On September 11, 2001, financier and investment banker Jimmy Dunne was vying to qualify for the U.S. Mid-Amateur instead of going to work in the South Tower of the World Trade Center. For him, even though golf was always something he loved, it became much more when it quite literally saved his life. So, when he got the opportunity to help grow the game, he didn’t think twice.

In late 2022, the then-PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan asked him to be an independent director on the Tour Policy Board. By June of next year, the Tour had already announced a shocking merger with Saudi Arabia’s PIF brokered by Dunne. Three years down the line, the cut-to-the-chase-guy revealed what he would have done differently about one of the most controversial moves in the Tour’s recent history.

“I did get to an agreement that sort of helped the Tour in the long run. Ending lawsuits was a pretty valuable thing for the Tour to have,” Dunne told Front Office Sports’ David Rumsey. “Not really recognized, and it was really Ed Herlihy as much or more than me, but that was pretty important.

“Golf is so important to me, it’s hard for me to think of it just as a business—and that’s the mistake. In hindsight, what I would have done differently is: I wouldn’t have gotten involved, because the Tour is a business. And so, while I was getting involved to be helpful, to me, the game of golf is so much bigger.”

The merger with PIF would have given rise to a new for-profit LLC merging the LIV Golf, the PGA Tour, and the DP World Tour. While PIF would’ve had the majority stake, Monahan would have been the CEO of the new entity with PIF’s governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan as the chariman holding the first right to refusal. Initially, PIF pledged over $1 billion and resolved all pending lawsuits filed by some former Tour and DPWT members after they were suspended for joining the breakaway league.

But when the deal didn’t get finalized by December 31, 2023, the original tentative deadline, Dunne knew the writing on the wall.

You see, Dunne never liked LIV Golf’s format — it challenged the traditional love for the game with money and spotlight. Yet, he realized that some aspects of it just migth be what the Tour needed to grow golf. Becoming the pioneering broker, he talked to Al-Rumayyan and then reported the discussions to Monahan. Soon, the two, along with policy board chairman Ed Herlihy were in discussion of what became the most controversial decision at the time in the Tour.

Just like Dunne, many PGA Tour players stayed instead of joining the LIV Golf which paid better money for playing less. The negotiations were so secret that even the then-LIV Golf CEO, Greg Norman, found out about the deal only a few minutes before the TV announcement. Rory McIlroy himself confessed to feeling like a scapegoat in the whole saga.

Many players wanted their wishes represented on the policy board and gradually, gained control of the board. As such, Dunne’s involvement reduced the point that he was no longer negotiating since June 2023 itself.

“There’s a group that decides things and I’m not in it and I’m not consulted,” he told Golfweek in May 2023, referring to the board of the new for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises. “I’m superfluous. It’s time to move on.”

But when Dunne realized he had put himself on the spot only for the deal to not come to fruition, he was stuck and had no choice but to resign.

Putting in his papers in May 2024, he cited in his resignation letter that there was “no meaningful progress” toward a deal with PIF. Dunne would have liked to see the game he had loved forever to grow. He believed that unifying professional golf was essential to restoring fan interest, but the PGA Tour was operating as a business with different priorities.

And if he had to do it all over again, he probably wouldn’t.