Saudi’s Public Investment Fund, which has lured some of the game’s biggest stars since 2022 with huge signing fees and bankrolled their $30million prize funds, will stop subsidising the breakaway league at the end of the season.
In a scramble to find alternate investment, LIV has now announced a “strategic evolution” which includes a newly appointed board led by advisors Gene Davis and Jon Zinman – both said to have “proven track records of navigating complex situations”. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor who founded the league alongside former CEO and firebrand Greg Norman five years ago, is set to exit the board.
Several senior LIV executives have told TG they are optimistic about survival, insisting they have been offered a “clean slate” to sell the league’s 13 teams to brands and investors in a “brave new world”. But there has also been acknowledgement from some insiders that the league now finds itself in a perilous position after losing investment which this year surpassed $5 billion.
There are concerns that partners who have attached themselves to LIV, perhaps to get closer to the PIF portfolio, could consider their options given the uncertainty, while stakes in teams will need to be sold almost immediately to preserve the league’s future beyond 2026.
In the meantime, there is fervent speculation how LIV will need to drastically adapt its product. It’s understood a meeting will be held with all LIV players and general managers next week in Washington ahead of the seventh event of the season at Trump National, where the new strategy will be relayed.
Yet the doubt over PIF’s financial withdrawal is palpable among several LIV players, who have already begun reaching out to the DP World Tour to explore their options and the tournaments they would be eligible for as they consider potential fallbacks. TG has reported that one LIV player has asked about the viability of competing on the HotelPlanner Tour, the second tier of European golf, next season.
Meanwhile, some players who were scheduled to play in the postponed LIV event in New Orleans in June will instead head to Europe for the Italian Open. TG asked DP World Tour chief executive Guy Kinnings about the situation here in Antalya on Tuesday.
“We will wait and see how things evolve, but we’re obviously listening and we’re listening to players and agents and others who have questions about what the future may hold and we’ll handle it as we go forward,” said Kinnings. “But for sure, I think there’s opportunity for us to continue to grow the strength of the tour, which is my only job really.”
That’s a sentiment shared by Pablo Larrazabal, the DP World Tour veteran who played his one and only LIV tournament in the league’s inaugural event at Centurion four years ago. The Spaniard, however, believes Wentworth HQ should capitalize on the uncertainty by welcoming as many LIV names back to events as possible.
“This tour with seven or 10 [LIV players] week in, week out around here, we will have more sponsors,” said Larrazabal. “We will have better venues and better golf tournaments. It’s time to let them in. How great would this tournament be with Bryson DeChambeau or Jon Rahm? It will be massive. Instead of playing for $2.5m or $2.7m, we will be playing for $4m or $5m. They need us, we need them.
“We have to welcome Sergio Garcia. Lee Westwood, [former] number one in the world. We have to welcome Martin Kaymer. We have to welcome the guys that made the tour like it is now.
“They did what they wanted to do. Who is a tour to tell us what to do? We have to do as much as we can do for our people back home, for our families. They went to play another tour, but those guys made the Ryder Cup as it is now. Unfortunately or fortunately – whatever you want to call it – they’re not going to be involved in the Ryder Cup.”
The DP World Tour has repeatedly stated that LIV players who resigned their memberships can apply to recover their cards, provided they settle their outstanding sanctions for competing in LIV events without tournament releases. Rahm, meanwhile, technically remains a member, but after withdrawing his appeal into his outstanding sanctions, he would need to pay up his fines before playing in another event. As it stands, Rahm is currently ineligible for next September’s Ryder Cup.
“I didn’t talk to any of the big boys [at LIV],” added Larrazabal. “I talked to some young guns that are there, but we have to welcome all of them in. They already paid the fines. They are welcome here and hopefully they will be coming very soon.”
The potential influx of LIV players with reduced schedules would leave some rank and file players disgruntled if they lose playing opportunities in the future. Larrazabal, though, doesn’t have an ounce of sympathy for those concerned.
“People are very selfish,” he said. “If you finish fifth this week – bring the LIV players, you’re probably going to finish 15th. So they’re going to take around 30, 40 grand from your pocket. But to win golf tournaments, you have to be the best. And to make money, you have to be the best. I want to beat Sergio Garcia. I want to beat Jon Rahm down the stretch on Sunday afternoon. And the kids, they want to be rich. They want to get richer, not beating anyone. And that’s very selfish.
“Rory McIlroy said in the past that you want to get in the strong tournaments, the money tournaments, ‘play better.’ If you’re playing like I am nowadays, you’re going to be playing smaller tours. You want to be the best. [Some of the] best are on LIV and we have to welcome them back.”
Joost Luiten, another veteran and multiple tour winner, is not as forgiving as Larrazabal.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
“They were very quick to leave and they were very happy to take the money. Not everyone, but a lot of them spoke bad about this tour,” the Dutchman told TG on a phone call.
“They should make it hard to come back. I’m not saying it should be impossible, but I think it should be hard. I think the fines should stay in place.
“When you leave you have to sit on the blisters – it’s a Dutch saying. It means they made their decision and now they should deal with the consequences. They were happy to take the money and nothing was good enough. Now they want to come back and have the best of both worlds. I think that’s not really fair. They made the decision and now they have to live with it.
“We need to make some strict rules on how and when and how they get back on this tour. A lot of them have lost their playing rights over on our tour. They should go back to Q school. That’s the fairest thing you can do. Let them battle it out there. Nobody wants to go to tour school. That’s the most fair thing you can do. I don’t think they should be able to come back and be just behind category 10. No, they made the decision. You lost your status on this tour and deal with it.
“This will be a great opportunity to really get involved with the players’ community and ask their opinion about how and what they should do instead of just doing what they want. I know it’s not easy because obviously this is a chance as well for our tour because big names are looking for a place to play.
“But I don’t think we should bend over just to get one or two big names. It’s taking away position from some other young kids that are trying hard to get on this tour. It makes it very complicated. That’s why I think all the parties of the tour and the players’ community should come together and try and come up with a plan that everybody stands behind.”
Eugenio Chacarra is an example of a former LIV player who quickly found a pathway back to the traditional environs after leaving the league in 2024. He took advantage of invites on the DP World Tour to gain his card and is now splitting his time with the Korn Ferry Tour in a bid to secure a PGA Tour card.
“I’ve been talking to Patrick Reed when he left, and I said, yeah, ‘this great tour is great’,” Chacarra said. “Good players will be good enough with their good results. All I know is that I’m happy where I’m at. The European tour and the PGA Tour has an amazing product, and that’s where, in my opinion, the best players in the world play. That’s where I want to be.”
TG also asked CEO Kinnings about the potential backlash from some current members to LIV players seeking pathways to their tour.
“What we need to do is to look out for the best interests of our members,” he stressed.
“That’s the only thing we can do – try and make sure we improve the tour in every way. Improve the tournaments, bring in the right commercial partners, make the right strategic decisions. Do anything in their best interests. Nothing will change on that. We will do what is right for them. If there are ways of improving that and making things even better, that’s great. They will benefit from it.
“That’s why I’m here. I’m out listening to the guys. I do it every week. To be honest, most seem to be very supportive of how things are going. They seem to be pretty pleased with what’s going on.
“I know what it’s like listening to the players. I’ve done it for 35 years. We’ve got to just make sure we do the best thing for them.
“It’s an interesting situation right now.”
