Randall Stephenson's Experience Won't Be Easy to Replace on PGA Tour Policy Board
NORTH BERWICK, Scotland - Was Randall Stephenson’s resignation a bridge too far?
When the dust finally settles on the future of the PGA Tour and a potential definitive agreement with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the former AT&T CEO’s resignation from the PGA Tour policy board after 12 years may be a turning point.
Or it could just be one of the numerous touch points along the way during this bizarre time in professional golf.
But Stephenson's resignation is resonating with players and not just the rank and file, but one of the Tour wunderkinds, Jordan Spieth.
Spieth has had an endorsement deal with AT&T for most of his 11-year professional career, and he has unique insight into Stephenson as a CEO and PGA Tour board member, which Spieth also joined during the peak of COVID.
Spieth saw Stephenson as a CEO figure on the board. No surprise, since Stephenson has run one of the largest companies in the world.
“He knew the ins and outs of operations from hiring, firing, and making complex executive decisions,” Spieth said of Stephenson’s role. “When you have finance guys, you have lawyers, he was the CEO position of the PGA Tour, the business side of making sure things are in in place, looking out for what you got to look out for.”
Stephenson in his resignation letter from last week specifically questioned his own ability to objectively evaluate or in good conscience support the analysis of the framework agreement signed on May 30th considering the U.S. intelligence report regarding the assassination of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
“I joined this board 12 years ago to serve the best players in the world and to expand the virtues of sportsmanship instilled through the game of golf,” wrote Stephenson, “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.”
The governance model is a concern for Spieth as well. According to the three-time major winner, the lines of communication during the COIVD pandemic were open and flowing, providing relevant information to all players and staff.
Today communication runs much differently. Commissioner Jay Monahan and board members Jimmy Dunne and Ed Herlihy were the only individuals involved with the negotiation of the framework agreement from the PGA Tour side. The lack of a clear and concise plan has created real concerns amongst the members.
Spieth believed after the deal was announced on June 6, that before anything else was hammered out the board would repair the severed lines of communication. But instead of getting answers and becoming involved in the process, Tour members continue to grasp at straws.
“I'm being leaned on a lot by guys,” Spieth said. “And simply that they still don't, they're still not being communicated to other than 'how do you not see how this is the best deal ever?' It's like, 'you don't know what it is. So, can you please explain?' And then with Randall's situation, it certainly starts to concern you.”
Both the New York Times and the Washington Post in reporting Stephenson’s resignation, wrote that he had already decided to leave before any agreement was reached and was just waiting for the right time.
Spieth hinted at the same thing, saying after his retirement from AT&T in 2020, Stephenson had been looking to enjoy retirement life and maybe do other things.
With Stephenson gone, the PGA Tour policy board losses a de facto CEO and now its four Independent Directors, will look for a successor.
A new board member may join in short order, since in the framework agreement, section 8, states that His Excellency Yasir-Al-Rumayyan will be given a seat on the board as part of a final deal.
Losing Stephenson is a blow, it’s bad optically and it hurts whatever continuity was left on a board that is clearly fractured between the Independent Directors, Monahan, and the Player Directors.
When you hear constantly from members that the PGA Tour is a member’s organization, and those members now question the board, and its process for negotiating a deal with only two of the 10 board members involved, losing Stephenson just adds to the angst.
“If you want to call it one of the rockier times on Tour, the guy was supposed to be there for us, wasn't,” Xander Schauffele said on Wednesday in Scotland about Monahan, who took time off for health issues and is returning on July 17th. “Obviously he had some health issues. I'm glad that he said he's feeling much better. But yeah, I'd say he has a lot of tough questions to answer in his return, and yeah, I don't trust people easily. He had my trust, and he has a lot less of it now. So, I don't stand alone when I say that.”
Goodbye Randall Stephenson and welcome back Jay Monahan to the soap opera now known As The Tour Turns.