What a wild sequence of events we all witnessed over the past few days.
The short summary? In the face of several reports indicating that LIV Golf is on the verge of being defunded by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, the league responded by saying it is moving forward “full throttle” with this year’s season.
As for after the 2026 season? Speculation remains that LIV will be forced to close shop.
Here is everything we know. Read to the end for my personal take on the situation.
Rumors, reports and premature grave dancing
Coming into this week, LIV appeared to be on fairly solid footing—relatively speaking.
It’s not exactly a conventional business that has to adhere to the normal rules of profitability. LIV CEO Scott O’Neil recently admitted that the league, which has been bleeding money by the hundreds of millions, was 5-10 years away from turning a profit.
However, O’Neil attended the Masters and it was widely reported that his “sales pitch” for the league included the info that LIV is fully funded through 2032. The league has also, in the eyes of some, made progress in recent months in terms of receiving Official World Golf Ranking points and switching to 72-hole events. They’ve been adding employees and office space.
Nothing about LIV has indicated the league is slowly down. Though U.S. viewership and corporate advertising remain slim to none, LIV is about halfway through season four and had fairly successful stints in Australia and South Africa earlier this year.
But then, suddenly, LIV’s future was called into question.
Rumors started swirling Tuesday as Ryan French at Monday Q Info teased a “bombshell announcement” and took to X Spaces to explain that LIV was in serious jeopardy as the PIF was considering pulling funding.
That led to several additional reports throughout Wednesday, including from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Fox News and The Telegraph.
The consensus among those reports? LIV is in survival mode due to a shift in priorities with the PIF.
Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and chairman of the PIF, approved a plan that will “focus on delivering competitive domestic ecosystems to connect sectors, unlock the full potential of strategic assets, maximize long-term returns, and continue to drive the economic transformation of Saudi Arabia and further enhance the quality of life of its citizens.”
In short, the PIF is reassessing all of its investments as the geopolitical landscape has been shifting dramatically. Leisure and sports, previously part of the PIF’s plan, was not mentioned in the announced five-year vision for Saudi Arabia.
This week, the PIF sold its star-studded Al-Hilal soccer team, while another Saudi investment group pulled out of Tom Brady’s flag football league. LIV appears to also be on the chopping block.
The Athletic painted a particularly bleak picture.
“High-level LIV Golf executives are in meetings about the league’s next steps while also beginning their own job searches,” the article read.
Those reports led to a lot of dancing on LIV’s grave as the tweets and memes came in hot and heavy.
For many hours, LIV remained radio silent and only further stoked the belief that its demise was imminent.
But it’s not that cut and dried
LIV finally showed signs of life later in the day on Wednesday when it posted about its Mexico tournament still being on.
And LIV Mexico did start as scheduled—although there were, fittingly, technical difficulties during the round one broadcast on Thursday that caused a blackout of coverage (this mirrored a power outage earlier in the week that apparently prevented press conferences from taking place).
On Wednesday, O’Neil sent an email to LIV staff that gave a bit of a pump-up speech but, very conspicuously, the memo failed to mention any future beyond the 2026 and didn’t address PIF funding concerns. There was no forceful denying of the many reports that came out.
“I want to be crystal clear: Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle,” O’Neil wrote. “While the media landscape is often filled with speculation, our reality is defined by the work we do on the grass. We are heading into the heart of our 2026 schedule with the full energy of an organization that is bigger, louder and more influential than ever before.”
Despite the half-hearted rallying cry, most in the golf media world believe that the next major news story to break here will be the PIF announcing that funding for LIV is being cut at the end of this season, severing ties between the Saudis and the actual golf league.
Does that automatically mean that LIV will be finished? Not necessarily.
LIV has made some progress this year and its within the realm of possibility that O’Neil could use his connections to find a creative way to infuse LIV with cash. There is also the option of partnering with the DP World Tour, which, despite a strategic alliance with the PGA Tour, is upset with its place on the back burner of professional golf.
While I’m sure LIV will fight like hell to keep its doors open, there are many reasons why that will be incredibly difficult.
For one, the product has not been successful commercially. It’s a failing, unhealthy business.
Bryson DeChambeau’s contract is up at the end of this year and there are multiple reports that the negotiations are not going well. It will take a large number—perhaps something in the $400 million range—to keep him. Without Bryson, LIV’s talent pool is in rough shape. Most of its players are aging and irrelevant. Even younger players like Joaquin Niemann are regressing.
And players have been competing for $30 million purses at each event. That surely won’t be recreated without the PIF’s bottomless wallet.
Sean’s take
LIV was never about golf or running a functional business.
It was a tool that existed strictly for political gain.
Without getting too deep into the weeds, you can draw a straight line from the creation of LIV to U.S. politics. There was something to be gained with Saudi-U.S. relations.
That has changed, so it appears that the PIF no longer needs LIV.
There is so much to unravel here. It’s very complicated.
Some LIV players like Jon Rahm are owed money well beyond this year. There could definitely be some lawsuits involved.
And how will the PGA Tour react? Will they invite DeChambeau and Rahm back in the same way they did with Brooks Koepka? Will there be a one-year suspension, as was the case with Patrick Reed?
My prediction is that LIV will play out the rest of the season and then close shop.
DeChambeau and Rahm will get a special exemption similar to Koepka to start on the Tour immediately. PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp cares about improving his product more than anything else, and these two players do that.
No other player matters, but they can serve out suspensions and then try to qualify the hard way. I’m guessing most players will retire or go to the DP World Tour.
That’s how I see things unfolding. What are your thoughts?
Let me know in the comments below.
