The golf league that said it would “grow the game” and make the sport louder upon its splashy debut four years ago comes to the D.C. area this week, shrinking and on life support.
LIV Golf is back in Northern Virginia for the third time, and the conversation surrounding it this spring has nothing to do with what’s happening on the course.
The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which has reportedly poured more than $5 billion into the league since its 2022 inception, announced last week it will not fund LIV beyond 2026, saying it “is no longer consistent with the current phase of PIF’s investment strategy.”
“I would say, like everybody, surprised, obviously unexpected,” two-time major champion Jon Rahm said of PIF’s decision. “We did hear the news that there would be funding through for many years, so [it was] unexpected.”
The move is part of an ongoing pullback of some of the kingdom’s sports-related investments worldwide.
“First and foremost, we need to get the players settled, on board, and focusing on golf. That’s first and foremost,” LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil said ahead of LIV Golf Virginia, beginning Thursday at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling. “Secondly, we have to create a plan that’s a business plan, a business that works from a business standpoint, from a profit and loss standpoint.”
The architect of LIV Golf, PIF chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, has abandoned the venture, stepping down last week from the entity he helped create, according to Golf Digest. Players — at least the stars that LIV paid hundreds of millions of dollars to boost its reputation — have also been scrambling for the exits.
Five-time major winner Brooks Koepka saw the writing on the wall late last year, walking away from LIV with a year left on his contract and accepting a path back to the PGA Tour with heavy financial concessions. 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed also left after his LIV contract expired at the end of 2025 and is trying to earn his Tour card again via the DP World Tour.
Rahm may attempt to do the same, announcing this week a resolution with the DP World Tour which will allow him to compete after paying outstanding fines. In the shorter term, the rectification makes Rahm eligible again for the European Ryder Cup team next year.
“We were able to reach an agreement. There was some concessions on both sides. I offered some; they extended an olive branch. Obviously we’ve reached an agreement. That will not be a stress anymore,” Rahm said.
The Spaniard, LIV Golf’s individual champion the last two years and points leader so far this season, seemed to lament his situation as he’s watched his contemporaries look for ways out.
“As of right now, I have several years on my contract left, and I’m pretty sure they did a pretty good job when they drafted that,” Rahm said. “So I don’t see many ways out, and as of right now, I’m not really thinking about it … It’s not something I want to think about just yet.
The league’s biggest star, Bryson DeChambeau, doesn’t have as apparent a pathway back to the PGA Tour, telling ESPN’s Mark Schlabach that he’d likely focus on growing his wildly popular YouTube channel should LIV Golf completely fold.
“It’s a team effort. It’s not about one person agreeing or not,” Rahm said. “I think we all, as captains and team owners and players that are involved in the league, need to in essence, have a large majority to agree on for it to work.”
LIV initially couched itself as an effort bring golf to more people worldwide via its “revolutionary” team concept. While there has been some growth in international markets and O’Neil still envisions the selling off of LIV’s 13 teams as professional U.S. leagues do, the concept hasn’t yet been widely embraced.
“If you’re looking for direction, we believe that teams will have extraordinary value. We believe that once we set the business in the right direction, with the right trajectory, with the right revenue base and cost base, which we’re well on our way to doing, that these teams will have extraordinary value,” O’Neil said.
The financial instability has cratered the league and caused dominoes to start falling, including the cancellation of an event next month in New Orleans. LIV said the “strategic decision” will avoid “peak summer heat,” though August and September in Louisiana are typically worse weather-wise than June and smack in the middle of hurricane season — and that’s if the event is even played at all.
“I understand uncertainty is difficult for some people, and I understand that not knowing what tomorrow brings can be a challenge. This is 100 percent what I love to do, this moment. Everybody is meant for a certain thing in their life. I believe this is what I am meant for. I love this moment,” O’Neil said.
LIV Golf Virginia once again occurs ahead of a major — last year, it was the U.S. Open at Oakmont; this year, it’s the PGA Championship at Aronimink. Though this year’s event will be missing some of the firepower that played at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in 2025, both from its departed stars as well as the absence of Phil Mickelson due to a family health matter, fans will at least get more golf.
The three-round tournaments that were a defining characteristic of the tour — LIV is the Roman numeral for 54 — changed to a traditional, 72-hole format for this season in yet another shift for a league with a tumultuous future.
“We’ve changed pretty dramatically in my two seasons here, and I’ve been on the record saying the format changes won’t stop, and we’ll continue to evolve to optimize the business,” O’Neil said. “So I would not be surprised to see a continued evolution in our format.”
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