LIV Golf Files Chapter 11 as Saudis Exit
LIV Golf Files Chapter 11 as Saudis Exit
The News
LIV Golf, the Saudi-funded breakaway league, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, Sept. 8, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey after Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund pulled its money.
The league lists assets of $100 million to $500 million and liabilities of $500 million to $1 billion, according to court documents obtained by USA TODAY.
Its biggest creditors are its own golfers. Jon Rahm is owed $7.47 million, Bryson DeChambeau $5.76 million, Dustin Johnson $5.48 million and Cameron Smith $4.85 million, per the filing reported by NBC News.
LIV says the filing is a restructuring, not a shutdown, and that it plans to relaunch in early 2027 as a player-majority-owned tour with private equity firm BC Partners as its new lead investor.
The Numbers
The PIF has agreed to provide $49.6 million in debtor-in-possession financing to keep the league running through the case, subject to court approval. The PIF has reportedly spent more than $5 billion founding and operating LIV. The 2027 season is planned at 10 events, down from 14 this year.
Timeline
The PGA Tour and LIV Golf announce a surprise merger to end their court fights. It draws investigations by U.S. senators and the Justice Department, and never becomes final.
Major champions Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed leave LIV, after the PGA Tour offered a small number of LIV players a pathway back. Koepka is listed in the bankruptcy filing as a creditor with a $1.7 million claim.
Speculation about LIV's future takes off, fueled by unconfirmed reports of an "emergency summit" of top LIV executives in New York City. The PIF later announces it is rethinking its investment strategy, shifting "from a period of rapid growth and acceleration to a new phase of sustained value creation."
With PIF funding pulled, LIV cancels its season-ending championship in Michigan. CEO Scott O'Neil says the tour has an agreement with a new lead investor but does not name it.
LIV files its Chapter 11 petition in New Jersey and names BC Partners. The PIF's $49.6 million loan is disclosed as part of the filing.
Reactions
O'Neil, in a statement with the filing: "This process gives us the structure and time to pursue a landmark transaction and begin the next chapter of LIV Golf — one built around the fans, an innovative, player-first ownership model, and a part of the global golf ecosystem." He added: "We will not rest until we deliver on LIV Golf's full potential."
Rahm, speaking to the BBC on Sept. 8 ahead of the Irish Open, said he is not walking away: "I still have a contract with LIV 1.0 that I'm more than willing to fulfill." On where he plays next season, he said: "There's just a lot of things in place. There's a lot of things that could happen. It's one of those things with time, time's going to tell."
The BBC reported that the bankruptcy filing means all of LIV's players are free to leave.
The league drew political fire from the start as "sportswashing." At a 2023 Senate hearing on the PGA-LIV partnership, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said it was "about how a brutal, repressive regime can buy influence, indeed even take over a cherished American institution to cleanse its public image." Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Fox News that same year: "If sportswashing is going to increase my GDP by 1%, then we will continue doing sportswashing."
What's Next
A U.S. bankruptcy court judge will decide whether to approve the PIF's $49.6 million loan — and, in effect, whether Rahm becomes a free agent. USA TODAY reported that Rahm's potential free agency will now be determined by the judge.
BC Partners and other minority investors are to provide exit financing once LIV emerges from bankruptcy, with a slimmed-down 10-event 2027 season planned.
The Financial Times reported last week that LIV offered players settlements on their contracts before filing. Rahm and DeChambeau could each be owed millions if they don't sign new deals with the restructured tour.
More
LIV launched five years ago with PIF backing and the stated ambition of supplanting the PGA Tour as golf's pre-eminent circuit. It signed Koepka, DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Johnson and others to lucrative contracts, but its 54-hole, team-branded format never caught on with fans.
When the PGA Tour suspended players who resigned their memberships to join LIV, then-CEO Greg Norman wrote to the PGA Tour commissioner accusing it of trying to "intimidate players by bullying and threatening them."
DeChambeau's LIV contract expired after this season, and he has been closely involved in designing the league's next version, reportedly leading players-only meetings in recent months.
Poll
Will LIV Golf actually tee off again in 2027?
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