Has Saudi-funded LIV Golf outlived its utility?

Four years ago LIV appeared on the horizon as the most disruptive and controversial story the game of golf had experienced. Maybe not just golf, but even sport.

And now, when its very existence is threatened with the withdrawal of funding by Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, another disruption is on the cards. The civil war may be over, but the casualties are sure to be counted for a long time.

There’s only that much of money even the richest can lose – some say it was upwards of $ 5.5 billion – and so it turned out to be as the PIF, with its new strategy in investment, decided to leave LIV in the cold at the end of 2026.

There are as many questions unanswered now as they were in the beginning and there is still a little over a month to go for the fourth anniversary of the maiden LIV event held at the Centurion Club in Hertfordshire, England, back in June 2022, which was first conceived in 2021 as a breakaway professional golf league to challenge the dominance of the PGA Tour and modernise the sport.

LIV may still survive assuming they find funder/s to replace the ‘bottomless’ pits of money that Saudi Arabia’s PIF seemed to possess when they promised a ‘new brand’ of golf. But the chances of finding billions of the kind that the PIF was once willing to spend are miniscule.

When LIV first made its appearance, it raised not only the prize purses to unheard of sums but also raised the shackles of the purists in the game by making them cringe with a new bunch of ‘rules’ – a shot-gun start, 54 holes (as in the Roman numeral “LIV”) and no cut.

“Nah, that’s not pro golf,” said many even as several others embraced it as ‘new face of golf’.

But it brought in an animosity, the likes of which had never been seen before in professional golf; maybe sport itself. The PGA Tour suspended players who joined LIV while LIV players accused the PGA Tour of monopolistic practices. Antitrust lawsuits were filed, but later dropped.

The divide extended to fans, sponsors and governing bodies. LIV golf struggled for acceptance; they lacked World ranking points, faced criticism of “sportswashing”, and suggestions that Saudi Arabia was using sport to improve its global image. The PGA Tour was accused of not giving the players their due or growing the game and not taking it to newer places and much else.

The disruption came with the use of big-time money. Supported by billions from the PIF, LIV offered enormous guaranteed deals, many of which exceeded $100 million, to lure top players like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka. Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau too defected from the PGA Tour. There were rumours of deals going to $300m and Tiger Woods was rumoured to have been offered in the neighbourhood of a billion dollars. He turned it down.

Bengaluru’s own Anirban Lahiri, the poster boy of Indian golf, was lured away. He was the closest India had to a ‘Major’ star with many years of play on the PGA Tour and the global stage. 

It was said that India was a future venue LIV had visualised and there was no one better than Lahiri, accompanied by legendary names like Bryson De Chambeau, Jon Rahm and Dustin Johnson, to sell it to the golf fans in India. Alas, it may never happen now.

For three years and more LIV golfers played for massive amounts of money, but got no recognition in the form of Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points, which determines the entry into the biggest of events, including the Majors.

Even as LIV struggled for legitimacy, the PGA Tour players, once overlooked, gained massively. The prize purses on the PGA Tour increased hugely; the PGA Tour restructured events and even got own investments in the form of a multibillion-dollar deal with private investors.

In June 2023 there was a ‘stunning’ announcement of a possible resolution and an agreement between LIV, the PGA Tour, and the DP World Tour. It did not materialise.

Meanwhile, a bunch of some other LIV players made ‘peace’ with DP World (the erstwhile European Tour) by paying ‘fines’ and agreeing to other conditions. They could be back on DP World Tour and in time they could get to the PGA Tour, which now boasts of a slew of LIV-like $20m events.

LIV refuses to admit it is finished. The 2026 season is continuing as planned and PIF is still funding it till end of 2026. But what next?

The Asian Tour which propped up LIV/ PIF for OWGR were in turn were promised ten $2m International Series events each year for 10 years. There was talk of more funding. What happens to that?

If PIF stops funding LIV, is it also the end of the road for International Series? Will Asian Tour be back to $400,000 and $500,000 events like the olden days.

The stars will find a home in either the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour, but what happens to the Asian Tour players, whose Tour offered a sanctuary to LIV? Add to them, the middle and lower rung players and young stars from other Tours.

Writer is a Delhi-based senior sports journalist.