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“I don’t think there’s any doubt that Jay’s going to lose his job… He’ll step down.” – expressed a frustrated Hunter Mahan back in January this year as he criticized Jay Monahan over his handling of the talks with PIF. Now, come May 2024, it’s not the commissioner who is facing the backlash but Player Directors from the PGA Tour Policy Board including Tiger Woods, all thanks to Lucas Glover.
The 44-year-old was spotted in an interview on an episode of the SiriusXM PGA Championship Radio, ‘The Lucas Glover Show’, where he strongly criticized the PGA Tour Player Directors on the board headlined by Woods. He did so in response to the news about Jimmy Dunne’s resignation while shining light on the concerning situation in the circuit!
Lucas Glover comes out candid on Tiger Woods and the Player Directors
Glover recounted how the players were outnumbered ‘five-to-four’ on the Policy Board for a long time. But the rising worry among the golfers overturned the situation. “A lot of players thought that it would never be our Tour if we didn’t have the majority,” recalled the 1-time major champ before pointing out the irony of it all while alluding to the lack of progress on the deal with PIF as well as the resignation of board member Dunne; “Well, I think we’re seeing why it was that way now.”
The 6-time PGA Tour champ was quick to attack the current situation in the Policy Board where players outnumber the other directors by six to four. “We have no business having the majority,” Glover stated before adding, “Tour players play golf. Businessmen run business. They don’t tell us how to hit 7 irons. We shouldn’t be telling them how to run a business.” The board, post-Dunne’s stepping away, now features a total of six players including Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson, Jordan Spieth, and Tiger Woods along with four independent directors – Ed Herlihy, Mark Flaherty, Joe Gorder, and Mary Meeker.
Lucas Glover didn’t stop there. “We’re about to launch a huge, huge, huge enterprise and a for-profit company that all the players are gonna own a part of,” said the athlete while referring to the PGA TOUR Enterprises that came about as a result of its deal with SSG, “We don’t have the smartest possible people there to help us guide us in the right direction. That’s scary.” He, thus, expressed his concern with the proper running of the new entity that granted $930 million to players in equity grants. Moreover, the golfer also highlighted how it should be run by qualified businessmen instead of “players that think they know more than Ed Herlihy,… Joe Gorder,… Jay Monahan,” while hinting at Tiger Woods, Cantlay, and the likes.
Lucas Glover’s concerns seem reasonable, to say the least. Especially so when it is in response to something like Dunne’s resignation which saw the board member stepping away from the PGA Tour Policy Board.
The source of Glover’s worry: Dunne’s departure
“I have not been asked to take part in negotiations with the PIF since June 2023,” divulged the former board member in his resignation letter. He also added that there being more Player Directors than independent directors has slowed down the pace of the merger by a significant margin; “No meaningful progress has been made towards a transaction with PIF, I feel like my vote and role is utterly superfluous.” The Vice Chairman of Piper Sandler also went ahead to highlight the importance of the framework agreement in the golfing world while touching upon the history that the PGA Tour had with LIV Golf and continues to have so in a certain capacity. In the letter, he mentioned, “It is crucial for the board to avoid letting yesterday’s differences interfere with today’s decisions, especially when they influence future opportunities for the Tour.”
With much left to go in terms of negotiations regarding the merger, it truly makes the community wonder what awaits the sport in the coming future. The situation coupled with Dunne’s resignation makes it all the more concerning. Even Lucas Glover seemed to agree when he said, “We had an opportunity to get this done and it didn’t get done. And now we’re losing the people that are the most effective and already had it done, to be frank.”
