Liv Golf In Trouble After Saudi Arabia's Pif Pulls Support
This is why Shania Twain says to dance with the one that brought you: Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced yesterday that it will stop funding LIV Golf, its high-paying disruptor league, leaving players who defected from the PGA Tour in the lurch.
This is probably the end of LIV, at least in its current form. The upstart league is looking for new investors after the PIF confirmed weeks of speculation that it was pulling out. But it’s tough to imagine who might be willing and able to fill the Saudi-sized hole left in LIV’s business after the current season ends in August:
- As LIV’s sole backer, the PIF poured $5+ billion into the league since co-founding it in 2021. It reportedly spent $100 million per month on LIV this year. And the league is bleeding money.
- Despite luring top talent with extravagant tournament purses and contracts worth up to $300 million, LIV struggled to sustain US fan interest.
Looking ahead…LIV players who violated their PGA Tour contracts to join LIV may have some groveling to do. “There were rules, and they were broken,” the PGA Tour’s CEO said this week. The league recently offered four elite players a way to come crawling back from LIV, but only one took the deal, at a cost of up to $90 million in reentry fees.—ML
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