Bad newsLIV Golf Winds Down After Five Years and $5 Billion as Rescue Deal Collapses
LIV Golf told a New Jersey bankruptcy court it will liquidate after a $300 million rescue offer was withdrawn. Players, staff and a planned Adelaide event are left without a tour, and executives were paid $15.6 million in retention money before filing.
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LIV Golf, the breakaway tour launched in 2022, is closing. Its lawyers told a New Jersey bankruptcy court on Thursday that the league is dropping its planned relaunch, known as LIV 2.0, and moving to a wind-down and liquidation, Sky Sports reported. The restructuring agreement behind the relaunch has been terminated.
How it ended
The money left in two steps. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) withdrew its funding in April, and the ABC in Australia reports that LIV spent more than US$5 billion before it did. BC Partners Credit then pulled out of a deal worth more than $300 million, according to the Financial Times as relayed by Sky. BC Partners said it was disappointed that terms acceptable to all sides could not be reached.
LIV filed for Chapter 11 protection on 8 September, the ABC says. Between the PIF’s exit and that filing, it paid $15.6 million to retain seven executives, including $6.375 million to chief executive Scott O’Neil. The ABC says it is unclear whether those payments can be voided.
Who is left holding the gap
The players have mostly gone already. Sky lists Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Louis Oosthuizen and Lee Westwood as not continuing. Only Brendan Steele and Cameron Tringale had publicly backed LIV 2.0. Rahm gave up claims against LIV worth about US$100 million to leave his contract, the ABC reports.
The way back is narrow. The PGA Tour applies a one-year suspension counted from a player’s last event, which for LIV was in August, according to Sky. The DP World Tour said in September that anyone signing for LIV 2.0 would be refused membership, and eligible players have until a mid-November deadline to take it up. Bryson DeChambeau has one year left on his option for DP World Tour membership. Cameron Smith and Dustin Johnson do not have that option, Sky says.
Brooks Koepka left his deal before 2026 and can return to the PGA Tour with financial penalties. Sky also reports that Patrick Reed is returning through his DP World Tour results.
The wider cost
LIV staged four events in Adelaide, and its planned fifth Australian event at Kooyonga in March will not go ahead, the ABC says. The league’s last event was in Indianapolis in August, won by Michael La Sasso. Neither source gives a headcount for staff affected or a figure for what players are owed.
The liquidation is the next test. What creditors recover depends on the liquidation, and neither source sets out the claims against the estate.
