By ED TRAVIS
The cash cornucopia keeping LIV Golf alive supplied by the Saudi royal family’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has been shut off and they are through with men’s professional golf at the end of 2026.
LIV never had a viable business model and most importantly never had the depth of talent or support to make them a competitive challenger to the PGA Tour.
What LIV called “Golf, but Louder” was seen by potential fans and sponsors as a nonstarter and more of an attempt to take golf away from its primary attractiveness, namely the world’s best players going head-to-head that has worked for more than a century. The pirating of a few stars with the payment of six figure signing bonuses simply started a civil war pitting longtime friends against each other.
The question from the beginning was why?
Part of the answer lies in the 30-year-old vendetta of LIV’s first commissioner Greg Norman whose world tour idea back in the early 90s was summarily rejected by the then PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem. Finchem thought quite rightly Norman’s world tour would have been direct competition and hurt the traditional Tour.
Another factor was the Saudi’s “sportswashing,” using professional golf’s exemplary reputation to divert attention from their at times brutal past.
And they have the money to do it with the PIF having about $1 trillion in assets and ownership of over 220 companies. They have what most of us would say is a heavy investment in sports, including the Premier League’s New Castle Football Club valued at around $1 billion. PIF also has substantial investments in professional tennis and sponsors women’s professional golf events including cosponsored events with the LPGA.
After four years LIV Golf had few fans, no major television presence, the mindset every event was an exhibition with everyone getting a check no matter how they played, 54-hole (2026 became 72 holes) events with shotgun starts mouthing the blatantly silly pronouncement they were growing the game. It was plain from the start “growing the game” was in fact just a cover for the players who were really saying “gimme the money.”
All was part of the attempt by the Saudis to divert the world’s eyes from their atrocious record including the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi eight years ago.
LIV attracted a few big names who dropped PGA Tour membership for the PIF riches including Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau Bruce Koepka, Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Read and Sergio Garica. It was apparent from the start that the lack of field depth and often less than top quality courses hurt the performance of these former PGA Tour stars. Only Koepka and DeChambeau won a major championship after switching, the 2023 PGA Championship 2024 U.S. Open respectively.
PIF’s reallocation of assets away from the maverick golf league perhaps was a surprise to some, including players signed to LIV contracts, but not to those who took the time to read published information from the fund’s management. A recent statement of strategy for the years 2026 through 2030 said they were in “The Value Realization phase prioritizes ecosystem integration, disciplined investment, and value creation across the portfolio.”
It does not take a MBA degree to see when they are spending on the order of $100 million per month and something like $6 billion in the four years LIV has been around the decision to not pour more money into a failing business was easy.
Presumably LIV star Bryson DeChambeau will lose his contract that pays him handsomely but without LIV he has a problem since he coldshouldered the PGA Tour earlier this year when they offered a way back. Bruce Koepka took the Tour’s offer and paid a reported $5 million to charity as the toll.
DeChambeau, according to recent reports, says he is going to work on growing his YouTube presence and will play when given an opportunity but meanwhile, he’s made headlines having a pushup contest with 90-year-old Gary Player. Some one being sarcastic might say this sure sounds like a surefire way to back into big time competition.
Jon Rahm may be tiptoeing towards a return by recently paying the fines levied by the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour and a PGA Tour partner) for being a member and competing in conflicting LIV events but so far it is not a clear way to the PGA Tour.
Looking into my always hazy crystal ball LIV Golf’s future does not look good and reports of its demise after the end of the year are undoubted accurate.
LIV’s present chief executive, Scott O’Neil is optimistic they will be able to bring new investors on board. However with several of their top stars bailing out, no fan base and a business model that obviously doesn’t work, the smart sports money investors will be a tough if not impossible sell.
