'LIV Golf season to continue' amid collapse rumours

LIV Golf chief executive Scott O'Neil has told players the 2026 season will continue "as planned and uninterrupted" amid rumours the tour is on the verge of collapse.

The Financial Times, external is among the publications to report that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) is set to end its support for the breakaway tour, which would jeopardise its future.

However, in an email to LIV staff seen by the BBC, O'Neil said: "I want to be crystal clear: Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle."

He told staff to "lean into this moment" adding: "The noise you hear is simply the sound of a movement that is working. Embrace it. We are pioneers.

"The life of a start-up movement is often defined by these moments of pressure.

"While the road isn't always smooth, the destination is worth every mile. Let's go out and show the world why LIV Golf is the future of the game."

Spaniard Sergio Garcia, captain of the Fireballs team, said before Thursday's opening round of the LIV Mexico event that players were told this year that the tour will run for "many years".

O'Neil's email did not say whether LIV Golf will continue beyond this season, although players were told at the previous event that funding is in place until at least 2032.

A senior source in European golf said they believed LIV would not be viable if PIF withdrew funding and that the tour's leadership may be trying to salvage the series by finding other revenue.

On speculation of PIF withdrawing its support, Garcia said: "That is not what Yasir [Al-Rumayyan, governor of PIF] told us at the beginning of the year.

"[He told us] that he is behind us, that they have a project of many years. There are always rumours."

BBC Sport has approached LIV Golf for comment, but sources with knowledge of investment and operations say LIV Golf and funding will continue as scheduled.

PIF has not responded to an approach for comment.

Last year it was revealed LIV's net losses in its international markets outside the US had spiralled to $462m (£340m) in 2024, meaning it had lost more than $1.1bn (£810m) since it was established in 2021.

PIF's overall investment in LIV was reportedly approaching $5bn (£3.7bn), while broadcast rights were said to have raised just $2.7m (£2m).

O'Neil said in February that it would not be profitable for another five to 10 years.

In January a senior source in Saudi Arabia told BBC Sport that towards the end of last year there was "a shift" in the kingdom's attitude towards some investments, with "everything in the PIF world under serious review".

The source said: "More money has been put into AI and the tech sector.

"There is pressure in Saudi Arabia to make sure that we're inviting in the right things that are sustainable and bring a return, and I don't see how LIV Golf is going to do that.

"It has had new sponsors such as Rolex and HSBC, but that's not enough to get anywhere close to what the players are being paid."

LIV caused a 'civil war' in professional golf in 2022 when they started luring star names away from the PGA Tour with the offer of huge pay increases.

The PGA Tour and DP World Tour announced in 2023 that they had agreed to a merger with PIF, but there is still no sign of the union coming to fruition.

In the meantime, a small number of LIV-affiliated players have been permitted to return to compete in some DP World Tour and PGA Tour events under certain circumstances.

Middle East expert at Rice University, Dr Kristian Ulrichsen, told BBC Sport the new PIF strategy was "refocusing investment onto the domestic economy" and "suggests that PIF is no longer willing to keep pumping resources into projects that offer little prospect of profitability".

He added: "This is not to say that PIF or Saudi Arabia is pulling out of sports investment but that the authorities are having to prioritise the allocation of resources more carefully, and with the World Cup in 2034 and all the costs associated with constructing at least 10 new stadia and other infrastructural projects, it is likely that PIF and the Saudi state will prioritise the World Cup going forward, at the expense of other sports projects, including LIV Golf."

With LIV Golf not yet responding to the BBC's requests for comment and senior golfing officials telling us they are also trying to clarify what the situation is, uncertainty surrounds the circuit's future.

One Saudi source told us that the speculation was likely to be linked to the publication on Thursday of a new four-year strategy for the country's sovereign wealth fund PIF, which bankrolls LIV.

It heralded a "new phase of sustained value creation, with a strengthened focus on maximizing impact [and] raising the efficiency of investments".

There was no mention of LIV Golf - or indeed sport- in a media release announcing the new strategy.

Even before the recent conflict in the Middle East, there had been a sense that PIF was placing a new emphasis on more sustainable investments, and that its plans for LIV were under renewed scrutiny, especially with the 2034 World Cup being seen as a bigger sporting priority.

That uncertainty ramped up after top LIV star Brooks Koepka's return to the PGA Tour early this year.

In February, amid billions of dollars of investment and major financial losses, O'Neil said it could take a further decade for it to return a profit.

Nonetheless, if Saudi Arabia did seriously reduce or even end its commitment to the breakaway series, it would still be a seismic development for the sport.

LIV has driven a wedge through golf for the past five years and, given the scale of the stated ambition and amounts of money already invested, any such development would raise major questions about the rest of the kingdom's vast sporting enterprises.

Sources close to LIV insist that revenues and attendances have grown over the past year, and its commercial partnership income is encouraging.

But it is unclear whether the series could continue - and in what form - if PIF did pull its funding. Some believe that LIV's leadership feels it can find alternative partners or try to seek a merger. But without Saudi's billions there will be major doubts that it can carry on.

LIV's arrival shook men's professional golf to its core by recruiting some of the game's biggest names.

But even with major-winning stars such as Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Koepka, Cameron Smith and Dustin Johnson, the breakaway tour struggled to attract television viewers.

Tournaments in Adelaide and Johannesburg have been successful sell-out events, but the wider ambition to create teams capable of attracting significant outside investment, in the way cricket's Indian Premier League (IPL) does, has not materialised.

Financially, LIV has not come close to offering a return on the kingdom's massive investment.

Meanwhile, many of their players have struggled to remain competitive against those playing on the established tours.

Although Koepka and DeChambeau won majors while competing on LIV, their players have rarely made an impact on the biggest stage. England's Tyrrell Hatton was the only LIV player to contend at last week's Masters.

Koepka's decision to go back to the PGA Tour at the start of this year was a big blow to LIV, as was Patrick Reed's decision to quit.

Koepka took advantage of a hastily arranged returning player programme which was also available to Rahm, DeChambeau and Smith, who all declined. Whether that opportunity is still available remains to be seen.

More likely, LIV golfers who automatically face a one-year ban from the PGA Tour could follow Reed's example and play a season on the DP World Tour to try to win back a card on the US circuit.

If Saudi Arabia decides to shut down the LIV project, it might look to invest in the DP World Tour to maintain some involvement in men's professional golf.