11/05/2026 01:52:00
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11/05 13:50 CST LIV and let die: Rival league tells bankruptcy court it will
wind down operations
LIV and let die: Rival league tells bankruptcy court it will wind down
operations
By DOUG FERGUSON and STEPHEN WHYNO
AP Sports Writers
LIV Golf is shuttering after five years that fractured the sport's landscape
with promise of Saudi riches, announcing Thursday in bankruptcy court it plans
to wind down operations instead of launching a new version because it didn't
have enough support.
"The debtors are not currently proceeding with the LIV 2.0 plan," attorney
Matthew Williams of Gibson Dunn said in a hearing in New Jersey. "Instead, the
debtors are toggling to a value-maximizing wind-down in their business."
LIV Golf, which launched in June 2022 by offering nine-figure signing bonuses
to lure top names away from the PGA Tour, lost Saudi Arabia funding in April
after spending more than $5 billion.
It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept. 8 and thought it had a lifeline in
BC Partners Credit, which pledged a $300 million investment to pivot to a more
financially sustainable "LIV 2.0." But players like Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia,
Tyrrell Hatton and Louis Oosthuizen, weren't interested.
"BC Partners Credit supported a transaction that aligned the interests of
players and investors, offering a credible path toward building a sustainable
future for LIV Golf," BC Partners said in a statement. "While there was great
support for the league, we are disappointed that mutually acceptable terms
could not be reached among the various stakeholders."
Instead of planning for a new version for 2027, LIV enters a liquidation phase.
Rahm already agreed to forfeit all claims against LIV --- said to be worth some
$100 million --- to get out of his contract. He is back to playing the European
tour, with hopes there will be a path back to the PGA Tour. The tour currently
has a one-year ban dating to players' last LIV appearance.
LIV Golf paid $15.6 million to retain seven of its executives, including $6.375
million to CEO Scott O'Neil, in the months between the Public Investment Fund
of Saudi Arabia and LIV filing for bankruptcy. Those payments are not unusual
for a company trying to emerge from bankruptcy. The question now is whether
those payments can be voided since LIV isn't going forward.
"Building a global platform designed to bring new, younger, and more diverse
fans to the sport of golf has been the round of a lifetime for all of us," said
Scott O'Neil, the CEO of LIV who took over from Greg Norman at the start of
2025.
"LIV Golf was fun, demanding, inspiring, at times challenging --- but always
rewarding."
LIV suffered a number of setbacks this year, none bigger than losing its source
of its money when PIF changed its investment strategy and said it would no
longer pay for the league at the conclusion of its fifth season.
The Asian Tour, which received financial support from LIV for an International
Series, decided in July to renew an alliance with the PGA Tour and the
commercially known DP World Tour in Europe.
And as the league was trying to pivot to LIV 2.0, European tour CEO Guy
Kinnings last month said anyone signing up for LIV need not apply for
membership on the European tour, which put European players at risk of having
no part in the Ryder Cup.
Kinnings said in an interview with The Scotsman newspaper earlier this week,
"But we also have to protect the tour against an entity who spent, so we are
told, over $7 billion, with one of their aims being to ?destroy the DP World
Tour.'"
LIV was originally run by Norman, who tried unsuccessfully to start a world
tour in 1994 only to have it quashed by Arnold Palmer and the PGA Tour. Norman
had Saudi money at his disposal, and promoted LIV as "Golf, but louder" with
its blaring music, 54-hole shotgun starts and $25 million in prize funds ---
individual and team --- at each event.
But it had no broadcast deal the first year, meaning it had to cover production
costs. It got the CW Network in 2023, and eventually got Fox Sports to sign on
in 2025.
Key to a new version of LIV was a "critical mass" of players to stick around,
and BC Partners extended the Oct. 25 deadline. This was more about names than
numbers, ultimately, and it couldn't reach agreement with enough players.
"Ultimately, despite everyone's best efforts, we just couldn't get to the level
of combined financial and player support necessary for a viable LIV 2.0 within
the required timeline," Williams said.
In the end, LIV held 62 tournaments on every continent golf is played except
for South America. It had a feel-good moment in Australia this year when
Anthony Kim returned from a 12-year hiatus of addiction to win again. Bryson
DeChambeau shot a 58. Joaquin Niemann won seven times.
They are part of a short history, and now have to find a way back.
Brooks Koepka was the first to return. The five-time major champion got out of
his LIV deal with one year remaining, and the PGA Tour created a path --- with
financial penalties --- to return. Patrick Reed chose not to extend his deal in
January and now is poised to return to the PGA Tour next year through his
performance in Europe.
Rahm had said on Tuesday he would be willing to pay the same price as Koepka,
though it was unlikely that same deal would be offered.
___
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