of reach.
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Each month brings a new report of why an official deal between the PGA Tour and PIF is imminent, only for a development like Tuesday’s to bring its complexity back into jarring focus.
From widespread player outrage, leadership instability, and even a US Senate probe into the motivations of the deal, the path forward is a minefield.
But it’s what’s happening within the PGA Tour camp that is emerging as arguably the biggest factor in why golf’s bitter war is set to be dragged into yet another year.
Players were left outraged that Dunne — at the behest of PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan — could almost single-handedly strike a deal that would change their careers.
The backlash was so strong, particularly towards Monahan, that concessions began being made in a bid to subdue the flames at PGA headquarters.
The biggest concession was one that allowed players to outnumber independent directors on the PGA Tour policy board.
How that new-found power is being wielded may be responsible for the PGA Tour’s $3bn (A$4.5bn) deal with the Strategic Sports Group, but it is also to blame for the ongoing standoff with PIF.
Dunne’s resignation letter shed some light on this messy situation, while confirming the poorly-kept secret that despite his successful talks with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, he had been frozen out of the next round of negotiating.
“As you are aware, I have not been asked to take part in negotiations with the PIF since June 2023,” Dunne wrote.
“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.
“It is crucial for the Board to avoid letting yesterday’s differences interfere with today’s decisions, especially when they influence future opportunities for the Tour.”
Separately, Dunne told Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch: “There’s a group that decides things and I’m not in it and I’m not consulted.”
In reporting Dunne’s resignation, Golf Channel host Rich Lerner said there’s an “inmates running the asylum vibe to this one”.
The Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard added that Dunne’s resignation was “pretty shocking”, but pointed to the wider issue of division among the PGA Tour’s decision-makers.
“I think in that letter, you can sense his aggravation, you can sense his frustration in how slow this process has been,” Hoggard said.
He added: “I think there’s an element on the PGA Tour policy board that player directors and independent directors have one vision of what the professional game would be, and there’s a segment with a different vision, and somewhere in the middle is reunification.”
Meanwhile, the Daily Mail’s chief sports feature writer Riath Al-Samarrai wrote that “golf is drowning itself in this dusty political bollocks.”
Even prior to Dunne’s announcement, Barstool Sports’ PGA Tour insider Dan Rapaport offered a similar sentiment, writing: “The last three years have been a case study in how to destroy a sport from the inside. And the players are richer than ever. Hard to stomach.”
To understand just how cracks within the PGA Tour have widened in the past 12 months, consider that seven people were this month selected in a subcommittee to pick up negotiations with PIF. Only Monahan and Rory McIlroy had an official role with the PGA Tour last June, while only the former had any input in striking the framework agreement.
Even so, McIlroy isn’t even on the policy board proper having quit last year, feeling burnt by Monahan’s decision to negotiate with the Saudis without his knowledge.
Since that agreement was struck, player power on the board has increased, opening the door to differing views and alleged alliances, which have left the waters muddier than ever.
Sports Illustrated reported in December that Cantlay, Woods and Spieth had formed an alliance, and preferred to pursue a deal with wealthy American investors over PIF.
Such a deal was ultimately made with SSG, but it’s come at the expense of making meaningful progress with the Saudis.
Soon after that deal was made, LIV Golf announced the shock signing of Jon Rahm for the 2024 season in what was seen as a PIF broadside against the PGA Tour over the stalling negotiations.
And yet, neither party has succumbed to the pressure of any power moves.
The year’s second major has arrived and we are no closer to a deal being made, as confirmed by Woods on Tuesday.
“We’ve made some progress, yes, for sure, but there’s a long way to go still,” he said.
How individual motivations, and complex relationships, are impacting progress is becoming clearer as time passes.
McIlroy — a man who believes he has the answers, but no one willing to act on them — is in himself a prime example of this growing headache.
