If LIV Golf cannot come up with funding to sustain all elements of operation beyond 2026, the obvious question becomes where do the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Talor Gooch tee it up in 2027?
According to multiple reports, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour are “listening” to players who reach out about shifting circuits. The PGA Tour already has welcomed back Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed with tour-mandated stipulations accepted by both players as terms of their return.
Golf Digest reported several LIV player reps have been in contact with PGA Tour officials with their future clouded by the financial impact of the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund divesting in the breakaway league at the end of the season.
LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil said during the Mexico City event there is urgency in restructuring a sustainable model to move forward.
“The reality is you’re funded through the season and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going,” O’Neil said. “But that’s not different from any other private equity-funded business in the history of man.”
If initial efforts stall or fail, the queue out of LIV Golf could form quickly, presuming the prized golfers on the circuit find a suitable landing spot.
Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and DeChambeau were among early defectors away from the PGA Tour to LIV. Rahm, openly anti-LIV initially, would later join the circuit on a massive payday.
DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Rahm reportedly turned down the opportunity to return to the PGA Tour earlier this year.
But the majority of the funding came from PIF, and that well is being turned off at the end of the current season.
The PIF provided LIV a $5 billion bankroll, but the league has reportedly lost millions of dollars every year. Earlier this month, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, PIF’s governor and LIV’s main financial backer, shared a plan for the kingdom to cut back on international investments and focus on more domestic projects. Al-Rumayyan is expected to make his resignation as LIV chairman official as soon as Thursday.
According to MSN.com, some LIV players have reached out to the DP World Tour.
“At the moment, we’re in the mode of just listening because we don’t know any more than anyone else does,” DP World Tour chief executive Guy Kinnings told MSN. “But we’ll listen and we’ll make sure that we’re fully informed before we make the decisions that we need to do. But for sure, there are people who are concerned and we will be having conversations with them at the right time.”
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp established a short-term option for players to rejoin the tour. The “Returning Member Program” was created as a pathway for players who had been away from the tour for at least two years and who had won either the Players Championship or any of the four major championships from 2022 to 2025. Players had until Feb. 2 to accept the offer.
The terms of rejoining the Tour likely are to be heavily tilted to the PGA’s favor for anyone associated with the antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. DeChambeau was a prominent and vocal part of the suit.
–Field Level Media
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