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The PGA Tour is facing more pushback over its recently announced merger with the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF)–backed LIV Golf, with a high-profile member of its policy board resigning his position at the golf giant, citing “serious concerns” over the deal.
Randall Stephenson, former CEO of AT&T, tendered his resignation on Saturday, saying the framework of the deal “is not one that I can objectively evaluate or in good conscience support, particularly in light of the U.S. intelligence report concerning Jamal Khashoggi in 2018,” according to the Washington Post, which said it obtained a copy of the letter.
Stephenson is no longer listed on the PGA Tour board’s web page.
The move was apparently a long time coming. Stephenson, who had been on the policy board since 2012, reportedly planned to resign six days after the deal was announced, but held off on that after PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan took leave to deal with unspecified health concerns. (Monahan is expected to return on July 17.)
The Policy Board is typically made up of 10 members, five players and five independent directors. Among the other independent directors are Mark Flaherty, former vice chairman of Wellington Management Company and Mary Meeker, a partner with Bond Capital.
The defiant resignation comes as the PGA Tour sends a representative to testify before the U.S. Senate on Tuesday about the deal. It also raises questions about whether the PGA Tour’s board will approve the merger, a required step.
“I have serious concerns with how this framework agreement came to fruition without board oversight,” Stephenson wrote. “I hope, as this board moves forward, it will comprehensively rethink its governance model and keep its options open to evaluate alternative sources of capital beyond the current framework agreement.’’
He’s not the only one who felt left out of the loop in the deal. The day after the deal, Rory McIlroy (who also sits on the board) expressed concerns about the new partner, saying “I still hate LIV, I hate them. I hope it goes away and I fully expect that it does.”
