LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil sought to quell hypothesis concerning the league’s monetary future on Wednesday night with a memo to his employees that mentioned the 2026 season will proceed as deliberate with out interruption and “at full throttle”.
The memo, a replica of which was despatched to The Related Press, adopted an extended day of reviews suggesting Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund was on the verge of chopping its monetary backing of the upstart league.
The publication Cash in Sport reported in February that LIV Golf already had spent $5.3 billion and was projected to surpass $6 billion by the top of the 12 months.
“I need to be crystal clear: Our season continues precisely as deliberate, uninterrupted and at full throttle,” O’Neil mentioned. “Whereas the media panorama is commonly stuffed with hypothesis, our actuality is outlined by the work we do on the grass. We’re heading into the guts of our 2026 schedule with the complete vitality of an organisation that’s larger, louder, and extra influential than ever earlier than.”
Left unclear was how lengthy the funding would final for LIV Golf, which launched in June 2022 by paying roughly $1 billion in signing bonuses to a few of the PGA Tour’s greatest names, akin to Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm.
Prize cash for people and the 13 groups was raised to $30 million this 12 months.
Koepka since has left LIV and was allowed to rejoin the PGA Tour this 12 months with stipulations. Patrick Reed additionally left LIV and is enjoying a European tour schedule this 12 months. He’s nearly sure to be eligible to return to the PGA Tour in 2027 by way of the European tour factors race.
Questions on LIV’s future funding have been raised because the Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia revealed a brand new five-year funding technique.
“The 2026-30 technique marks a pure evolution as PIF strikes from a interval of fast progress and acceleration to a brand new section of sustained worth creation, with a strengthened concentrate on maximising influence, elevating the effectivity of investments, and making use of the best requirements of governance, transparency and institutional excellence,” the PIF mentioned in a launch.
The plan was developed earlier than the U.S.-Israel conflict in opposition to Iran. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor who loves golf and was behind LIV Golf, instructed the London-based Monetary Instances, “In fact, the conflict would add extra stress to reposition some priorities.”
LIV gamers at Chapultepec Golf Membership for LIV Golf Mexico, which begins on Thursday, didn’t have solutions as hypothesis ran rampant all through the day.
One participant mentioned Al-Rumayyan met with gamers within the first week of March in Hong Kong and mentioned funding for LIV was set by way of 2032. The participant spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of the assembly was non-public. The participant additionally mentioned O’Neil arrived in Mexico Metropolis on Wednesday and was to fulfill with the gamers.
LIV Golf promoted the Mexico occasion on Wednesday night on social media with the message, “Gradual information day? We’re ON.”
LIV has performed 5 occasions this 12 months, in Saudi Arabia, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Africa. It celebrated an inspirational victory at its greatest occasion in Australia when Anthony Kim gained after the American had been away for 12 years whereas battling drug and alcohol dependancy.
DeChambeau gained the final two occasions in playoffs, and this week tries to turn out to be the primary LIV participant to win three in a row. DeChambeau, a two-time U.S. Open champion, missed the minimize within the Masters final week.
LIV’s focus has been on a world attain, with its first U.S. event not scheduled till Might 7-10 at Trump Nationwide in northern Virginia.
“The lifetime of a startup motion is commonly outlined by these moments of stress,” O’Neil mentioned. “We signed up for this as a result of we imagine in disrupting the established order. We’ve got confronted headwinds because the leap, and we’ve answered each time with resilience and style. Now, we reply by doing what we do finest: placing on probably the most compelling present in sports activities.”
He ended his observe to the employees by saying, “We’re pioneers, and whereas the street isn’t all the time clean, the vacation spot is price each mile. Let’s exit and present the world why LIV Golf is the way forward for the sport.”
LIV is within the second 12 months of a Fox Sports activities tv deal, with the community placing it on varied platforms like FS1. The opening spherical of the Mexico occasion has three hours on the Fox Sports activities app. The earlier two years, its U.S. broadcast companion was the CW.
Revealed on Apr 17, 2026