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Less than five years after LIV Golf was officially announced, the breakaway circuit that lured several former major championship winners to its lavish purses, global schedule and team-focused format has reached a crossroads.
As expected, The PIF announced on Thursday that it would stop funding LIV Golf League after the 2026 season. It has invested more than $5 billion in the breakaway circuit since its inception in 2022, and that number will exceed $6 billion by the end of the season.
While LIV continues to support future commitments as it reshapes its leadership and searches for new investors, it has prompted another inflection point for professional golf that is perhaps just beginning.
What is the latest and what does it all really mean?
Mark Schlabach: A LIV Golf official told ESPN on Thursday that next week’s tournament at Trump National Golf Club outside Washington, DC, will be played as scheduled. On Tuesday, LIV Golf and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry announced that a The tournament scheduled in New Orleans will not be played. A tournament could be played in Louisiana this fall, but the current state of LIV golf seems unlikely.
Three more international tournaments are scheduled in Korea (May 28-31), Spain (June 4-7) and England (July 23-26), followed by three events at The Club during the season at Trump National in Bedminster, New Jersey (August 6-9), Chatham Hills-A Club in Westfield, Indiana (August 20-20). St. John’s in Plymouth, Michigan (August 28-30).
Paul Object: While LIV is now hoping to secure funding to stay alive beyond the 2026 season, the PGA Tour itself holds most of the cards. The threat of LIV taking more players is gone and now the tour can play the waiting game as the inevitable question becomes: Will LIV players try to get back on the PGA Tour and how?
A source told ESPN on Wednesday Conversations about possible paths back for certain players The tour starts at the headquarters, but the situation is different than they are now Returning Member Program open for Brooks KoepkaIt probably won’t be easy for any player hoping to return to the tour they left.
And while there will be uncertainty about the return path until the Tour decides to announce some sort of path — or perhaps take each player on a case-by-case basis — PGA Tour CEO Brian Rollapp & Co. has no reason to rush into a decision now. With the question of whether LIV will get through this season without any more events being canceled or postponed, as well as whether any players will pull out of events, the tour may sit back and let the players, as they already have, come to them.
Without PIF investment, what does LIV need to do to stay afloat?
Schlabach: After losing financial backing from the PIF, LIV Golf named two investment bankers to its new independent board, Gene Davies and John Zinman, who will try to bring the league’s new vision of a “diversified, multi-stakeholder investment model”.
Given the amount of money LIV Golf has burned through in four-plus years — it’s spending $100 million per month and $40 million per tournament — it won’t be easy. LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neill previously said it would take five to 10 years for the circuit to become profitable.
Even the world’s richest oil nation couldn’t afford to lose that much money.
Even if LIV Golf somehow secures new funding, the league will not continue in its current form. The days of $30 million purses and nine-figure contracts for star golfers are over without the endless PIF money.
A source told ESPN that LIV Golf is open to staging fewer tournaments, only for them to be played in countries outside of the United States, and could even be combined with the DP World Tour in some fashion.
Although that may be sufficient for such older golfers Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter And others, and young players like David Puig, Elvis Smiley, Caleb Surratt And Michael LassoIt does not sign up for LIV Golf’s stars.
Object: Frankly, LIV’s best lifeline may not be the flow of investors’ money, but the kind of partnership that gives them credibility they’ve never had.
Even if they are able to get, let’s say, 25% of the investment they had from PIF, they have to change everything about their operations and adapt to their new budget. That’s the price the league has to pay for how good it is — unlimited money can’t be matched by strategy or business acumen.
And if LIV becomes a watered-down, less money-focused effort, the appeal quickly loses its luster. Why would a young player looking to make a career in the sport choose to play at or below par if LIV’s current setup only includes watered-down Official World Golf Ranking purses and not many events to hone your game?
The idea of partnering with the DP World Tour or even some National Opens, as suggested, would be a boon for LIV. This would be an ideal situation as it would be able to draft the legitimacy of such organizations and events But what are these entities willing to partner with a tour that just lost its financier in such loud and shocking fashion? LIV needs to present a clear incentive and advantage to such teams and the only way to be able to do that is to require its best players to participate in those events if there is anything left after this season.
Of course, some players who don’t choose to return to the DP World Tour or PGA Tour (or don’t have the status to do so) will sign up for any iteration of LIV. But as an entity with hopes of becoming an international tour, LIV, as we know it, cannot continue. It is hard to see how the whole operation is able to find any footing after this fallout.
What will be the reaction from the PGA Tour?
Schlabach: Koepka, a five-time major champion, returned to the PGA Tour on Jan. 12 with a new membership program.
