LIV Golfdebuted in London with music blasting, lavish parties and the backing of Saudi Arabia's public wealth fund that has surpassed $1 trillion in assets.
Now, just four years later, the rogue league is about to be silenced, andpossibly go dark all together.
The brainchild of Palm Beach Gardens' Greg Norman, created with help from Phil Mickelson out of spite, and to disrupt the PGA Tour, concluded its abbreviated 2026 season Sunday in Indianapolis.
Now, many are wondering if Sunday was the curtain call to a league built on a questionable business model, or if a diminished LIV 2.0 will emerge.
Few have had as bad a year as Norman's successor, Scott O'Neil:
- The year started with Jupiter's Brooks Koepka, one of the league's marquee signings in 2022, returning to the PGA Tour. And it got worse, much worse, from there.
- The PIF, which owns LIV Golf, announced in April it would cut off funding after this season.
- LIV's event outside of New Orleans scheduled for late June was cancelled.
- The season-ending team championship event in Michigan scheduled for Aug. 27-30 was scrubbed.
- O'Neil was forced to beg for investors. He recently announced an agreement was in placewith a lead investor, along with interest from more than a dozen minority investors.
- Prize money for the final event of the season in Indianapolis was cut in half.
- What once was a respectable roster of PGA Tour defectors is about to become an almost unrecognizable list of young golfers and perhaps some hangers on well past their primes.
LIV Golf is about to lose Jon Rahm, others
Jon Rahm is gone. And LIV's highest paid player will not be alone. He likely will be followed
by stars such as Tyrrell Hatton and North Palm Beach's Joaquin Niemann and many others.
And the PGA Tour is not eager to welcome back anyone with open arms.
Rahm is one of the two remaining LIV golfers to move the needle, along with Bryson DeChambeau. DeChambeau, though, continues to pledge his loyalty to LIV, pleading for investors to keep the league afloat.
And the future of Mickelson, the six-time major champion and one-time face of LIV and chief PGA Tour antagonist among LIV's players, remains uncertain. The 56-year-old has much more to worry about than golfwith his personal life being impacted by scandal.
Rory McIlroy recently was asked if any LIV golfers would bring value to the PGA Tour.
"I would argue, have they brought value to LIV?" the Jupiter resident and No. 2 ranked golfer in the world said. "I think the PGA Tour's in a really good spot."
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler took a different approach.
"I think when we talk about the best players, LIV has a few players that are really good,” Scheffler said. "I think the depth that we have on our Tour is a bit unmatched, but I think when you look at the higher levels of LIV Golf, there’s definitely some players that would provide a lot of value to the Tour, and guys that I love competing against as well."
Yet, O'Neil continues his optimistic outlook. But even as he was suggesting a bright future — “We’re fortunate to have a lead with the kind of vision and confidence and relationships to make this a really fun and exciting future for all of us,” he said about the investment source reported to be BC Partners, a major international investment firm headquartered in London — the lawsuits were piling up.
Front Office Sports reported that Fresh Tape Media, a production company that handled LIV's media days held in West Palm Beach in January, is suing LIV Golf for $1.23 million in missed payments and interest. Additionally, several other contractors and vendors have been unpaid and are talking to lawyers.
Some LIV golfers have not been paid from the event held Aug. 6-9 at Trump National Golf Club Bedminsterin New Jersey, according to the Sports Business Journal.
And Rahm reportedly is owed up to $150 million from the deal he signed when he joined LIV in 2023.
O'Neil was asked before LIV's season-finale at Indianapolis about the reports of unpaid bills.
"What I would say to them is we’re doing everything we can to make sure we can do right by them and the work they committed, and I hope we can," he said.
Not exactly reassuring.
LIV 2.0 may include declaring bankruptcy to survive
With the new investment reported to be between $250 to $350 million, even if LIV survives it will be far different from the league that burned through more than $5 billion of the PIF's money.
And that road to LIV 2.0 could mean declaring bankruptcy.
"I don’t think we would rule out any option," O'Neil said about the possibility. "I mean, the whole focus is on transaction, transaction, transaction. We’re spending all our time thinking about how we best land this plane and have it landed so we can take off again. All our focus is in that direction."
O'Neil is laying out a future with 10 events, five internationally and five in the U.S. LIV should find enough venues out of the country with the league having had success in Australia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.
But LIV has bombed in the U.S., leaving one to wonder who would take on the risk of a league that canceled two of its five scheduled stops in the country this year.
“My confidence level is high because the facts are good," O'Neil said. "So when the facts are good, it usually leads to a good outcome."
O'Neil certainly has a very different meaning of "good" when it comes to facts.
Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Will LIV Golf survive its massive financial crisis? | D'Angelo
