LIV Golf is set to be wound down after its main investor withdrew support because the proposed new league has failed to attract enough players.
As was first reported in the Financial Times, LIV had hoped BC Partners Credit would provide a possible $300m in financing after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund withdrew its backing in April, leading to the league filing for bankruptcy protection in September.
The funding could have helped the league move forward in a new form, dubbed ‘LIV 2.0’, but BC Partners is understood to have decided it is not viable to pursue a deal.
While leading players such as Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia had already walked away, that those working on LIV 2.0 had received commitments from co-investors, felt support from within the golf ecosystem and had about 30 players signed up, including major winners.
But leading sources say the timelines ultimately proved insurmountable and they could not get the agreements they needed to move forward.
The refusal of leading players like Jon Rahm to sign up for the new league gave investors little confidence that they could move forward with the LIV Golf 2.0 project (photo by LIV Golf)
The league had been facing a deadline of October 30 to show it had enough player support to continue in 2027, but the defections of the likes of Rahm, Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton, Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell and a host of other recognisable names in proved too much for the league’s investors to stand.
The DP World Tour also added pressure on LIV Golf players considering re-signing to the new league in that should they do so they would be banned from playing in any of its tournaments. The DP World Tour had previously allowed LIV golfers to appear in their events in certain instances, a policy which it has now chosen to halt.
Winding up order
LIV told the federal bankruptcy court in September that it would wind down the business if BC Partners could not put together a bona fide league within a few weeks. PIF, which owns 99 per cent of LIV, controlled the bankruptcy process by extending $550m of loans that had the highest priority for repayment.
The expectation now is that an attorney acting for LIV will announce in a court hearing on Thursday that the proposal for LIV 2.0 is not viable.
The winding up order will leave many players and many suppliers and contractors hundreds of millions of dollars out of pocket, with very little chance of them being recompensed from the debt-laden operation. LIV Golf and the Saudi PIF are understood to be seeking legal releases from potential liability claims they could pursue.
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