[Photo: Chung Sung-Jun]
LIV Golf cannot stay out of the headlines and the latest came overnight (Australian time) when The Financial Times reported that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is funding only a third of what the league needs to cover for the rest of this season.
The report says that LIV Golf needs $US600 million to make it through to the end of its 2026 schedule. The PIF has delivered only just short of $US200 million – $66 million in early May, $130 million in early June – since news broke in April that it would stop funding the tour after the end of this year.
LIV Golf chief executive Scott O’Neil has been vocal about saying he and other top officials are actively seeking investors for the league to continue beyond this year. The Financial Times report cites two people close to the situation who said that the PIF’s incentive to spend more money for LIV Golf “would diminish the longer LIV went without securing a new backer”.
PIF declined to comment to the outlet, but told it to look back on its original statement that said, “the substantial investment required by LIV Golf over a longer term is no longer consistent with the current phase of PIF’s investment strategy.”
Only four events remain on the LIV Golf schedule, the next one from July 23-26 in the United Kingdom. A report from Front Office Sports earlier this week quoted a high-ranking LIV Golf executive who said, “every remaining tournament is on the fence”. The event scheduled for New Orleans later this month was postponed last month, but there’s been no word on a rescheduled date, leading to suggestions that it will not be played.
In an interview on CNBC this week, O’Neil was asked if he could guarantee if the four remaining events would be played.
“What I can guarantee is a heck of a return if you come invest in this business,” O’Neil said. LIV Golf’s streaming service was cut last month to save costs.
On Tuesday night, the Australian Open announced it was expanding its relationship between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. That news is significant because one of the future approaches LIV Golf had discussed was blending its tournaments with national opens.
“We think they’re the most underappreciated, undermarketed, underdeveloped assets in golf,” O’Neil said, “and the reason is it gets us on the ground to grow the game of golf.”
