LIV Golf is not dead yet. At least, that is the exclusive information published this Wednesday by the New York Post. The US paper says that Scott O’Neil is close to securing the funding needed to keep the circuit alive in 2027 and beyond, once the Fondo de Inversión Pública de Arabia Saudí withdraws its backing at the end of this season.
According to sources consulted by the Post, LIV has received “multiple written commitments from top-tier investment firms” interested in acting as lead investors. Those companies have reportedly submitted qualified term sheets intended to build a financial syndicate capable of capitalising the project dubbed LIV 2.0.
O’Neil is said to have been seeking between $250–300 million and, according to the New York paper, is very close to obtaining it. There are also other investors interested in joining the operation alongside those lead firms.
The news undoubtedly represents a lifeline for LIV, but it is important not to confuse a term sheet with an agreement that has been definitively signed and executed. Neither O’Neil nor any spokesperson for the circuit wanted to comment to the New York Post. Sources place a possible closing of the deal in September, with several important meetings scheduled next week during the Trump Bedminster tournament in New Jersey.
The figures still don’t add up
Even accepting the information as correct, the numbers still raise many questions. Between $250–300 million might be enough to get a transition under way, but by no means would it allow the LIV Golf we have known so far to be maintained.
The circuit raised the prize fund for each tournament to $30 million this season. Maintaining a schedule similar to the current one would on its own consume several hundred million a year, before adding the costs of television production, travel, course setup, staff, promotion, administrative structure and organising events on five continents.
On top of that is the big outstanding question: player contracts. LIV was born offering huge guaranteed commitments to attract some of the world’s leading golf stars. Although the specific figures were never officially confirmed and not all those contracts have the same duration or structure, the amounts published around Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson or Cameron Smith together far exceed the capital O’Neil would now be trying to raise.
The $250–300 million reported by the Post would not settle that bill if the new circuit had to honour all the contracts on their current terms while at the same time maintaining prize money and schedule. For the project to be viable it will be necessary to cut costs radically, secure significantly more money or transform the economic relationship with the golfers.
From contracted players to owners
Here the most interesting point of the exclusive appears. According to the New York Post, the structure included in the term sheets envisages the players owning a majority stake in LIV Golf.
It does not seem a minor detail. In fact, it could be the cornerstone of the whole LIV 2.0.
The new model could try to replace part of the guaranteed contracts with equity in the circuit. In other words, reduce immediate financial commitments in exchange for making the players owners of the league. This way, they would assume part of the business risk, but would also participate directly in any potential future appreciation.
The question is whether they will accept. That is the big doubt.
So far, the great appeal of LIV has precisely been economic security: guaranteed contracts, extraordinary prize funds and a structure financed by a sovereign wealth fund with an almost unlimited capacity. Swapping guaranteed money for stakes in a company that still has to prove it can stand on its own represents a very different proposition.
The answer may depend on each player’s contractual situation, on the real possibilities they have of returning to the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour and, especially, on the valuation the new investors assign to LIV Golf. It is also not the same to receive shares in addition to reduced guaranteed sums as to give up a large part of an already signed contract.
Bryson DeChambeau has publicly acknowledged his involvement in the search for investors and, according to US reports, several players have taken part in meetings with potential partners. That shows that a significant part of the playing roster is willing to consider continuity. It does not, however, confirm that all will accept the conditions the new project would need to square its books. And if the big players do not participate, it would remain to be seen whether even that $250–300 million investment goes ahead… In short, finally some positive news for LIV, but we’ll see if it is enough…
An investment to survive, not to continue unchanged
The PIF has allocated more than $5 billion to LIV since its inception in 2022. The comparison helps to put the challenge in perspective. The circuit that consumed that amount cannot be replicated with an investment of $250 or $300 million, unless it is merely a first contribution within much larger financing.
The New York Post exclusive allows one to state that LIV has a more concrete survival route than seemed the case just a few days ago. There is interest, there are documents, and O’Neil seems to have found investors willing to sit at the table. That is no small thing at the most delicate moment in the circuit’s history.
But two huge steps still remain. The first is to convert those commitments into real money. The second, probably more complex, is to convince the players that LIV 2.0 cannot operate under the same economic rules as LIV Golf.
The lifeline seems to exist. Now it remains to be seen whether it is large enough to keep the ship afloat and how many of its leading players are willing to come on board with the new project.
