LIV Golf to shut down after five years as $300 million rescue plan collapses

Trenton: LIV Golf is shuttering after five years that fractured the sport's landscape, 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.

LIV suffered two big setbacks, before and after filing for bankruptcy.

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.

Then, European tour CEO Guy Kinnings last month said anyone signing up for LIV 2.0 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.'"

But the biggest setback was in April, two weeks after the Masters and two months after the start of the Iran war. PIF changed its investment strategy and said it would no longer pay for LIV Golf after the 2026 season.

LIV was originally run by Greg 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.

The year began with Brooks Koepka getting 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 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.

LIV 2.0 was pushing player equity and prize money that was more than half the $20 million purses for individuals when it began in 2022. LIV's final event was in August in Indianapolis, won by Michael La Sasso. He failed to get through the second stage of European tour Q-school last week.