Last week, it was reported that despite his inclusion on the subcommittee, he was rebuffed by his playing colleagues from rejoining the policy board after Webb Simpson sought out the Northern Irishman to replace him.
A vote involving other player directors Patrick Cantlay, Tiger Woods, Peter Malnati and Adam Scott ultimately saw McIlroy rejected.
Sky Sports reported that Cantlay — who has long been rumoured as the most powerful figure among the player directors — was the leading voice behind blocking McIlroy’s return.
According to the publication, Cantlay was “uncomfortable” with the idea that McIlroy would be whisked straight in, bypassing a formal process to replace Simpson — a view which was reportedly backed by Woods and Spieth.
McIlroy’s public response to his snub, however, hinted that he believed other factors were at play.
The four-time major winner said: “There’s been a lot of conversations. Sort of reminded me partly why I didn’t (stay).
“It got pretty complicated and pretty messy and I think with the way it happened, it opened up some old wounds and scar tissue from things that have happened before.
“There was a subset of people on the board that were maybe uncomfortable with me coming back on for some reason.”
While there’s no suggestion that a personal grudge kept McIlroy off the board, it’s intriguing to note that he has long had a strained relationship with Cantlay.
McIlroy last year described their relationship as “average at best”, adding that they “don’t have a tonne in common and see the world quite differently”.
He also referred to Cantlay as a “d**k” when reflecting on his infamous blow-up with the American’s caddie, Joe LaCava, at last year’s Ryder Cup.
But if recent events have reopened old scars for McIlroy, they might’ve created some new ones, too.
McIlroy and Woods have been close friends for many years, but differing views over the PGA Tour’s future are said to have created distance between them.
Golf Digest reported last week that while the pair remain on good terms, their relationship has “soured over the past six months” due to their disagreements.
McIlroy insisted the pair remain friends, but confirmed that they have not been able to get on the same page.
“I think friends can have disagreements or not see eye-to-eye on things … I think that’s fine,” McIlroy said.
“We had a really good talk last Friday for 45 minutes just about a lot of different things. There’s no strain there.
“I think we might see the future of golf a little bit differently, but I don’t think that should place any strain on a relationship or on a friendship.”
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The question is; what is McIlroy’s differing view that has left him at odds with the current player directors?
It’s understood that McIlroy — with pro wins in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia — understands the value of LIV Golf’s global model and wants the PGA Tour to take multiple flagship events abroad, too.
McIlroy heavily alluded to this being a key point of division for his reintegration, suggesting that the American-dominated policy board has been resistant.
“If we go to more of a global schedule, do the American players that are used to playing all their golf in America want to travel outside of the States 12 times a year to play tournament golf? That’s a consideration,” McIlroy said.
Less than a week after McIlroy made those comments, Dunne announced his resignation.
The two are not being treated as entirely separate events.
Dunne and McIlroy are known to have been close, triggering the theory that his departure was partly a move out of solidarity.
CBS Sports’ Kyle Porter went as far to suggest that Dunne could be bluffing in an attempt to have McIlroy brought back further into the fold.
“I’m dubious that Jimmy Dunne exits if Rory is allowed back on the board,” Porter wrote.
“Maybe this has been brewing and he still leaves, but the timing feels a lot like, ‘you don’t want my guy, fine, I’m out as well.’”
He added: “Also cannot believe I’m writing this sentence during a major week.”
Whether there’s truth behind that theory or not, the idea of Dunne and McIlroy being in it together is a fitting one.
In Dunne and McIlroy we have two figures whose frustrations over the past 12 months go a long way to explaining the maddening nature of the never-ending negotiations.
The PGA Tour is trying to negotiate the darkened path towards reunification, but left behind the guy holding the flashlight in Dunne.
Meanwhile, McIlory’s experience shows how the increase of player input has been a double-edged sword given no two players see exactly eye-to-eye, and bring with them complex histories and motivations.
Indeed, the feeling that the PGA Tour is tearing itself apart from within is becoming increasingly hard to shake.
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