Atlanta —
Given the future of LIV Golf is murky at best – especially after the announcement of company layoffs on Wednesday – there are likely some players on the embattled start-up tour who are wondering whether their future lies back in the stability of the PGA Tour.
The problem for those LIV golfers is that door might be closing.
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp told reporters at the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta on Tuesday that there are no plans to restart the returning member program, which allowed Brooks Koepka to return to the tour earlier this year. Rolapp added that any players interested in joining the PGA Tour will have to prove they have no outstanding commitments to other organizations such as LIV.
“To this point, we haven’t made any decisions. I’ve said it consistently; I only know what I read. I don’t know the future of LIV. It sounds like they’re working really hard to come up with the next iteration of it,” Rolapp told reporters.
“We’ve been consistent. Anyone who’s interested in coming to the PGA Tour needs to demonstrate that they are relieved of their contractual commitments or any tail obligations they might have in that legacy model. Brooks certainly did that, and until then, we weren’t really able to consider anything seriously. I would say the same thing here.”
LIV Golf’s future is in flux after the announcement earlier this year that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) was pulling its backing from the breakaway golf tour. PIF’s money had allowed LIV to lure away some top golf stars with the promise of big money guarantees, high dollar purses for tournaments and the possibility of upending the golf world.
While the creation of LIV has forced the PGA Tour to make huge changes in the ensuing years – look no further than the revamped schedule coming in 2028, which will transform the Tour Championship from a one-week tournament of the 30 top players to a two-week, match-play showdown that will culminate in a final champion – it’s LIV whose future appears to be on shakier ground.
Launched in 2022 with an initial $400 million investment, LIV Golf looked to rival the PGA Tour by featuring $250 million in prize purses, with no less of an aim than to shake the foundations of the sport. The league had been primarily funded by PIF, the sovereign wealth fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman – the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and the man who a US intelligence report named as responsible for approving the operation that led to the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Bin Salman has denied involvement in Khashoggi’s murder.
But the US war with Iran and its impact on oil markets left the PIF reconsidering some of their investments. The one that has grabbed most of the headlines is its pull back from LIV.
The upstart league is trying to revamp its future, shrinking from 14 to 10 events and announcing earlier this month that a lead investor had come aboard to help fund LIV 2.0. But LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil raised eyebrows when he wouldn’t name the investor and wouldn’t say exactly when the deal would be done.
And news came on Wednesday that substantial changes are coming to LIV behind the scenes.
A LIV Golf spokesperson confirmed to CNN Sports that many staffers for the organization will be let go next month. Sportico was first to report the news.
“The funding commitment announced by PIF earlier this year will reach its conclusion. As a result, we are scaling back operations as we transition to the next chapter of LIV Golf and work toward making LIV 2.0 a reality,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“This week, we informed many of our colleagues that their employment under LIV 1.0 will end in the first week of September. 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.”
LIV will reach the end of its current funding in September, but the league expects to finalize the deal with the unnamed lead investor in the months ahead to begin moving to its next iteration. It’s anticipated that some roles in the company will transition over to the next version of the league, but the size and shape of LIV’s future form are still underdetermined.
LIV has projected optimism about the path ahead, but it’s fair to wonder how committed stars like Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton will be if the big money doesn’t materialize in the 2027 season.
According to Rolapp, it’s not going to be an easy path back for LIV golfers who abandoned the PGA Tour in the first place.
“I would also say three things when it comes to LIV players or anyone else who wants to be on the PGA Tour. One, the PGA Tour is built on meritocracy. Every player, whether they’re already here or they’re trying to be here, they’re going to earn a place based on their performance and on their success. That’s a core principle of the sport, and it certainly is of the PGA Tour,” he said.
He added, “Two, the tour is a membership organization. It has rules. Those rules exist for lots of reasons, for fair, competitive reasons. They exist so we can actually create the Tour as you know it. Rules matter. Three, rules only matter if they’re enforced. So, accountability and discipline are essential to any organization, and certainly for the integrity of the Tour and for the game, especially in a game that prides itself on rules and integrity.”
Many LIV golfers gleefully burnt bridges behind them when they left the PGA Tour in favor of the seemingly endless Saudi-backed riches of the upstart tour. Now that the PIF money faucet has turned off, it seems as if it’s going to take a lot to wash the bad taste out of the mouths of PGA Tour leaders.
But there’s always an ace in the hole for those players: The PGA Tour’s desire to have the best players playing week in and week out. If players like Rahm and DeChambeau made it clear they wanted to return to their old stomping grounds, it might be hard to tell them no.
Rolapp said Tuesday it’s clear the fans want to see that standard.
“Fans are clear where they want to see the best golfers competing week in and week out. Our competitive model that we’ve been working on is an attempt to get closer to that standard,” he said.
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