LIV Golf secures new investor but slashes schedule and cancels £30m team finale
LIV Golf has a signed agreement with a new lead investor and expects the deal to close in September, giving the breakaway league a financial lifeline after Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund pulled its backing. The PIF had poured more than $5bn (£3.71bn) into LIV since the league launched in 2022. Without it, the future looked grim enough that senior figures in European golf told BBC Sport in April they believed LIV would not survive past 2026.
The picture looks different now, at least on paper. LIV CEO Scott O'Neil said the new investment agreement has been approved by the board and covers "2027 and beyond" (BBC Sport). The identity of the lead investor has not been disclosed.
O'Neil also announced a structural change that no major sports league has tried before: LIV's players will become "majority equity holders" in the competition itself. Whether that translates into meaningful ownership or functions as a retention tool for a roster that has already lost marquee names is a question the fine print will have to answer.
The schedule is shrinking. LIV will run 10 events next season — five in the United States, five around the world — a significant reduction from the 14-tournament format of recent years. The league postponed its June New Orleans event in April and has not rescheduled it.
More immediately, players were told this week that the season-ending Team Championship, worth £30m, has been cancelled (Telegraph). The team finale — LIV's answer to a playoff, where the four-man franchises compete for a pooled prize pot — had already been pulled from the schedule amid the uncertainty over Saudi withdrawal. Reuters reported on 28 July that the event in Michigan was facing cancellation, and LIV captain Martin Kaymer had given it a 5% chance of going ahead a week earlier.
For context, LIV was founded in 2021 and launched in 2022 with 54-hole events (the name comes from the Roman numeral for 54). For the 2026 season it switched to the traditional 72-hole, four-round format used by the PGA and DP World tours — a move Jon Rahm called "a win for the League, and the players." The first 72-hole regular-season tournament was held in Riyadh.
The roster is shifting, too. Brooks Koepka, one of LIV's most prominent signings and a five-time major champion, departed after the 2025 season. Talor Gooch took over as captain of Koepka's former team, Smash GC. Majesticks GC signed English golfer Laurie Canter to a full-time deal.
The competing signals are hard to ignore. A new investor and player equity point forward. A halved schedule, a cancelled £30m finale, and the loss of the PIF's billions point the other way. LIV's 2026 season is still underway — the New York event at Trump National Bedminster runs 6-9 August — but the shape of 2027 and beyond remains an open question, even with a signed deal on the table.
What this means for golf's wider landscape depends on whether the new investor brings staying power or simply extends the runway. The PGA Tour and Saudi PIF have their own unresolved framework agreement, and LIV's survival or collapse will reshape that negotiation either way. For now, the league lives on — leaner, restructured, and waiting for September.
