The breakaway LIV Golf League notified a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge Thursday that it won’t move forward with its plans for LIV 2.0 and will shutter the tour. BC Partners Credit pulled its offer of $300 million in financing a day earlier, after its negotiations with top golfers broke down.
What’s next for LIV Golf stars such as Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith? When will they be allowed to play on the PGA Tour again? Will LIV golfers, who are owed hundreds of millions of dollars under the terms of their contracts, ever get paid by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund?
Here’s a look at what’s next for LIV Golf and some of the game’s most accomplished players:
So is this really the end of LIV Golf?
Though LIV Golf said in a statement Thursday that it would “remain open to, and continue to consider, any value-maximizing alternatives with third parties that might arise throughout the wind-down process,” the end is here.
LIV Golf will start winding down its business and will submit a new Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of New Jersey on Monday.
According to Blanka Wolfe, a corporate bankruptcy analyst at credit data and intelligence company Octus, LIV Golf will liquidate unless someone unexpectedly “swoops in to invest.”
If Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund couldn’t make it work after investing $6 billion over five years, it’s hard to imagine anyone else will take the chance. — Mark Schlabach and Tisha Thompson
What does this mean for Bryson DeChambeau and other big names?
Though fans want to see the best golfers in the world competing more often than in just the four majors, it will be more complicated. LIV golfers won’t come back to the PGA Tour without discipline.
If we’re going off the punishment that former LIV Golf star Patrick Reed faced when he returned to the PGA Tour in January, golfers such as Rahm, Smith and others can’t return until Aug. 24, 2027. That will be the one-year anniversary of their last start in the final LIV Golf tournament outside of Indianapolis.
Reed returned to the PGA Tour as a nonmember Aug. 25 after playing well enough on the DP World — winning twice in the Middle East at the start of the season — to secure one of 10 PGA Tour cards for 2027.
In January, PGA Tour CEO/commissioner Brian Rolapp extended invitations to Brooks Koepka, DeChambeau, Rahm and Smith to return to the tour but only Koepka accepted. Only LIV golfers who had been away from the tour for at least two years — and who won the Players Championship or one of the four majors (the Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open and Open Championship) since 2022 — were eligible to come back.
Koepka made a $5 million donation to charity at the PGA Tour’s request and forfeited equity and other bonuses.
Rolapp said it was a one-time offer at the time, and he has repeatedly said since then that the PGA Tour has no plans to bring it back. Rahm even acknowledged earlier this week that he’s probably not getting the same deal as Koepka, although he would take it.
Some golfers might face more discipline than just a one-year suspension, sources told ESPN. DeChambeau and others sued the PGA Tour at the beginning of its battle with LIV Golf and the PIF and remained a plaintiff after others pulled out. The two-time U.S. Open winner’s path back to the tour might be more difficult than others.
Phil Mickelson, who helped recruit players to LIV Golf along with former CEO Greg Norman, might be another interesting case. Given Mickelson’s recent personal situation, you have to wonder if golf fans will ever see the six-time major champion in pro competition again. –– Schlabach
We’ve heard of some guys going to play on the DP World Tour. Are they eligible right away, and how can they earn their way back to the PGA Tour?
The PGA Tour has consistently removed itself from the fray during LIV’s quest for survival. During that process, the PGA Tour has been adamant about two things: one, it cannot begin discussing a return to the tour until former LIV players can show proof that they are out of their LIV contracts and two, the tour will not necessarily be in a position to offer them the return deal that Reed got.
This is why the DP World Tour has been a fascinating character through this saga. It has not only been in a position to end LIV by not allowing players to play on both tours, but it also stands to benefit from being the league that can grant playing opportunities to former members such as Rahm, Sergio Garcia and Tyrrell Hatton, who paid their fines and were granted releases for 2026 while publicly committing to playing the DPWT in 2027.
Those who have DPWT status can earn one of the 10 PGA Tour cards up for grabs next year, but it is still unclear what, if any, punishment the PGA Tour will hand those who are trying to make their way back.
Would the PGA Tour want to have Rahm and DeChambeau back? From a marketing and business standpoint, there’s no question about it. But as LIV players defected, those who remained and stayed loyal to the tour might still be unprepared to welcome them all back. It will be fascinating to see it all play out over the next few years, especially as the tour reshapes itself into a two-track system. — Paolo Uggetti
What happens now regarding the bankruptcy?
LIV Golf will move from reorganizing to liquidating — or turning any assets it has left into proceeds to repay those to whom it owes money, aka its creditors. Bankruptcy proceedings have a hierarchy of creditors. In this case, the PIF will be the first in line to be paid because it made a nearly $500 million loan to LIV Golf in June.
The players and other so-called unsecured creditors who are owed money, such as golf courses or other businesses that provided services to LIV Golf, will be the second-to-last to get paid, ahead of any shareholders, said Kevin Eckhardt, a corporate bankruptcy attorney with Octus who has been closely following the case.
Before Thursday’s decision, LIV Golf had one massive asset — its $5 billion in losses. That might sound counterintuitive, but those “net operating losses,” often called NOLs, could’ve offset future tax liabilities if the company became profitable on the other side of bankruptcy. It’s a complicated but clever accounting strategy that could’ve allowed LIV 2.0 to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes, but only if it stayed in business and made a profit.
“If they don’t make money going forward, those NOLs are not useful,” Eckhardt said. “They’re not cash. They only offset future profits.”
In other words, if LIV liquidates, its NOLs are worthless. — Thompson
Will the players get any of the money they’re owed?
It’s very unlikely. There probably won’t be any money left after the PIF gets paid from what little assets remain. But it’s possible the PIF could work out a separate deal to pay the players some of what they’re owed.
At Thursday’s hearing, a lawyer representing a committee of unsecured creditors that includes the players said they’re looking to reach “a consensual resolution with the PIF” in the coming weeks. Wolfe said this “suggests that the committee is going to try to extract some settlement” from the PIF in exchange for a release from legal claims.
Eckhardt added, “I suspect that their real motivation here is to avoid lawsuits where there could be discovery, where people would try to depose Saudi officials. They don’t want to open their books.”
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Rice University fellow and expert on how sports intersects with the geopolitics of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States, pointed to how the PIF fiercely opposed a lawsuit filed by the PGA Tour in 2022.
That year, nearly a dozen players, including Mickelson and DeChambeau, sued the PGA Tour, claiming it was using monopoly power when it suspended players who defected to LIV. The PGA Tour countersued and attempted to force the PIF’s leader Yasir Al-Rumayyan into a legal deposition.
“They claimed they had state immunity,” Urlichsen said. “They claimed that Al-Rumayyan couldn’t give a deposition. That he would be putting himself at risk because breaching confidentiality would be tantamount to exposing state secrets and could land him in prison. So they definitely resisted every attempt to have to disclose documents or be pulled into giving depositions. They do not want to open the books.”
In June 2023, the two sides in that dispute voluntarily dismissed all legal claims against each other. — Thompson
What legal/financial/business questions/issues are still outstanding?
LIV Golf’s lawyer has told the judge that it plans to file its plan for liquidation by Nov. 9. Wolfe said she’ll be watching to see if the players and other unsecured creditors find any claims against the PIF because it could determine whether the PIF will pay anything in an attempt to get a release from legal claims.
The next court hearing is scheduled Nov. 24. — Thompson
