Jimmy Dunne named to the board of directors of Troon Golf

Jimmy Dunne, the Wall Street deal maker who helped architect the PGA Tour’s controversial deal with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund and then resigned from the Tour’s Policy Board, has been named as a member of the board of directors of one of golf’s most influential companies.

The West Palm Beach, Florida, resident was named Thursday to the Troon Golf board, which manages nearly 1,000 golf clubs worldwide. He is also the vice chairman and senior managing principal of Piper Sandler, an investment bank and financial services company.

Dunne is a member of Augusta National Golf Club and the president of the exclusive Seminole Golf Club. He’s played rounds with everyone from Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth to retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady. In a headline last year, after he was appointed to the PGA Tour’s policy board, one magazine dubbed him the sport’s “ultimate power broker.”

In a call with Golfweek back in May, Dunne explained his decision to leave the PGA Tour’s Policy Board.

“There’s a group that decides things and I’m not in it and I’m not consulted,” he said, referring to the board of the new for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises. “I’m superfluous. It’s time to move on.”

A Long Island native and Notre Dame graduate, Dunne got his foothold on Wall Street by working at Bear Stearns before leaving to co-found the investment banking firm Sandler O’Neill & Partners in 1988. The firm later took up residence on the 104th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center, where 83 of its employees reported to work on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

Dunne would have been among them, but he had traveled to Bedford, New York, that day in an attempt to qualify for the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship. Sixty-six of his coworkers, including his longtime friend Christopher Quackenbush, died in the attack on the South Tower. Golf, quite literally, may have saved his life.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Dunne and his firm were repeatedly profiled by media outlets who spotlighted their resolve as they began to rebuild. “(Osama) Bin Laden set out to kill me and my colleagues,” he told Newsday in 2002. “What would he like us to do: Build a new business, or to quit and run?”

Jimmy Dunne tees off during a practice round prior to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship 2024 at the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

Here’s more on his background, per a release from…