Golf

LIV Golf out to prove there's life after Saudi funding

May 1, 2026

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund has officially pulled the plug on future funding for LIV Golf, leaving the tour to find a new path without the largesse that helped it launch four years ago as a threat to the golfing establishment.

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Staff and players have been aware for the last two weeks the Public Investment Fund was only going to support LIV Golf through the end of this year.

LIV has responded with a new board and a plan to diversify into an investment model with hopes of finding long-term partners.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor who was behind the creation of LIV Golf, is no longer listed as chairman of LIV Golf, amid reports he has resigned from that role.

"PIF has made the decision to fund LIV Golf only for the remainder of the 2026 season," PIF said in a statement on Thursday.

"The substantial investment required by LIV Golf over a longer term is no longer consistent with the current phase of PIF's investment strategy."

The newsletter "Money in Sports" reported earlier this year LIV Golf has spent $US5.3 billion ($A7.4 billion) since it began in 2022, a figure likely to exceed $US6 billion ($A8.3 billion) by the end of the year.

LIV Golf spent about $US1 billion ($A1.4 billion) in luring top names away from the PGA Tour — Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Australian Cameron Smith among them.

Prize money was increased this year to $US30 million ($A42 million) at each event.

LIV Golf, which announced this week it has postponed its Louisiana tournament from late June until the fall, is scheduled to play May 7-10 in northern Virginia.

Gene Davis, of Pirinate Consulting Group, and Jon Zinman of the strategic advisory firm JZ Advisors are leading a newly created board, with Davis as chairman. The focus is on securing long-term financial partners.

LIV Golf has said it expects 10 of its 13 teams to be profitable this year, and it has five title sponsors of tournaments this year after not having any the previous three years.

Koepka left LIV after last season and the PGA Tour granted him a path back with stipulations that included no access to equity grants for five years, a $5 million charity donation and no bonus money this year.

The tour offered it to three other LIV players who had won majors since 2022 — Rahm, DeChambeau and Cameron Smith — and gave them a February 4 deadline to accept. None did.