LIV Golf is still going, but its days seem numbered and probably always were
LIV made a lot of noise, caused some nervous days at the PGA Tour and even forced some positive changes. But ultimately, it never did enough to make a real challenge.
There doesn't appear to be much life left in LIV, which, even in the early days of its unlimited cash and immeasurable bluster, seemed inevitable.
LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil emailed his staff Wednesday that the 2026 season will continue "as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle. " That includes this weekend's event in Mexico.
He didn't address all the media reports that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is going to pull funding after dropping about $5 billion in five years on the oil-pipeline-funded pipe dream that it could create the world's preeminent professional golf tour.
Whoever first sold the PIF on this idea, sold it a bill of goods. A lot of people got rich off it, golfers mainly, both in huge LIV salaries and eventual PGA Tour reforms. The gravy train was likely always going to end though.
Soon enough, sure enough, the losses were going to be too great, the American television ratings too small and the United States-based PGA Tour simply too deep-rooted to be toppled.
The initial argument was that the Saudis had a bottomless well of money to waste. Maybe. But what they never had, and no one has, is an endless willingness to be embarrassed for playing the fool.