PGA Tour-LIV Golf Alliance Architect Delivers Emotional Interview: 'We Have Too Much Divisiveness'
Saying he believed those he dealt with in helping the PGA Tour broker a deal with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund had nothing to do with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Jimmy Dunne said in an emotional interview on Golf Channel that "if someone can find someone that unequivocally was involved with it, I'll kill them myself. We don’t have to wait around."
Dunne, a 65, a prominent businessman and avid golfer who is a key member of the PGA Tour Policy Board and made the first in-person overtures to the leader of the Public Investment Fund which bankrolls LIV Golf, had previously been highly critical of LIV Golf and criticized the players who joined the rival circuit.
On 9/11, Dunne was playing golf in a U.S. Mid-Amateur qualifier when planes hit the World Trade Center in New York where his company was located. He would have been there that day had he not been competing.
His company lost 66 employees in the attack and Dunne, who is friends with numerous golfers including Rory McIlroy, has since provided financial assistance and college education help to the families.
"Every day, the first thing I think about is (Sept. 11); several times during the day, I think about it and the last thing I think about at night is that," Dunne said during the interview. “That has not changed since that day. And I'm not alone in that. I would guarantee that every one of those family members has that same condition. It is just a reality of how unbelievably sad and awful that day was."
The PGA Tour and commissioner Jay Monahan have endured criticism in recent days as an agreement was announced that would see the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Public Investment Fund partner in a new for-profit venture that is separate from the PGA Tour’s non-profit member organization.
Details are scarce, but Monahan would be the CEO of the new to-be-named LLC, while Yasir Al-Rumayyan would be the chairman of the board. Al-Rumayyan is the brains behind LIV Golf, the governor of the Public Investment Fund and has direct involvement with Saudi’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman. He is also the governor of the Newcastle United football team in the Premier League.
The PIF has spent more than $1 billion to get LIV Golf off the ground and its future is now unclear given the alliance with the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. But Al-Rumayyan will not only have a board seat with the new venture, he is also being appointed to the Policy Board of the PGA Tour. The arrangement is expected to greatly benefit the PGA Tour financially in the coming years.
And all of that comes with considerable controversy because while the Tour fought the LIV threat, it also called out the human rights abuses and possible correlations between Saudi Arabia and 9/11.
"The reality is that we need to come together as a people," Dunne said. "We have too much divisiveness. And at some point in time—whether it’s our view of the Japanese, or our view of the Germans —there is a point in time where you have to say, let’s try to get to know one another. Let’s try to understand, let’s try to demonstrate by example."
According to Monahan, Dunne was the first person to reach out to Al-Rumayyan and facilitated other meetings that took place over the past two months.
"I'm quite certain—and I've had conversations with a lot of very knowledgeable people—that the people I'm dealing with had nothing to do with (9/11).
“If someone can find someone who unequivocally was involved with it, I’ll kill them myself. We don’t have to wait around."