Sports

LIV Golf lines up $300m lifeline to play on in 2027

Calum BrodiePublished 28m ago3 min readBased on 3 sources
LIV Golf lines up $300m lifeline to play on in 2027
Photo by Western Shadow / CC BY-SA 4.0

LIV Golf has lined up to $300 million in fresh funding to keep playing in 2027 while it works through bankruptcy in the United States.

Court papers filed on Monday, 5 October confirmed the money from BC Partners Credit. The deal is still subject to bankruptcy court approval and other standard conditions, The Olympian reported.

The cash would support a revamped league, often called LIV 2.0, in which players would become equity owners of the league and its teams. That plan was laid out by BC Partners Credit, BBC Sport reported.

LIV Golf sought Chapter 11 protection in the US last month after Saudi Arabia withdrew funding. Chapter 11 is a US legal process that lets a business keep trading while it reorganises its debts under court supervision.

LIV Golf New Jersey LLC and several affiliates filed on 8 September, backed by a restructuring support agreement with BC Partners, according to Octus. The league hopes to complete that court-supervised restructuring in early 2027.

The numbers explain why the rescue matters. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has spent more than $5bn on LIV Golf since its launch in 2021. It is now providing $49.6m in debtor-in-possession financing, which is short-term money to keep the business running during the bankruptcy case.

Players sit near the front of the queue of creditors. Fourteen current and former LIV players among the 30 largest unsecured creditors are owed just over $45m in total. Unsecured here means they have no asset pledged against the debt.

Jon Rahm tops that list with a $7.5m claim. Participants are owed at least $45m overall and have the option to leave the league.

There is no obligation for players to sign on to the new version, even if they hold multi-year contracts with the old LIV Golf. The financing agreement extends talks with players until 25 October, giving both sides three weeks to decide who stays.

Scott O'Neil is chief executive of LIV Golf. Ted Goldthorpe is partner and head of BC Partners Credit, the arm providing the proposed $300m.

For fans, this means uncertainty through the winter. A three-shot lead is fragile. A tour with no confirmed roster is more fragile still. The October deadline for player talks will shape what, if anything, tees off in 2027.

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