POTOMAC FALLS, Va. — Less than two weeks since its Saudi backers yanked the funds that propped up the renegade LIV Golf tour since its inception, the circuit’s CEO expressed almost unbridled optimism about the future of a league that does not know the source of its income beyond this year.
Speaking Tuesday, two days before LIV’s first U.S.-based event of the season — LIV Virginia, staged at Trump National Golf Club outside Washington — Scott O’Neil doubled or even tripled down on LIV’s team format, the viability of the league as a business and the idea that individual franchises will have value to potential investors.
“There was a lot of angst, a lot of discord and a lot of frustration,” O’Neil said during a 45-minute session in which he initially fielded a series of questions from a LIV executive but then faced reporters. “And a lot of that has been washed away.”
Yet with the evaporation of what once seemed like a bottomless pit of money from the Saudis’ sovereign Public Investment Fund, O’Neil and his team have not finalized a business plan that could sustain LIV into the future. Players have already witnessed the postponement of one event, even after being told PIF would support the league well beyond this season. PIF funding, it turns out, will end after 2026.
“I would say, like everybody, surprised, obviously unexpected,” said Jon Rahm, a two-time major winner who serves as captain of LIV’s Legion XIII team. “We did hear the news that there would be funding through for many years. So, unexpected.
“Then, as the future of the league goes, I think that’s obviously a question for the business people. We want to be here. It’s been a lot of fun. I want to keep competing. I want to keep sharing some time with them. But only time will tell. Scott and his team have a lot of hard work to do.”
Rahm also revealed Tuesday that he had reached an agreement with the European-based DP World Tour that will allow him to play in those events going forward. The tour issued a statement saying the agreement “involves payment of all outstanding fines” and allows Rahm a path to compete more frequently, as well as in the 2027 Ryder Cup. “There was some concessions on both sides,” Rahm said. “I offered some; they extended an olive branch. … That will not be a stress anymore.”
Amid the uncertainty for players, what seems clear is that the days of signing stars to contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars and having them compete for purses of $30 million per tournament could well be winding down. O’Neil said part of his charge is to “right-size” the business, though he would not say whether purses will shrink in 2027 and beyond. Asked whether PIF would pay out existing player contracts, he said, “I don’t even know how to think about answering.”
It’s possible that any new investors would be on the hook for the expensive contracts of Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and others. It’s also possible that any new investors wouldn’t be able to provide as lucrative a stake as PIF did when LIV formed in 2022.
“I do believe that for the business plan to change — whatever they’re coming up with — there will need to be concessions on our part,” Rahm said.
Rahm and teammate Tyrrell Hatton, who are both signed with LIV beyond this season, said they are concentrating on playing well this week and in next week’s PGA Championship, the second major of the season. Their tour, though, must focus on much larger, existential issues. O’Neil said once his business plan is finalized, he will take the league to market. He will then focus on monetizing LIV’s 13 individual teams — even though the concept, at least in the U.S., hasn’t grasped the public’s imagination.
“If you ask me where the value of this business is, it’s in the teams,” O’Neil said. “So if you’re looking for direction, we believe that teams will have extraordinary value and we believe once we set the business in the right direction, with the right trajectory, with the revenue base and cost base — which we’re well on our way to doing that — these teams will have extraordinary value.”
DeChambeau is arguably LIV’s biggest star. He also does not have a contract with LIV beyond this year. Unless that changes, O’Neil would be trying to sell a league — and, potentially, DeChambeau’s Crushers franchise — without knowing what he’s selling.
He shrugged it off. Optimism ruled the day.
“I understand uncertainty is difficult for some people,” O’Neil said. “And I understand that not knowing what tomorrow brings can be a challenge. This is 100 percent what I love to do.”
