LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil on Wednesday announced that the fledgling tour, with its Saudi financial backing having been pulled earlier this year, has found new investors that will keep it alive beyond the 2026 season.
O’Neil’s announcement, which took place at Trump National Bedminster, where LIV Golf is conducting a tournament this week, confirmed a July 29 report by The Post that stated the tour was on the cusp of landing new investors to keep it alive.
“LIV Golf has an agreement in place with a lead investor, signed by the investor and approved by the Board, to anchor the transaction and play a key role in supporting the path forward for the League’s next era, driven by and for the players,’’ O’Neil said Wednesday. “We’re also seeing strong interest from more than a dozen additional parties to potentially serve as minority investors, creating a multi-partner model built for long-term stability and growth.
“Notably, our next chapter will make our players the majority equity holders in LIV Golf, a first for a major global sports league, and gives the League the foundation to keep growing the game worldwide,’’ he went on. “We anticipate finalizing terms in the coming weeks, with the goal of entering a transaction in September. In the meantime, our focus is on delivering a great week for fans and players at Bedminster and finishing the 2026 season strong.’’
The announcement came a day after O’Neil conducted a Tuesday afternoon meeting with LIV players, which was followed by a players-only meeting led by Bryson DeChambeau.
As DeChambeau and other players exited the Tuesday meeting, they declined comment to reporters, seemingly in deference to allowing O’Neil to make his announcement on Wednesday morning.
Despite the encouraging news of new investors, though, a litany of questions still persist with LIV Golf, which has two more events scheduled before the end of the 2026 season after this week — Aug. 20-23 in Indianapolis and the season-finale team championship after that in Michigan.
Numerous reports, however, say the Michigan event, scheduled for Aug. 27-30, will not take place, though neither O’Neil nor anyone associated with LIV has confirmed that.
Reports from the golf course in Michigan, The Cardinal at Saint John Resort outside of Detroit, say that no build-out, which includes grandstands and other infrastructure, for the event has begun, which is highly unusual for an event of that size.
“I don’t know … we’ve just got to wait and see on that,” Richard Bland, one of the few LIV players who commented on Tuesday, said when asked about the status of the team championship in Michigan.
Bland said DeChambeau, during the players’ meeting, “just ran through what he knows, and obviously, we’re trying to do it as a group, but we’re individuals as well, so I think the next two to three weeks is going to be where it’s at.
“We’re in this together. We’re fully backing Scott. I think probably in the next two to three weeks we’ll have a bigger picture. We’re just in that kind of stage at the minute that we’re positive with what’s going on, but we just need everything to be fully signed off so you can go forward.”
O’Neil and LIV have reportedly been seeking a financial commitment of between $250 and $300 million from investors.
Questions arise from those numbers, though, and what that $300 million will actually pay for. The purse for this week’s event, for example, is $30 million. The purse for the Michigan event is $40 million.
There have been reports that some players with more years remaining on their contracts, like Jon Rahm, is owed some $150 million of the $300 million contract he originally signed.
Other reports have LIV Golf filing for bankruptcy before relaunching itself as “LIV Golf 2.0’’ with new investors.
Under the proposed structure outlined in the term sheet that new investors would sign, there will be 10 events in 2027 and the players will own majority equity stake in the League. LIV Golf 2.0 is centered on player ownership, equity participation, and long-term value creation.
The question there, however, is what good that equity will be for the players if the tour is not making any money?
The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) spent a reported $6 billion since the inception of LIV Golf in 2022 with no return on its investment.
