LIV Golf will shut down, the league said Thursday, ending a five-year experiment that split professional golf and drained billions from its backers.
How it ended
The league said it could not secure support for a planned relaunch, known internally as LIV 2.0, and will wind down operations. In a New Jersey bankruptcy court, an attorney said liquidation of remaining assets would begin Monday.
LIV filed for Chapter 11 protection on September 8 and now plans to file a new bankruptcy plan. The final event was played on August 23 at The Club at Chatham Hills in Westfield, Indiana, where Michael La Sasso won.
The money that started it
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund launched LIV in 2021 with guaranteed contracts, 54-hole team events and shotgun starts. It signed Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Cameron Smith, and triggered lawsuits and then a merger framework with the PGA Tour.
The fund announced in April that it would stop financing LIV after the 2026 season. Chief executive Scott O'Neil said in August that new money had been secured, and the tour completed its schedule. That funding did not survive the relaunch plan.
What happens to the players
Koepka left in January and applied to return to the PGA Tour. DeChambeau, the 2024 US Open winner, has been given a place on the DP World Tour from 2027. Cameron Smith's plans are unclear. Players who want back on the PGA Tour may face a one-year suspension.
For the PGA Tour, the exit removes its richest rival but leaves the question that created LIV in the first place: whether a schedule built on sponsor money can pay enough to keep the best players from taking guaranteed deals elsewhere.
For the players who stayed, the calculation is now about ranking points and invitations. Several have already lost world ranking ground after the league stopped receiving points, which makes the route back through qualifying schools longer than it looks.