Ogilvie part of player-majority board for PGA Tour Enterprises
Joe Ogilvie is joining Tiger Woods and five other players on the 13-member board for the new PGA Tour Enterprises that will lead all commercial activities for the PGA Tour.
The board has four members from Strategic Sports Group, the consortium of mainly U.S. sports owners providing the initial $1.5 billion investment. The other two board members are PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Tour board member Joe Gorder.
That gives the players a majority vote on the commercial PGA Tour Enterprises.
Monahan is the CEO, while Woods was appointed vice chairman. The chairman of the new board will be decided at the next meeting.
It was a big overhaul for the governance of the PGA Tour, which still is negotiating with the Saudi backers of rival LIV Golf. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia signed an original framework agreement with the PGA Tour in June, before interest from U.S. private equity.
The changes include the PGA Tour board — separate from PGA Tour Enterprises — adding Ogilvie as a board member and giving Monahan a vote. That brings the PGA Tour board to 14 members, including PGA of America president John Lindert.
Ogilvie, who has an economics degree from Duke, paid close attention to golf’s business affairs during his 15 years on the PGA Tour, where he won one time. He retired in 2014 and now is a partner for Wallace Capital.
Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson and Peter Malnati will continue serving on the PGA Tour board that now will deal largely with competition. Because of his dual board positions and the time it requires, Ogilvie was appointed as a “director liaison” for both boards.
Monahan said the new board provides the “right composition, expertise and balance necessary to take our organization into the future.”
“Our current and former players will provide essential insight into our members’ priorities and needs,” he said in a statement. “And we welcome key SSG members to the leadership team, whose exceptional track records and achievements in global professional sports will lend a wealth of knowledge into the opportunities ahead for the PGA Tour.”
The four SSG investors appointed to the new board are John Henry, the principal at Fenway Sports Group; Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank; Andrew Cohen, vice chairman of the New York Mets; and Sam Kennedy, a partner in Fenway Sports Group.
Henry said the SSG presence on the board would focus on hearing the players and working with them to make sure the Tour’s commercial growth creates the best product for fans.
“All of us at Strategic Sports Group see a bright future for the PGA Tour and the constitution of the Enterprises Board is an important first step in realizing that future,” he said.
Gorder, the chairman and CEO of Valero Energy Corp., also will serve on both boards.