Jimmy Dunne announces loyalty rewarded: PGA Tour players to receive equity stakes in new company

Players who rejected million-dollar deals with LIV Golf will receive a piece of equity in the new profit organization that was joined by PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and Saudi Arabia's PIF. The architect behind the merger Jimmy Dunne spoke with ESPN's Mark Schlabach and said the players will receive their share of the profit.

Dunne said:

"The new [company] would grow, and the [current PGA Tour] players would get a piece of equity that would enhance and increase in value as time went on. There would have to be some kind of formulaic decision on how to do that. It would be a process to determine what would be a fair mechanism that would be really beneficial to our players."

He went on to say that if LIV golfers wanted to reinstate into the PGA Tour, they would have to follow a process. He continued:

"Players on the LIV [tour] that wanted to reinstate into the PGA Tour would go through a process [and] suspension. Whatever the penalty was, they'd have to decide whether they wanted to do that or not and then they could play."

Jimmy Dunne is the man behind the deal of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. He negotiated the agreement and met with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan in England to conclude it.

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"I’ll kill him myself"- Jimmy Dunne made a bold comment on Saudi Arabia's PIF

Jimmy Dunne is the vice chairman of the PGA Tour's policy board. His partnership with LIV Golf drew much criticism and hatred.

Saudi Arabia is suspected of being engaged in the 9/11 terrorist attack. Jimmy Dunne went out about the contentious agreement, stating that if someone was clearly involved in the attack, he would kill them. Dunne said:

“I am quite certain and have had conversations with a lot of knowledgeable people that the people that I’m dealing with [from the PIF] had nothing to do with [the Sept. 11 attacks]. And if someone can find someone that unequivocally was involved with it, I’ll kill him myself. We don’t have to wait around."

He further continued to say that things change with time and added:

“Every day the first thing I think about is that, several times during the day, I think about it and the last thing I think about at night is that. That has not changed since that day and I’m not alone in that. I would guarantee you that every one of those family members has that same condition. It’s just a reality of how unbelievably sad and awful that day was."

However, the golf enthusiast continues to oppose the decision and has called for PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan to resign from his position.

On the other hand, Monahan accepted the hate and stated that all of it should be directed at him. He also admitted in one of his prior interviews that loyal PGA Tour players would be rewarded, saying:

Their loyalty will be rewarded. I'm going to spend every single waking hour as we move forward here, we finalize this agreement, and we move into the future, that the players that have created the PGA TOUR, have created this pro-competitive, legacy-driven juggernaut, that have articulated and supported the direction that we're going on - ultimately the decision we made, I believe, is going to make it better for all our players, and loyalty, ultimately, as a leader, always needs to be rewarded."

The merger drew a lot of attention and is dubbed "Sportswashing" by some.