LIV Golf, which saved face at the Masters in Augusta with the performance of Tyrrell Hatton, which avoided a debacle, should have returned to calm this week in Mexico with the Chapultepec event, the sixth of the season. The tournament in Mexico City is one that, a priori, does not worry the circuit’s leaders in the calendar as last year’s response from the public was interesting, without reaching the level of Adelaide or Johannesburg.The only thing that has been routine has been the publication of the tee times, with Jon Rahm playing alongside Abraham Ancer and Cameron Smith in one of the two stellar matches. Everything else has been strange since Tuesday, when, “for technical reasons”, the press conference of the Barrika golfer, who leads the overall circuit, was suspended.The reputable financial newspaper ‘Financial Times’ even suggests that the drastic decision could be announced on Thursday that the Arab Public Fund (PIF) would stop pumping money into LIV Golf, which would leave a circuit that would be unlikely to find a replacement, as it is the only global company that manages assets worth one trillion euros. The reason is not so much the economic performance of the circuit, which was at least expected to last until 2030, but rather a reorganisation of the strategy due to the current geopolitics. It is said that it could be immediate or let the season end.
The hole for the players would not be as big because of the contracts they signed to join LIV, which most have already collected, as well as the fact that they would now have to fend for themselves on the DP World Tour or the PGA Tour, which would have to consider whether to apply the ‘Koepka clause’ to players it offered to recruit again
The storm began in the American night when the ‘X’ account Monday Q info announced that it had “heard from several sources that a bombshell announcement is about to be made about the future of LIV.” This gave way to an escalation of reports in which it was even suggested that the circuit would be shut down. “I have received information that Bin Salman has taken advantage of the war with Iran to pull the plug,” wrote Alan Shipnuck, a journalist with more than 30 years of experience who has published the best-selling book on Rory McIlroy.It is said that the top management of the circuit has been summoned to an emergency meeting in New York. The three teams consulted by MARCA, Fireballs, Torque and Legion XIII, said they were unaware of this meeting and claim that everything is proceeding normally. The players deny that there have been late payments, as some reports say, and that the money is reaching the golfers’ accounts. The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) has invested, according to some reports, $5.3 billion in the four years of LIV’s existence, and losses have already reached $1.46 billion.
In addition to the multimillion-dollar contracts led by Jon Rahm, with more than 300 million euros in cash and a percentage of his team, it is added that in each tournament 30 million dollars is put into play to be distributed among 57 players. The Spanish golfer has won $87.7 million in prize money, according to the earnings list, in just two and a third years
In principle, according to another source contacted by this newspaper, there could be changes at the top, although it would be strange if it affected Scott O’Neil, the CEO, who last year replaced Greg Norman, the legend with whom this circuit was born in 2022 and whose visceral hatred of the PGA Tour was a stick in the wheels for understanding. With O’Neil, among other things, a good agreement has been reached with South Africa, an experience in which the country’s president Cyril Ramaphosa has participated. “He was going to come for half an hour and stayed for more than two,” recalls one of those who was there.
It would not be the first business with Arab capital that is suddenly interrupted. Last year, the kingdom had reached an agreement with the IOC to hold the Esports Olympic Games in 2027, with an amount of 12 million that they had to pay to the Olympic body, which had already budgeted the first two – in an unsigned contract, only verbal – for 2026. The Arabs were not clear that their proposal would be a lobbying tool to have in the near future the Olympic Games of a lifetime and the agreement is, at least, stopped.
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