Golf Business News – McIlroy joins PGA TOUR Enterprises Transaction Subcommittee

The PGA Tour confirmed on Thursday that Rory McIlroy is one of three active players on the newly formed PGA Tour Enterprises' Transaction Subcommittee, along with Tiger Woods and Adam Scott, who are in direct talks with Saudi's Public Investment Fund (PIF).

The three are part of a seven-person subcommittee and four additional members of the Tour Enterprises Board, including PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, although McIlroy is the only member not on the board of PGA Tour Enterprises itself. Fenway Sports Group's John W. Henry and manager of Strategic Sports Group is also on the committee, along with communications director turned player Joe Ogilvie.

It was expected that McIlroy would rejoin the main board, which he left last year to focus on golf again, but that was prevented because the proper procedures for his appointment were not followed. Webb Simpson said he was standing on the board to open for McIlroy, but now he is standing to finish his time.

“Web [Simpson] remaining in his position as a member of the Policy Board and the PGA Tour Enterprises Board until the end of his term provides the continuity needed at this important time,” Monahan's statement continued. “We are progressing in our discussions with the PIF and working as a team – the Player Directors, our Boards and the tour management – to remain open to all ways that improve the Tour for the benefit of our players, our partners. and, most importantly, our fans.”

Speaking about his new role, McIlroy said: “I've already had a great hour-and-a-half Zoom meeting with the guys at the Operations Subcommittee on Sunday, we went through a 150-page document about the future product model. I'm not on the board, and I don't have a vote, so I guess I don't have a say in what happens in the future, but at least I feel like I can be useful on that committee, and that was a compromise for not getting a board seat.”

The PGA TOUR also announced that Joe Gorder has been appointed by the PGA TOUR Corporate Board of Directors to serve as its first Chairman. Gorder, who also serves as an independent director of the PGA TOUR Policy Board, is executive chairman of Valero Energy, a longtime sponsor of the Texas Valero Open, and will have a seat on the Transactions Subcommittee.

PGA TOUR Enterprises Board of Directors: Player Directors – Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson, Jordan Spieth, Tiger Woods (Vice-Chair); Director of Communications – Joe Ogilvie; Independent Directors – Joe Gorder (Chairman), John W. Henry, Arthur M. Blank, Andrew B. Cohen, Sam Kennedy and Jay Monahan (CEO).