LIV Golf told employees Wednesday it is cutting a majority of its workforce and scaling back operations after losing its primary financial backer and failing to close a replacement deal.
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund informed LIV in April that it would stop bankrolling the league after the 2026 season. The PIF had invested more than $5 billion in LIV since the tour held its first tournament in June 2022 and was spending a reported $100 million per month this year alone. When that commitment ended, LIV had no replacement in place.
Employees were first warned in July that layoffs were possible once the current funding cycle ended. Wednesday's notification confirmed the cuts are happening. While LIV's spokesperson did not specify a headcount, the expectation is that most of the workforce will be affected. LIV is filing Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices in the United States—a federal legal requirement triggered when a large-scale workforce reduction is pending.
"We are grateful to our employees for their hard work and dedication in building LIV Golf, and we remain committed to supporting those affected through this transition," a LIV spokesperson said.
The league has spent months trying to land a new investor and rebuild itself as LIV 2.0, targeting a relaunch in 2027. CEO Scott O'Neil disclosed earlier this month that LIV signed a term sheet with Ted Goldthorpe of BC Partners for a $250 million investment. That deal has not been finalized. O'Neil has been pitching investors and players—whose commitment is described as essential to the league's survival—on a 10-event schedule split between five international and five U.S. tournaments, along with player equity and the ability to compete on other tours.
"The first chapter of LIV required enormous ambition and investment. This next chapter requires something quite different: Commercial discipline," O'Neil said last week in Indianapolis. "I wasn't here in the early days, but at least reputationally, it was a bit more free-spending than it will be in the future. We've taken a real disciplined look at the cost side of the business, and I've grown up in a business where you sell it then build it, and this was a build it then sell it."
Cost cutting was visible well before Wednesday's announcement. LIV canceled a planned event in New Orleans and its team championship in Michigan. The individual prize purse at last week's Indianapolis event was cut in half, and two scheduled concerts tied to that event were canceled. The 2026 season is now over.
LIV also faces legal exposure. Multiple vendors have filed lawsuits against the league claiming unpaid invoices for services rendered. That litigation adds another layer of financial pressure on top of the funding shortfall.
For the players caught in the middle—including Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith—the path back to the PGA Tour is not clear. PGA Tour CEO and Commissioner Brian Rolapp said Tuesday that the tour has no current plan to reinstate the Returning Member Program, which had been the most direct route for LIV players to regain PGA Tour status. The DP World Tour has reportedly told some LIV players it may resume fining them in 2027 if they attempt to play both tours simultaneously.
LIV says it expects many of the employees being let go to return if LIV 2.0 launches. That is contingent on the BC Partners deal closing and additional investor commitments materializing—neither of which has happened. O'Neil's pitch to players and investors describes a leaner structure built around commercial returns rather than the open-spending model the PIF funded for four years.
The PIF spent more than $5 billion over roughly four years to build an audience and a product that still cannot sustain itself commercially. The $250 million term sheet with BC Partners, if it closes, is a fraction of what the PIF put in annually. Running a 10-event schedule at a competitive level requires infrastructure, prize money and broadcast distribution—none of which comes cheap and none of which is confirmed. A term sheet is a letter of intent, not a check.
For the players who built their careers on the stability LIV promised, Wednesday is the answer to a question they have been asking since April. The league that paid enormous sums to lure them away from the PGA Tour now cannot confirm it will exist in 2027 in any meaningful form. The Returning Member Program that might have welcomed some of them back is off the table for now, and the DP World Tour is signaling it will penalize rather than embrace them. Their leverage is diminishing on every front.
