Jimmy Dunne, Architect of PGA Tour-PIF Blockbuster, Explains New Details of the Deal

Jimmy Dunne, a member of the PGA Tour policy board and a powerbroker on Wall Street, was the architect behind Tuesday’s huge deal among the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). He spoke to a number of media outlets on Thursday to explain new details of the agreement that will have a huge impact on the game of professional golf moving forward.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Dunne said that the discussions started less than two months ago. He sent a message via WhatsApp to Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who is the governor of the PIF that financially backs LIV Golf, asking to meet.

Jay Monahan will be in charge of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.

Saudi Arabia’s PIF can be the PGA Tour’s investment partner, but it is not investing in the Tour directly.

I talked to Jimmy Dunne about how, and why, golf’s deal of the decade went down. https://t.co/pF7XoTDCdi

— Michael Rosenberg (@Rosenberg_Mike) June 9, 2023

Dunne says that details of the deal have been largely misunderstood. Among his clarifications:

• The names of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour will not change.
• PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan will oversee LIV Golf. A decision on the future of that league will be made at the end of the year after Monahan and Al-Rumayyan conduct an evaluation.
• LIV Golf pros who want to return to the PGA Tour will have to go through a reinstating process, and penalties are expected to be “significant.” If LIV Golf remains active, those players would be able to remain there.
• The PIF’s ability to invest in the PGA Tour or the new for-profit company that’s being created is open-ended. They can invest as much or as little as they want.

Dunne said that the Al-Rumayyan, through the PIF, wanted to be a major part of the world of professional golf. Its long-term goal was not to compete with the PGA Tour through LIV, which Dunne alluded to being a means to an end.

There were also morality concerns that Monahan himself brought up last year. Amid allegations of 9/11 victim groups regarding Saudi Arabia and potential funding of the attacks, Monahan said almost exactly a year ago, “Will you ever have to apologize for playing on the PGA Tour?”

Dunne, speaking on Golf Channel’s Golf Central, said that he lost 66 colleagues on Sept. 11, 2001. He was passionate in speaking on the subject.

Dunne said:

“I am quite certain—and I have had conversations with a lot of very knowledgeable people—that the people I’m dealing with had nothing to do with it. If someone can find someone that unequivocally was involved with it, I’ll kill them myself. We don’t have to wait around.”

Businessman Jimmy Dunne, who helped put together the PGA Tour-LIV deal, lost 66 of his colleagues on 9/11:

“The people I’m dealing with had nothing to do with it… if someone can find someone that unequivocally was involved with it I’ll kill them myself.” pic.twitter.com/kjMIn7tROH

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 8, 2023

The deal is just in the framework stage. It has to be finalized and pass through many government hurdles regarding antitrust and other legal matters.

Cover Image Via Sports Illustrated