Jimmy Dunne resigns from PGA Tour board

Jimmy Dunne, one of the architects behind the PGA Tour’s stunning reversal to strike a deal with the Saudi backers of LIV Golf, abruptly resigned Monday from the PGA Tour board with a letter that expressed frustration at the lack of progress that no longer included his input.

Dunne, a power broker on Wall Street and in golf circles, was not included on the PGA Tour Enterprise’s new “transaction subcommittee” that will be handling the direct negotiations with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.

Dunne and Ed Herlihy, an attorney specializing in mergers and acquisition and chairman of PGA Tour Inc., were whom PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan leaned on when he first met with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor, that led to the June 6 agreement.

The immediate result of the deal was an end to antitrust lawsuits neither side wanted and had already cost the PGA Tour in the neighborhood of $50 million. The tour has since brought on Strategic Sports Group as a minority investor in a deal initially worth $1.5 billion.

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