PGA Tour LIV has extended the same offer to golfers who have been away from the PGA Tour for at least two years — and who have won the Players Championship or the four majors (Masters, PGA Championship, US Open and Open Championship) since 2022 — to return to the PGA Tour under certain conditions and with severe financial penalties.
Bryson DeChambeau, John Rahm and Australia Cameron Smith It deserved to be returned under those conditions. None of them decided to return, and the deadline was February 2.
Koepka’s penalty was financially stiff: He agreed to forfeit any player equity shares for the next five years and would not be eligible for the $100 million FedEx Cup bonus program this season. At the request of the PGA Tour, he also agreed to donate $5 million to charity.
In a memo to PGA Tour members at the time, Rolap said Koepka was forfeiting a potential $50 million to $85 million based on his performance and growth on the Tour.
Former Masters champion Patrick Reed He announced on January 28 Plans to return to the PGA Tour this fall. He last competed in an unsanctioned event (LIV Golf Tournament) on August 24. Because Reed resigned his PGA Tour membership before playing in an LIV golf event, he must serve a one-year suspension and be eligible to play in a PGA Tour tournament on Aug. 25.
I guess there are some golfers who don’t want to come back to the PGA Tour. I could see Poulter, Westwood and others returning to the DP World Tour. Louis Oosthuizen Can give up on competitive golf altogether.
The PGA Tour doesn’t want every golfer to come back from LIV Golf — Joaquin Niemann And Terrell Hatton There may be two others — and not every LIV golfer will want to return.
But the punishment for those who want to turn the figure is far greater—perhaps even more than what Koepka endured. “There were rules, and they were broken,” Rolap told The Wall Street Journal this week. “With rules comes accountability.”
DeChambu et al Phil Mickelson The 11 suspended golfers were among those who filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour in August 2022. Yes, DeChambeau is one of the most popular golfers in the world, but not everyone on tour has forgotten that he did some damage on the way out.
DeChambeau’s contract with LIV expires at the end of the season.
“I don’t have scar tissue, but there are a lot of people around our tour who do,” Rolap told the Wall Street Journal. “That has to be accounted for in some shape or form.”
Object: All indications are that the Tour won’t bring back the returning member program proposed by Koepka and Rahm, DeChambeau and Smith, but it will have to answer the question of how (and if) they want to fold players who want to return to their structure.
Of course, a complicating factor is that the structure of the tour itself is also changing rapidly. A The Players Championship, Rolap announced One of the goals of the competition committee is to potentially establish a two-track tour with top players on the main track and players trying to move up on the lower track. It will be a sort of relegation system.
If a Rahm or a DeChambeau find their way back to the PGA Tour, I’d imagine the tour will find a way to get to the top event to increase their overall competitiveness. But for other players who wanted to return, it won’t be immediately. A source indicated that the tour will consider all outstanding factors: prior status and performance, whether or not the player has resigned their membership, as well as their prior involvement in Marc’s aforementioned antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour.
There are questions of value addition. DeChambeau and Rahm are evident in what they bring to the table — both have combined for four majors and have huge followings domestically and internationally. But many of LIV’s potential returnees don’t have the same reputation. As Rollapp told the Wall Street Journal this week, he’s only interested in players who can help the PGA Tour become the best tour it can be.
“Not every player can do that,” Rolap said.
What are the players saying?
Schlabach: Brian HermanThe 2023 Open Championship winner was asked about the LIV situation after his first round 4-under 68 at the Cadillac Championship in Doral, Florida on Thursday.
“There are guys who are going to come back,” Herman said. “I can’t speak to each of them individually. It seems like they’re treating each of them on a case-by-case basis. I think the fans want everyone to play together and let time heal all wounds. There’s still some feeling, especially with all the content of the lawsuits, that it’s going to be hard to get past those things. We think we should play, I think, those main guys. Back.”
Harman wasn’t sure what the penalty for leaving the tour should be.
“I think something should happen,” he said. “I’m not smart enough to tell you what it is. It’s other people’s work. I think there’s got to be something. I think it (includes) some bad blood and some resentment, although I haven’t heard so much in the last few years as to start with lawsuits.”
Jordan Spieth Wasn’t sure if The way back will be the same for allis
“I know the olive branch was given a few months ago,” Spieth said. “Brooks took them. So I’m not sure what’s going to change now. That doesn’t mean LIV won’t still be moving forward. I think I have too many unknowns to have a good gauge of what’s going to happen there.
“But I think, if there’s a system for Brooks and there’s a system for Patrick Reed, does it stay the same for the same category of guys that those two are coming back in or will it change now? Will it change for the guys who sued and left their memberships? A lot of different things have happened in the last four years. I’m glad I don’t believe in that room and I don’t believe in that room. Right decision.”
