LIV 2.0 Is a Non-Starter — Let It Liquidate

LIV 2.0 is a non-starter, and the kindest outcome for everyone involved is an orderly liquidation.

The golf fan is only interested in having the best players competing on the PGA Tour and in Europe on the DP Tour.

LIV 1.0 attempted to take on the PGA Tour with what appeared to be a bottomless pit of financing from the Saudi Arabian Soverign Fund (PIF). LIV was unleashed by Greg Norman and chartered to sign as many PGA Tour successful players to generate significant interest in a new tour. The players were offered vast sums of money that would exceed anything that could be earned through competing on the PGA Tour. LIV offered these players long term contracts of significant sums that were designed to keep these players in LIV and provide financial security for life for these players. Like many things in life (and golf), these arrangements were too  good to be true or certainly could not be sustained without some risk.

LIV 1.0 Failed

LIV failed. It punctured the PGA Tour with a significant loss of quality players but the PGA Tour generated a whole new cast of quality players providing significant excitement for the professional golf fan. The PGA Tour responded with larger purses for the players and some no cut events, which resonated with the golf fan. The PGA response was not the principal reason for the failure of LIV 1.0. The real issues were:

1. The product was never marketed to the golf fan. LIV decided to disrupt the norm without really understanding the customer. Professional events starting in shotgun fashion, 54 hole events, players in shorts, music blaring all over the course and a competition system that was never explained or detailed. A LIV scoreboard looked like the cockput of a 747 jumbo set.
2. LIV did not secure television coverage with a major network. Without significant television revenue and a broadcast partner, LIV should have never “left the ground.” Without a television audience, it was useless to have a broadcasting crew and all the costs related to putting on events with very little to no viewership. In any event, the broadcast team was an embarrassment to the profession ruining the considerable skills of David Feherty who attempted to speak with the droning of Beyonce in the background. The broadcast was a litany of pablum as the competitive concepts were never explained.
3. LIV ignored the reputation of its backers on the customers that were being encouraged to watch the product. The Saudis didn’t hide their presence, they blared it in an arrogant way that turned off most golf fans. The game of golf is not WWE, professional boxing, motor sports etc. as the Saudi concepts of sportswashing for their global reputation rang hollow with most golf fans.
4. The financial losses mounted into the billions but as long as the petrodollars rolled in, the view was that money would eventually win out and defeat the PGA and DP Tours. Phil Mickelsen and players such as Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau were convinced that the concept would be successful.
5. The war in Iran was the last straw. The Saudi kingdom was under attack and the focus of money had to return to defending the homeland from attacks on the Saudi infrastructure. Prospects of continued billions of dollars of losses were no longer sustainable in this environment so the Saudis pulled the plug on LIV leaving it in “no man’s land.”

The numbers explain the rest. The PIF put more than $5 billion into LIV, and the league ran at a loss every year it existed. The Saudis paid roughly $495 million just to finish this season, then on September 8, 2026, LIV filed for Chapter 11 in New Jersey with more than $500 million in debt. Jon Rahm was owed nearly $7.5 million and Bryson DeChambeau close to $5.8 million.

The rescue plan on the table comes from BC Partners, a London credit firm. It would put up to $300 million into a slimmed-down LIV 2.0: ten events in 2027, with players owning 52.5% of the league, BC 45% and management 2.5%. The catch is that BC wants 30 to 40 players signed before it writes the check.

LIV 2.0 Doesn’t Work

Five players have publicly committed: Richard Bland, Cameron Tringale, Brendan Steele, Victor Perez and Ben Campbell. Good, honest professionals all, but not a marquee in the bunch. The Financial Times reports about 15 “tentative” commitments in total. That is less than half of what BC says it needs.

Meanwhile, the exits read like a roll call of the names that made LIV worth watching: Jon Rahm, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Tyrrell Hatton, Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell, Thomas Pieters, Tom McKibbin, Charles Howell III, Abraham Ancer, Adrian Meronk and David Puig. Rahm called the 2.0 terms unacceptable and negotiated his way out on October 14.

And the players still sitting on the fence aren’t exactly waving the flag. More than ten of them, led by Dustin Johnson, have banded together to demand severance from the PIF before they’ll sign anything. That isn’t commitment. That’s a group negotiating its exit package.

Then there’s Bryson. I like DeChambeau’s energy, and by all accounts he’s working the phones to save the league. But he hasn’t formally signed either, and he’s already booked for the DP World Tour’s Nedbank Golf Challenge in December. Even if he signs tomorrow, one support beam can’t hold up the required foundation. Fans don’t buy tickets to watch Bryson and a dozen journeymen.

The Bottom Line–Who Cares?

The players that left the PGA Tour are now faced with an uncertain future. Long term contracts have been cancelled due to the bankruptcy filing so the long term money is gone. The players that left, their agents and their financial advisors thought the Saudis would never withdraw so they didn’t secure restricted deposits and other methods to secure their long term compensation. We are now subject to the gossip and all the “woe is me” from these players, but the lure of the almighty dollar impacted their decisions.

Their golf legacies are at risk. The LIV Tour and “team golf” dulled their competitive capability of these once fabulous players. The players that have won majors have been able  to compete again in those majors but only DeChambeau has made some noise in those events. Mental competition at this level is the pinnacle of the game and guys like Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Rahm, Casey etc. are not up to the task. No one knows or cares how they are playing and how they are going to get back those reputations, if ever.

LIV–Not Worth The Revival

I find it dull and interesting as to all the machinations going on to try to revive LIV 2.0. The private equity firm that has ostensibly offered to be the sponsor will attach onerous terms to an unsophisticated bunch of professional golfers and their advisers to take an equity position in LIV 2.0. It will never work and the players have enough to do to try to regain their competitive prowess to compete and try to get back to the PGA Tour. The current subsidiary tours such as Korn Ferry could provide the qualification trail and perhaps a generous sponsor exemption or two could open up some doors for these players. Without a TV partner such as ESPN or Golf Channel, LIV 2.0 needs to move into RIP status.

LIV did shake the game up. It forced the PGA Tour to raise purses, rethink its schedule and listen to its players. But a league built on one patron’s checkbook can’t survive the patron walking away, and no amount of player equity changes that.

Let’s eliminate the drama and the “Entertainment Today” type of Hollywood gossip. LIV should liquidate. settle the claims, let the players find their way home on the terms they can get, and let the game move on.