LIV Golf continues to spiral to its death.
Players and staff will be informed by Thursday, April 30, that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which owns LIV Golf, will cut off funding after this season, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Reports surfaced two weeks ago that LIV would be a victim of the PIF’s shift in investment strategy from high-cost international projects — including sports funding — to focus on domestic initiatives. The PIF has dumped more than $5.3 billion into LIV since it debuted in 2022.
Now, that will become official.
The league’s demise is coming in drips. LIV recently announced it would be canceling or postponing a scheduled June event in Louisiana, the worst possible timing in light of CEO Scott O’Neil’s promise two weeks ago the season would continue “exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle.”
LIV attempted to deflect that the decision to kill the June 25-28 event at Bayou Oaks outside of New Orleans was money-related.
O’Neil said recently in an interview that LIV only was funded through 2026 and would have to find alternate ways to raise money. Those remarks were deleted from social media.
“It’s just not the way the world works,” O’Neil said about future funding. “We have commitments to have this … the reality is you’re funded through the season and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going.”
How many LIV golfers will follow Brooks Koepka back to PGA Tour
The biggest question as LIV likely will cease to exist beyond this season, at least in its current form, is what happens to its players.
The league has very few stars and the PGA Tour likely would welcome back only a handful of its 57 players.
Jupiter’s Brooks Koepka rejoined the Tour in January and Patrick Reed is working his way back to eligibility through the DP World Tour. Reed is expected to be back on the Tour in 2027.
As for players such as Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Cam Smith and others, the path back will not be very smooth.
“There were rules, and they were broken,” PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp told the Wall Street Journal. “With rules comes accountability.
“I don’t necessarily have scar tissue, but there are plenty of people around our tour who do. It has to be accounted for in some shape or form.”
DeChambeau, Rahm and Smith declined the PGA Tour’s offer in January to return through the same program that allowed Koepka back. That offer expired in February.
Rolapp, though, has said many times his job is to create the best version of the PGA Tour with the best players.
How many of those will be players who defected from the PGA Tour for LIV remains to be seen.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Report: LIV players to be told PIF will stop funding after 2026 season
Reporting by Tom D’Angelo, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
