LIV Golf is winding down operations, lawyer says in bankruptcy hearing

LIV Golf is winding down operations instead of launching a new version because of a lack of financial support.

A lawyer representing the organization announced the decision in a bankruptcy court hearing Thursday in New Jersey.

“The debtors are not currently proceeding with the LIV 2.0 plan,” Matthew Williams of Gibson Dunn said. “Instead, the debtors are toggling to a value-maximizing wind-down in their business."

LIV Golf lost Saudi Arabia funding in April after having spent more than $5 billion since 2022. LIV filed for bankruptcy in September. Since announcing plans for a new version, top players like Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton have bailed.

The league was originally run by Greg Norman. A few months after the start of the Iran war, PIF changed its investment strategy in April and said it would no longer pay for LIV Golf after the 2026 season.

The Asian Tour, which received a financial boost from LIV for an International Series, decided in July to renew an alliance with the PGA Tour and European tour.

And as LIV was trying to emerge from bankruptcy, filed on Sept. 8, the European tour laid down a crushing ultimatum by saying anyone who signed with LIV 2.0 need not apply for membership in the commercially known DP World Tour.

That would make European players ineligible for the Ryder Cup.

Guy Kinnings, the European tour CEO, called out LIV in an interview with The Scotsman when he said, “But we also have to protect the tour against an entity who spent, so we are told, over $7 billion, with one of their aims being to ‘destroy the DP World Tour.’”

Rahm, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen and Tyrrell Hatton also said they would no longer stay with LIV, and the rival league also lost young players like David Puig of Spain and Tom McKibbin of Northern Ireland.

The year began with Brooks Koepka getting out of his LIV deal with one year remaining, and the PGA Tour created a path — with financial penalties — to return. Patrick Reed chose not to extend his deal and now is poised to return to the PGA Tour next year through his performance in Europe.

Rahm had said on Tuesday he would be willing to pay the same price as Koepka, though it was unlikely that same deal would be offered.

LIV 2.0 was pushing player equity and prize money that was more than half the $20 million purses for individuals when it began in 2022. LIV’s final event was in August in Indianapolis, won by Michael La Sasso. He failed to get through the second stage of European tour Q-school last week.

___

See AP’s full golf coverage here