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Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is pulling the plug on its LIV Golf funding.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that, after weeks of speculation, LIV Golf will be telling its players by Thursday that the Saudis will no longer be funding the league founded by Greg Norman after this season.
LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil all but confirmed earlier reports this month.
“The reality is you’re funded through the season, and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going. But that’s not different from any other private equity-funded business in the history of man,” O’Neil said ahead of the golf tour’s event in Mexico City.
O’Neil reportedly sent an email to his staff amid the initial reports that the season would go “exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle,” but plans apparently changed. And LIV announced its June tournament in New Orleans was postponed with a date to be determined.
O’Neil said the prospect of a new business plan “excited” him.
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“I talked about some structural changes — they’re coming. You can ask just about the 50 people I met at Augusta, I rolled out the plan. We have one. It might surprise some people,” he said.
“This notion of, ‘Do you have to raise money?’ Probably. This is business. But if we keep the trajectory going the way we are and the revenue growth going, this is going to be a really good business for a really long time.”
LIV began in 2022 and has produced two major winners in Brooks Koepka, who has since rejoined the PGA Tour, at the 2023 PGA Championship, and Bryson DeChambeau at the 2024 U.S. Open.
LIV Golf shifted from its 54-hole format, a draw for golfers defecting from the PGA Tour, to 72 beginning this season. Patrick Reed is also set to rejoin the PGA Tour.
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It is speculated that DeChambeau’s and Jon Rahm’s contracts both end after this season, leaving their golf futures up in the air.
LIV Golf did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
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