Mark Flaherty has called it quits on the PGA Tour’s policy board. This makes him the second independent director to step down in under a week.
On Monday, independent director Jimmy Dunne, who had a hand in negotiating the PGA Tour’s framework agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) last year, also resigned. He mentioned that “no meaningful progress has been made towards a transaction with PIF” and that his vote and role had become redundant now that player directors outnumber independent directors on the policy board.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan sent a memo to members informing them of Flaherty’s resignation. Flaherty is a former vice chairman of Wellington Management, an investment management company. In his resignation letter, Flaherty reflected, “It’s been an honor and a privilege to serve on the Policy Board for the past 4 1⁄2 years. Golf has always been a significant part of my life. Being able to blend my passion for the sport with the intricate workings and growth of the PGA Tour has been a truly rewarding experience.”
With Flaherty’s departure, there are now three independent directors left on the policy board: chairman Ed Herlihy, Joe Gorder, and Mary Meeker. Tiger Woods was added as a sixth player director last year, joining Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson, and Jordan Spieth.
Although the framework agreement with the PIF expired on December 31, negotiations have continued. Monahan and the player directors met with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan in the Bahamas on March 18. Rory McIlroy recently tried to re-join the policy board, with Simpson willing to step down. However, other player directors were uncomfortable with McIlroy returning after he had stepped down back in November.
At the PGA Championship, McIlroy said he was less confident about reaching an agreement with the PIF following Dunne’s resignation. “Yeah, honestly, I think it’s a huge loss for the PGA Tour, if they are trying to get this deal done with the PIF and trying to unify the game,” McIlroy said. “Jimmy was basically the relationship, the sort of conduit between the PGA Tour and PIF. It’s been really unfortunate that he has not been involved for the last few months, and I think part of the reason that everything is stalling at the minute is because of that.”
On his Sirius XM show last week, longtime PGA Tour member Lucas Glover said golfers shouldn’t have so much control over the tour’s operations. “We do have the majority and we have no business having the majority,” Glover said. “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. And we are running a business now.”
Source: Espn
