A number of golf fans on X were questioning whether reports about Patrick Cantlay ‘seizing power’ on the PGA Tour’s policy board were true after a close ally to Rory McIlroy and prime architect of the Saudi PIF deal abruptly resigned last night.
Jimmy Dunne wrote a letter to the PGA Tour’s policy board on Monday confirming that his decision to walk away was ‘effective immediately’.
Dunne said ‘no meaningful progress’ had been made between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to find an agreement to end golf’s ‘civil war’.
And not that it mattered anyway because his voice was ‘superfluous’.
Dunne joined the policy board last January and, at the height of golf’s schism reached out to the powerful Saudi businessman and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan over WhatsApp.
He later was involved in a series of secret meetings around the globe with Al-Rumayyan and his advisors, a senior PGA Tour official and commissioner Jay Monahan.
On 6 June 2023 the seismic framework agreement between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF was announced.
The expensive litigation was dropped with prejudice but, nearly a year after the framework agreement was announced it is yet to be consummated.
Dunne’s resignation comes a week after the aforementioned McIlroy was blocked from returning to the policy board.
McIlroy, 35, is seen as a close confidante to Dunne given his ties to the uber-exclusive Seminole Golf Club in Florida.
The Northern Irishman is keen to end the hostilities in men’s professional golf by effectively letting bygones be bygones.
He has implored the PGA Tour to adopt a ‘global’ outlook and suggested any potential players who bolted to LIV shouldn’t necessarily be punished should they wish to return.
See Dunne’s full resignation letter here:
Jimmy Dunne’s resignation letter
His views appear to be at odds with the likes of Cantlay, Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods.
McIlroy’s friendship with Woods was also described as ‘strained’ over his opinion on what the future of golf should look like.
The report was emphatically denied by McIlroy.
Whilst he is not on the board, McIlroy will be involved in face-to-face talks with the Saudis as part of the ‘transaction subcommittee’ that was announced last week.
But although his voice might be heard, he will not have a vote on any final outcome.
It has led to the suggestion from golf fans that he was out-flanked by Cantlay.
Cantlay has stayed conspicuously silent throughout this mess over the last few months.
He questioned how it was possible for him to ‘seize power’ in an interview with GOLF at the turn of the year after becoming the pantomime villain for Team USA at the 2023 Ryder Cup.
Patrick Cantlay
The suggestion was also laughed off by Spieth as he tipped his hat to LIV for stealing Jon Rahm.
“I thought it was a nice play by them,” Spieth previously said of Rahm’s acquisition.
To some, though, it appears there might be an element of truth to some of the rumours.
“This has ‘Patrick Cantlay is destroying everything’ written all over it,” one X user wrote.
Another added: “Thanks a lot, Patrick Cantlay.”
This user joked: “The PGAT/PIF merger is going to fizzle out with a diminished Tour, a malaise-ridden fanbase, every principal of the June 6 agreement excommunicated from professional golf, and Jon Rahm trapped wearing a thousand-yard stare for the next five years. Great work, everyone.”
Dunne is not the first policy board member to resign over LIV Golf matters.
Randall Stephenson also quit his role last July, citing the framework agreement as something that he could not support in ‘good conscience’.
“Particularly in light of the U.S. intelligence report concerning Jamal Khashoggi in 2018,” he added.
