LIV Golf formally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday, and the filing has provided long-awaited clarity on months of uncertainty surrounding the league's future.
The development comes less than three weeks after LIV Golf Indianapolis served as the circuit's unexpectedly early-season finale. Originally, LIV's 2026 campaign was scheduled to conclude with its Team Championship in Michigan, but that event was canceled amid a series of cost-cutting measures that signaled mounting financial pressures.
Those concerns culminated Tuesday when LIV announced it had entered into a restructuring agreement with BC Partners Credit and voluntarily commenced Chapter 11 proceedings as part of a plan to recapitalize the business and emerge in early
2027 under a new player-first ownership model.
The bankruptcy filing formalizes a difficult year for the Saudi-backed league. In addition to scrapping the Michigan finale, LIV recently informed a significant number of employees that their positions were being eliminated as part of a broader effort to scale back operations. The league's financial challenges accelerated after the Public Investment Fund announced this year that it would discontinue funding following the 2026 season.
Under the proposed restructuring, LIV plans to make players majority owners of the reorganized company, while BC Partners Credit and other investors are expected to provide exit financing once a reorganization plan receives court approval. The league also secured a proposed $49.6 million debtor-in-possession financing package from PIF to continue operations during the bankruptcy process.
But to whom does LIV Golf owe money?
While some player figures had been thrown around in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the list attached to the bankruptcy filing has, to nobody's surprise, stars Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau at the top.
According to the filing, even Brooks Koepka, who left for the PGA Tour in 2026, is still owed nearly $1.7 million.
As part of a bankruptcy filing, a list of consolidated creditors holding the 30 largest unsecured claims must be filed in a Chapter 11 case; this includes claims which the debtor may dispute. This does not include claims by any person or entity who is an insider. According to the U.S. Bankruptcy Code's 11 U.S.C. § 101(31), an insider is an individual or entity that has a close relationship with a debtor. This relationship gives them a degree of control or influence over the debtor's business or personal affairs. Because of this access, the law treats them differently from ordinary or independent creditors.
A proposed LIV 2.0 model would represent a dramatic departure from the free-spending approach that defined the league's first four seasons.
Rather than staging a globe-trotting schedule with massive guaranteed contracts and eye-popping purses, the revamped circuit is expected to feature just 10 events, roughly half of them outside the United States, with prize funds scaled back substantially from the record-setting payouts that lured many of golf's biggest stars.
Tim Schmitt is the managing editor of Golfweek.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: To whom does LIV Golf owe money? Here are top 30 unsecured creditors
