What is happening with LIV Golf?

I have always believed that in the long term LIV Golf is a financially unsustainable model - and it is beginning to look like its Saudi paymasters may agree.

The Daily Telegraph wrote that tour executives were called to a meeting in New York and rumours persist that the end may be in sight. It has become increasingly clear that proposed merger between LIV and the PGA Tour remains as unlikely as it has ever been.

LIV have already lost Patrick Reed and Brooks Koepka, while star attraction Bryson DeChambeau has refused to commit himself beyond his current contract.

Sergio Garcia insists that the players were told earlier this year that their futures were secure.

He said: "Yasir [Al-Rumayyan, governor of PIF] told us at the beginning of the year that he is behind us, that they have a project of many years. There are always rumours and I cannot comment anything more than what we know."

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) released details of a five-year economic strategy with the emphasis on sustainable investment that will deliver financial and infrastructure returns domestically. That runs contrary to the way it has been run to date.

PIF has spent a whopping $5bn-plus on LIV since its 2021 launch, but prize money and bonus payments have been reduced this year.

A well-informed source told the Guardian newspaper that as well as domestic projects such as the 2034 World Cup, PIF is focusing its sports budget on football and esport, with golf no longer a priority.

PIF is also ending its relationship with the Women’s Tennis Association, and its three-year deal to host the WTA finals in Riyadh will not be extended after it expires in November.

Rumours that LIV could soon be shut down had begun to circulate on social media, fuelled by the fact that officials from the tour declined to respond.

The LIV rumours began on Tuesday evening with a post on X from the golf account Monday Q Info, run by journalist Ryan French, in which he claimed that multiple sources had informed him that "a bombshell announcement on LIV’s future is imminent".

It throws into doubt the futures of players such as Garcia, Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Dustin Johnson, Talor Gooch and many more. Deals have already been done to facilitate the returns of Koepka and Reed but Rahm is adamant that he will not be paying any fines. It will be fascinating to see whether his stance now changes.

Late on Wednesday, numerous publications and journalists, citing high level sources, reported that business would be continuing as normal, for now, with the ongoing season set to progress as scheduled, but the longer term picture remains uncertain, with the Financial Times having earlier reported that the PIF was close to making a decision that would cut off its support to LIV.

LIV Golf's CEO, Scott O'Neill, wrote in a memo that has been widely circulated: "Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle.

"While the media landscape is often filled with speculation, our reality is defined by the work we do on the grass. We are heading into the heart of our 2026 schedule with the full energy of an organization that is bigger, louder, and more influential than ever before.

"The life of a startup movement is often defined by these moments of pressure. We signed up for this because we believe in disrupting the status quo. We have faced headwinds since the jump, and we’ve answered every time with resilience and grace. Now, we answer by doing what we do best: putting on the most compelling show in sports."

So now we wait and all the indications are that we will not have long before we find out.