LIV Golf finds lead investor; players will become majority owners as league appears to secure future
LIV Golf finds lead investor; players will become majority owners as league appears to secure future
Teddy RicketsonWed, August 5, 2026 at 2:32 PM UTC
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The future of LIV Golf has been in question for months, with the announcement that the league's funding would be pulled at the end of the season.
On Wednesday, CEO Scott O'Neil held a press conference at Trump National Bedminster. Many believed it would be to cancel the upcoming team championship, but instead it was an announcement that the company had found a lead investor, appearing to secure the league's future.
"LIV Golf has an agreement in place with a lead investor, signed by the investor and approved by the Board, to anchor the transaction and play a key role in supporting the path forward for the league's next era, driven by and for the players.
“We're also seeing strong interest from more than a dozen additional parties to potentially serve as minority investors, creating a multi-partner model built for long-term stability and growth.
“Notably, our next chapter will make our players the majority equity holders in LIV Golf, a first for a major global sports league, and gives the league the foundation to keep growing the game worldwide. We anticipate finalizing terms in the coming weeks, with the goal of entering a transaction in September.
In the meantime, our focus is on delivering a great week for fans and players at Bedminster and finishing the 2026 season strong."
Details surrounding the identity of the investor, or the money included, were not released.
Funded by billions from Saudi Arabia's effectively limitless Public Investment Fund, LIV Golf took flight in 2022. The breakaway tour lured many notable players away from the PGA Tour with the promise of phenomenal, guaranteed riches. Players such as Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson signed on immediately, with Jon Rahm following late in 2023.
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LIV has always been better at drawing headlines than stateside interest, with domestic ratings lagging even as international tournaments in South Africa and Australia drew significant on-the-ground numbers. Still, the tour seemed primed for an international breakthrough right up until April, when the PIF abruptly announced it would be pulling funding from LIV Golf, effective at the end of this season.
That set off a cascade of negative news. An LIV event planned for New Orleans was "postponed" and never rescheduled. The creator of LIV's innovative "Any Shot, Any Time" viewing feature has filed suit seeking damages after LIV halted its contract in the middle of the season. The Asian Tour, which had been aligned with LIV and appeared to be LIV's pathway toward further legitimacy and integration into golf's mainstream, abruptly reversed course this summer and aligned with the PGA and European tours, leaving LIV out in the cold.
LIV's team championship, scheduled for later this month in Michigan, remains very much in limbo; independent reports have suggested that build-out, which usually begins months before a significant tournament, has not even begun at the site of the event. LIV's Bedminster event this weekend and the individual championship slated for Indianapolis in several weeks still apparently remain on track.
Since April, LIV has sought as much as $350 million in investment for what officials have termed "LIV 2.0," the next iteration of the tour.
But given the massive, nine-figure guarantees due many of the league's marquee players, LIV 2.0 will need to either raise massive amounts of investment capital or operate at a highly scaled-down level. Either way, the era of LIV Golf 1.0 — lavish spending, aggressive attitudes, "golf but louder" — appears over.
Source: “AOL Money”
