LIV Golf shutting down after debtors bail and players head for exits

LIV Golf is in the water hazard — forever. The bankrupt Saudi Arabia-backed venture, which shook up the professional golf world after launching in 2022, said Thursday that it is shutting down.

An attorney for LIV said in a New Jersey bankruptcy court that the fledgling golf league's debtors have decided against a proposed reorganization and will instead wind down the business. 

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which had bankrolled LIV, announced earlier this year that it would yank funding for the league after the 2026 season, ending its investment after sinking more than $5 billion into LIV since its launch, CBS Sports reported.

The league, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept. 8, 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. Brooks Koepka, another major golf name that had signed with LIV, opted to return to the PGA Tour. 

"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."

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.

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.