The war between the United States and Iran and the resulting financial chaos from it may have claimed yet another victim: LIV Golf.
The Saudi-backed upstart golf league meant to rival the PGA Tour’s monopoly on professional golf is reportedly on the verge of failure, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Journal claims that LIV Golf will inform its players on Thursday that the Saudi Public Investment Firm (PIF) will pull its funding at the conclusion of the 2026 season.
News of the PIF’s decision to cut its funding for LIV Golf comes as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia reevaluates its investments amid shifting economic realities brought on by the war between the United States and Iran.
Saudi PIF has invested more than $5 billion in LIV Golf since 2022.
The move does not come as a complete shock. Two weeks ago, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil let it slip during an interview with TNT Sports UK that the league was only funded for this season.
“The reality is that 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,” O’Neil said in an interview with TNT Sports UK.
“But that’s not different from any other private equity-funded business in the history of mankind.”
TNT Sports UK posted O’Neil’s comments on X and then deleted them.
However, according to the Journal report, this will indeed be the final year of Saudi involvement.
LIV Golf now faces the prospect of having to rapidly acquire investors to offset the loss of Saudi PIF funding. A daunting task, considering that the organization has reported losses averaging $500 million to $600 million each year.
In addition to the financial bleeding, the loss of Saudi funding and the uncertainty over its future prospects will make it all the more difficult to steal players away from the PGA Tour.
Should LIV Golf fold, former PGA Tour players who jumped ship to join the upstart Saudi-backed league could find it difficult to rejoin the Tour.
Former LIV Golf member Brooks Koepka recently returned to the PGA Tour. However, there were conditions that included a $5 million charitable donation, ineligibility for the Player Equity Program for five years, and no FedEx Cup payouts in his first year back.
For a player like Bryson DeChambeau, LIV Golf’s top player alongside Jon Rahm, the price of return could be far steeper, considering DeChambeau not only refused to join Koepka but also was part of a group that filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour.
That lawsuit didn’t go anywhere, but the PGA Tour members and leadership likely won’t forget it.
“There were rules, and they were broken,” PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp told the Journal. “With rules comes accountability.”
Hurt feelings aside, DeChambeau and Rahm are among the best players in the world and will, in all likelihood, be taken back even if painful retribution is employed.
As far as the less popular players who bolted for LIV Golf, the PGA Tour’s door may be closed.
“We’re interested in having the best players who can help our tour,” Rolapp said. “Not every player can do that.”
