The PGA Tour Advisory Council has been facing tremors of internal beef. With the news of Jimmy Dunne resigning on May 12, because he felt that the players on the board outnumbered the individual directors, things have started to come into notice. Not to forget ofcourse, how Rory McIlroy did not get back to the PAC because Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth allegedly did not want him to, and things got ‘messy’.
Well, Tiger Woods, at Valhalla, very craftily confirmed about the ongoing beef. “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”, said Mr. T. Although Woods had a tone of optimism, Rory McIlroy seems to have lost all his confidence in the PGA Tour council.
Rory McIlroy believes Jimmy Dunne was the conduit between the PGA TOUR and PIF
As the final round of practice concluded on Wednesday, at an interview Rory McIlroy was asked about his thoughts regarding Dunne resigning, and what that meant for the PGA Tour. Rory McIlroy without any second guesses cited his concerns about the future of the tour and the sport. Rory McIlroy believes the potential for a deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi backers of LIV Golf has stalled because board member Jimmy Dunne was left out of the mix, and the tour suffered a “huge loss” when Dunne decided to resign.
As stated by him, McIlroy believes that it was because Dunne was left out of the discussions of the merger since June 2023, the potential deal was stalled for so long. The tour will be suffering a huge loss with him gone. He was one of the key architects along with Jay Monahan and Ed Hilary to meet PIF and conclude the June 6 framework agreement and bring about a treaty, which was never finalised.
He even called Jimmy Dunne to be the conduit between the PGA Tour and the PIF. Stating his concerns, and how he was disappointed that they could not use someone as great as Jimmy Dunne to turn around the entire gameplay and finally come to an agreement. He said, “It’s really, really disappointing. I think the tour is in a worse place because of it. We’ll see where it goes from here and we’ll see what happens.”
The No. 2 also stated that he barely has any faith that the merger will run through and with Dunne resigning, the chances of it only gets slimmer. “But you know, I would say my confidence level on something getting done before last week was, you know, as low as it had been and then with this news of Jimmy resigning and knowing the relationship he has with the other side, and how much warmth there is
It is not just Rory McIlroy who believes Jimmy Dunne was the only one who could have made things better. There are a lot of other players who side with him on this one!
Lucas Glover says players should only play on the Tour
On his show SiriusXM, the 2009 Open Champion joined hands with what Jimmy Dunne wrote on his resignation letter. There are a total of 6 players on the council, whereas with Dunne resigning, there are only 4 individual directors. “Tour players play golf. Businessmen run businesses. They don’t tell us how to hit 7-irons. We shouldn’t be telling them how to run a business,” said Glover.
He further stated that having too much player control made the tour lose Dunne at a crucial time, when his expertise should have been prioritised over choosing player control on the board. He concluded, “I think it’s time to look at our board setup again. It’s swayed too far the other way now.”
Well, his concerns are indeed for all the right reasons. But as to what the fate of the merger holds, it is truly getting difficult to even predict at this point of time.
