Saudi Arabia to end LIV Golf funding, while league appoints new chairman

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has confirmed backing to the breakaway LIV Golf league would beryllium chopped aft the 2026 season.

LIV Golf announced connected Thursday a caller committee and a caller concern strategy arsenic it tries to forge up without Saudi funding, which allowed the league to motorboat astir 4 years agone with oversized contracts and prize funds.

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Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the politician of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealthiness fund, who was down the instauration of LIV Golf, is nary longer listed arsenic its chair.

LIV announced that Gene Davis of the Pirinate Consulting Group and Jon Zinman of the strategical advisory steadfast JZ Advisors are starring a recently created committee with Davis arsenic chair. The absorption is connected securing semipermanent fiscal partners erstwhile Saudi backing ends aft this season.

The Saudi concern money said successful a statement: “PIF has made the determination to money LIV Golf lone for the remainder of the 2026 season.

“The important concern required by LIV Golf implicit a longer word is nary longer accordant with the existent signifier of PIF’s concern strategy. This determination has been made successful airy of PIF’s concern priorities and existent macro dynamics.

“The LIV Golf Board has created a committee of autarkic directors to measure strategical alternatives for its aboriginal beyond PIF’s backing horizon. LIV Golf has substantially grown the crippled globally done its transformational and affirmative impact. It has everlastingly changed the crippled of play for the better.

“PIF remains committed to deploying superior internationally successful enactment with its concern strategy, including its important existent and aboriginal investments successful assorted sports arsenic a precedence sector.”

LIV, meanwhile, said it is seeking to determination towards an concern exemplary involving aggregate partners and squad franchises. The league has said it expects 10 of its 13 teams to beryllium profitable this year.

“The enforcement enactment team, on with Jon and I, spot a wide accidental to assistance the league formalize its structure, pull and unafraid semipermanent capital, and presumption the concern for maturation portion continuing to beforehand the crippled crossed the world,” Davis said successful a statement. “We look guardant to positioning LIV Golf for aboriginal success.”

Scott O’Neil, the CEO astatine LIV Golf, had told Britain-based TNT 2 weeks agone during a tourney successful Mexico: “The world is that you’re funded done the season, and past you enactment similar brainsick arsenic a concern to make a concern and a concern program to support america going.”

That raised questions astir whether LIV Golf volition beryllium capable to support immoderate of its apical players erstwhile their lucrative contracts expire. With fiscal musculus from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealthiness fund, LIV was capable to walk $1bn to onshore the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Cameron Smith and yet Jon Rahm, the past large signing astatine the extremity of 2023.

The newsletter Money successful Sport reported earlier this twelvemonth that LIV Golf had already spent $5.3bn since the league launched successful 2022, a fig that would beryllium $6bn by the extremity of this year.

LIV unit and players person been alert that Saudi backing was lone done the 2026 season. Thursday’s announcement was to outline plans to question different sources of backing for a league that presently offers $30m prize funds astatine each tournament.

Al-Rumayyan is passionate astir play and agelong wanted a spot astatine the array with the sport’s leaders. He signed a model statement successful 2023 with the PGA Tour and European Tour and was acceptable to articulation the PGA Tour Enterprises committee if it was approved.

The woody ne'er materialised, but for ending antitrust lawsuits. PGA Tour Enterprises alternatively got a number concern from a consortium of North American sports owners.

Al-Rumayyan was astatine the White House successful February 2025 to conscionable with United States President Donald Trump, on with a PGA Tour squad that included Tiger Woods, Adam Scott and Commissioner Jay Monahan. But it was wide LIV and the PGA Tour could not find communal ground, chiefly due to the fact that the Saudi league wanted to instrumentality with a squad component.

DeChambeau and Rahm, some aggregate large champions, are considered LIV’s apical 2 players.

DeChambeau said successful an interrogation with the Flushing It societal media site, “As agelong arsenic LIV is here, I would fig retired a mode for it to marque sense.”

“There’s a batch of moving parts similar successful immoderate business,” DeChambeau said. “It’s a start-up, right? And truthful there’s going to beryllium times wherever we’re squeezed and punched. This is 1 of those moments. But I’m going to bash everything successful my powerfulness to marque it work, and I truly spot the worth successful franchise golf.”

LIV Golf earlier this week said it was postponing its June 25-28 tourney successful Louisiana to the autumn. The adjacent lawsuit is scheduled for May 7-10 successful bluish Virginia, and O’Neil had said successful a memo to unit 2 weeks agone that the play would beryllium uninterrupted and “full throttle”.

Al-Rumayyan was each astir squad play erstwhile helium and erstwhile CEO Greg Norman launched the league, adjacent though the squad conception was 1 crushed it took much than 3 years for LIV to get recognised by the Official World Golf Ranking.

Koepka near LIV aft past season, and the PGA Tour granted him a way backmost with stipulations that included nary entree to equity grants for 5 years, a $5m foundation donation and nary bonus wealth this year.

The circuit offered it to 3 different LIV players who had won majors since 2022 – Rahm, DeChambeau and Smith – and gave them until February 4 to accept. None did.

In an interrogation earlier this week with The Wall Street Journal, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said: “We’re funny successful having the champion players who tin assistance our tour. Not each subordinate tin bash that.”