Rory McIlroy has stepped down from the PGA Tour policy board, the PGA Tour introduced on Tuesday. The news comes in the future after the 12-man workforce met on the Tour’s headquarters in Ponte Vedra, Florida, to speak about the state of negotiations with the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, along with numerous different suitors, to accommodate industrial operations below a brand new for-profit entity dubbed PGA Tour Enterprises. A Dec. 31 deadline for the settlement to be solidified were set, despite the fact that it reportedly may well be driven again over antitrust considerations and participant calls for.
“I wanted to inform you that Rory McIlroy has resigned from the PGA Tour Policy Board,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan wrote in a memo to membership. “Rory’s resignation letter, which he sent to the full Board late this afternoon, clearly stated that the difficult decision was made due to professional and personal commitments.”
The Northern Irishman first joined the Player Advisory Council in 2019 and went onto serve as the PAC Chairman in 2021. McIlroy’s roles and duties off the golfing direction greater as the tumultuous dating with LIV Golf started to floor right through his tenure as a participant director the closing two years.
“[It is] not what I signed for whenever I went on the board,” McIlroy stated Tuesday on the DP World Tour Championship. “But yeah, the game of professional golf has been in flux for the last two years. Again, the overall game I think is in really good shape. But everyone focuses on this top level because it is what it is, and it’s an entertainment product and it’s a show, but the faster that it gets rectified, I think the better for everyone.”
The PGA Tour additionally introduced Tuesday the addition of Valero Energy govt Joe Gorder to the board. Gorder will serve as the 5th impartial director, changing Randall Stephenson, who resigned in early July after bringing up considerations over the settlement with the Saudi PIF.
In addition to Gorder’s announcement got here the news that Patrick Cantlay was once reappointed as the 5th participant director for a time period from 2024-26. McIlroy not too long ago detailed his dating with Cantlay when describing the skirmish between he and Joe LaCava on the 2023 Ryder Cup.
Ed Herlihy will proceed as policy board chairman, whilst Mark Flaherty will serve a 2nd four-year time period from 2024-27.
“Given the extraordinary time and effort that Rory — and all of his fellow Player Directors — have invested in the Tour during this unprecedented, transformational period in our history, we certainly understand and respect his decision to step down in order to focus on his game and his family,” Monahan persevered.
“Per the PGA Tour Tournament Regulations, whenever the office of any Player Director becomes vacant due to resignation, the remaining Player Directors elect a successor to serve his unexpired term,” Monahan wrote. “Rory’s term expires at the end of 2024.”
With the addition of Gorder and the departure of McIlroy, the present construction of the PGA Tour policy board is as follows:
- Player Directors: Patrick Cantlay, Tiger Woods, Charley Hoffman, Peter Malnati, Webb Simpson
- Independent Directors: Ed Herlihy, Jimmy Dunne, Mark Flaherty, Ed Gorder, Mary Meeker, and PGA of America Director John Lindert.