The Sovereign Wealth Fund of Saudi Arabia continues to strengthen its commitment to LIV Golf. The entity known as the Public Investment Fund (PIF) has approved a new capital injection of 266.6 million dollars, thus raising the total investment made in the circuit to 5.3 billion dollars since its launch, as detailed in an interesting publication by the website moneyinsport.
The contribution was authorised on 1 February 2026 by the fund’s governor, Yasir Al Rumayyan, and confirms that the financial model of the circuit continues to rely on periodic capital injections, rather than a single annual disbursement.
A monthly expenditure of 100 million
According to available data, in 2024 and 2025 the net expenditure of LIV Golf was around 100 million dollars per month, financed directly by the PIF through regular contributions. If this pace continues in 2026, the Saudi fund could invest an additional 1.2 billion this year, which would bring the accumulated disbursement to exceed 6 billion dollars before the end of the year.
This level of investment consolidates LIV as one of the most costly sports projects on the recent international scene and further reinforces Saudi Arabia’s strategic determination to position itself as a central player in professional golf, despite the enormous difficulties it is encountering along the way and its battles with other circuits, the world ranking, and the presence of some of its players in court over fines for playing the DP World Tour.
Increase in prize purses in 2026
One of the main items increasing the cost structure is the rise in prize purses for 2026, an item that adds 65 million dollars to the circuit’s annual budget. The money distributed in prizes at each tournament has increased from 25 million last season to 32.3 million this season. Although with some nuances worth highlighting:
· The individual prize remains at 20 million dollars per tournament, as before.
· The team prize doubles to 10 million dollars, which from this season is distributed among the thirteen participating teams and not just among the top three finishers as was previously the case.
· A new concept is introduced, the so-called ‘individual prize via team‘, an additional purse of 2.3 million dollars per tournament whereby the captain of the winning team has a million to distribute among one or more teammates, the second-place captain has 800,000 dollars, and the third-place captain has half a million.
This system reinforces the weight of team competition, one of the circuit’s hallmarks since its creation and what differentiates it from other world tours, in addition to its high prizes and its more limited tournament calendar (the other difference, the three-round events, has already been matched to the rest by introducing from this 2026 four-round and 72-hole tournaments to be considered by the OWRG).
Cost adjustments and significant departures
The increase in prize spending could be partially offset by the departure of two significant names such as Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed, whose contracts represented a significant part of the tour’s annual budget. Brooks accepted the conditions to return to the PGA Tour, while Patrick is excelling on the DP World Tour and will return to the United States at the end of the year.
Additionally, there are indications that LIV is reducing costs in tournament organisation. The British company Performance 54 Group, responsible for managing the circuit’s events, reported in its results for the fiscal year ending 30 April 2025 that, although the number of tournaments under its supervision slightly increased, the aggregated budgets were reduced, causing a slight decline in turnover.
The company also confirmed that, following the “successful delivery” of the LIV events, these have been renewed in all markets for several years, providing contractual stability to the calendar.
More than 6 billion on the horizon
If the current spending pace of about 100 million dollars per month is maintained, the PIF will surpass 6 billion in accumulated investment in LIV Golf before the end of 2026. A figure that reflects the magnitude of the Saudi commitment to transforming the professional golf ecosystem and consolidating the circuit as a structural alternative on the international stage.
