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LIV CEO’s rallying email to staff did not refer to 2027
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Without alternative funding future is bleak for rebel tour
Several leading names in the world of golf are facing career limbo at the end of 2026, amid expectation Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will withdraw backing for the LIV Tour. While the likelihood is Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm will be afforded a pathway back to the PGA Tour, the future for others who made lucrative switches to LIV is far more uncertain.
LIV’s executives, who were in bullish form over the circuit’s future when on site at last week’s Masters, subsequently attended a summit with the PIF in New York. There, the financial impact of the Middle East crisis is believed to have been specifically cited for a sudden and dramatic change in the fund’s approach. Insiders believe the PIF will seek to apply force majeure in relation to events in the Middle East as a means to extricate itself from contracts beyond the end of this year. Saudi Arabia appears more generally to be shifting focus on sporting projects in the coming years. Without access to alternative funding, LIV’s outlook is bleak given each event alone carries a prize fund of $30m.
