LIV Golf’s chaos would be fitting ending to league’s run | Golf Insider
When LIV Golf burst on the scene in 2021 and teed off in 2022, the new league talked about changing the game.
Fast forward to 2026, and it didn’t change the game. But it was as newsworthy as a hard-to-find league could be.
As the league heads into its final event of the year in Indianapolis with a purse that has been cut from $20 million to $10.1 million, after canceling a team event in Michigan that was supposed to be the finale, doubts about the future, lawsuits and unhappy players define LIV Golf.
“It’s a complete disaster and just a special kind of chaos,” Brendan Porath said on “The Shotgun Start” podcast. “When you factor in the on-course embarrassment and all the legal and financial ramifications that are going on.”
Just a few weeks ago, LIV CEO Scott O’Neill was talking about new investors and creating a “LIV 2.0″ after losing the funding of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. That may still happen. But going into the season finale, the league shutting down seems more plausible.
On Tuesday, the players met with the new investor, who has not been named. Some expressed confidence in a new look while others, including Bryson DeChambeau, declined comment.
“I think there’s a lot of excitement in the room,” LIV golfer Brendan Steele told reporters. “I think getting the players to be comfortable with how we want to move forward, I think, is the most important thing.”
But while being sued for unpaid invoices, canceling events and concerts while your best player, Jon Rahm, is rumored to be wanting out, how can LIV Golf feel confident about any kind of future?
Considering all the big money LIV handed out to Rahm, DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, who is back on the PGA Tour, the league never gained traction and had a relatively small but loyal following. And they helped the PGA Tour in the long run with the tour increasing purses and heading into a new era in 2028.
So would any of those LIV players help the PGA Tour?
“I’d argue: Have they brought value to LIV? You know? I think the PGA Tour is in a really good spot,” Rory McIlroy said Wednesday about Rahm and DeChambeau during his BMW Championship press conference.
No. 1-ranked Scottie Scheffler took a different approach than McIlroy.
“When we talk about the best players, you know, LIV has a few players that are really good,” Scheffler said. “I think the depth that we have on our tour is a bit unmatched, but I think when you look at the higher levels of LIV Golf there’s definitely some players that would provide a lot of value to the Tour and guys that I love competing against as well.”
O’Neill spoke Wednesday in Indianapolis and remains “very excited” about the future, and they have a “compressed deadline” to get the deal done. He also emphasized having plenty of top players on board with next season.
“The entirety of our focus is to get to this transaction and get through it. Without the players, that becomes very difficult. I have a good level of confidence in my conversation that we’ll have a critical mass of the right players to move this league forward,” he said.
LIV Golf has been a mystery since the beginning with Greg Norman as the CEO. They have always been a guessing game and, right now, it seems like that’s not going to change.
What they’re saying
“I do think, like, without having that mindset of trying to improve, I wouldn’t have gotten out here. I wouldn’t have had the career that I’ve had up to this point.”
— Viktor Hovland on improving his game after dominating the FedEx Cup playoffs three years ago
Skins game
Odds to win BMW Championship
Scottie Scheffler +310
Ludvig Aberg +1500
Rory McIlroy +1600
Xander Schauffele +1600
Sam Burns +2000
Cameron Young +2000
Wyndham Clark +3000
This week in golf
PGA Tour
BMW Championship
Site: St. Louis.
Course: Bellerive CC. Yardage: 7,448. Par: 72.
Prize money: $20 million. Winner’s share: $3.6 million.
Television: Thursday-Friday, 8-10 a.m. (ESPN), 1-5 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. (Golf Channel), 1-4 p.m. (CBS); Sunday, 10 a.m.-noon (Golf Channel), noon-4 p.m. (CBS).
Defending champion: Scottie Scheffler.
LIV Golf League
LIV Golf Indianapolis
Site: Westfield, Ind.
Course: The Club at Chatham Hills. Yardage: 7,273. Par: 70.
Prize money: $10.1 million. Winner’s share: $2.02 million.
Television: Thursday-Friday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. (Fox Sports app); Saturday, noon-3 p.m. (Fox); Sunday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. (Fox).
Defending champion: Sebastian Muñoz.
LPGA Tour
CPKC Women’s Open
Site: Edmonton, Alberta.
Course: Royal Mayfair GC. Yardage: 6,452. Par: 70.
Prize money: $2.75 million. Winner’s share: $412,500.
Television: Thursday-Sunday, 4-5 p.m. (Golf Channel mobile), 5-7 p.m. (Golf Channel).
Defending champion: Brooke Henderson.
DP World Tour
Nexo Championship
Site: Aberdeen, Scotland.
Course: Trump International GC. Yardage: 7,439. Par: 72.
Prize money: $3 million. Winner’s share: $500,000.
Television: Thursday-Friday, 5:30-10 a.m. (Golf Channel), 10-10:30 a.m. (Golf Channel mobile); Saturday, 5:30-10 a.m. (Golf Channel); Sunday, 4:30-9:30 a.m. (Golf Channel).
Defending champion: Grant Forrest.
PGA Tour Champions
Rogers Charity Classic
Site: Calgary, Alberta.
Course: Canyon Meadows Golf & CC. Yardage: 7,093. Par: 70.
Prize money: $2.5 million. Winner’s share: $375,000.
Television: Friday, 2-5 p.m. (Golf Channel mobile), 8-10 p.m. (Golf Channel-tape delay); Saturday-Sunday, 2-3 p.m. (Golf Channel mobile), 3-5 p.m. (Golf Channel).
Defending champion: Richard Green.
Korn Ferry Tour
AdventHealth Championship
Site: Kansas City, Missouri.
Course: Blue Hills CC. Yardage: 7,383. Par: 72.
Prize money: $1 million. Winner’s share: $180,000.
Television: Thursday-Friday, 10 a.m.-noon (Golf Channel), noon-1 p.m. (Golf Channel mobile); Saturday, noon-1 p.m. (Golf Channel mobile), 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel); Sunday, noon-3 p.m. (Golf Channel).
Defending champion: S.H. Kim.
FedEx Cup standings
- Scottie Scheffler 4,873 $20,511,275
- Matt Fitzpatrick 3,426 $14,118,067
- Cameron Young 3,183 $14,302,482
- Si Woo Kim 2,701 $9,610,944
- Wyndham Clark 2,542 $10,636,186
- Sam Burns 2,416 $8,743,540
- Chris Gotterup 2,288 $7,882,219
- Tommy Fleetwood 2,247 $6,984,605
- Collin Morikawa 2,242 $8,601,712
- Ludvig Åberg 2,130 $6,835,271
- Xander Schauffele 1,981 $7,275,225
- Jacob Bridgeman 1,761 $7,678,365
- Rory McIlroy 1,745 $8,506,606
- Russell Henley 1,740 $6,019,835
- Akshay Bhatia 1,730 $7,514,799
- Hideki Matsuyama 1,600 $5,526,457
- Ryan Gerard 1,540 $5,987,898
- Min Woo Lee 1,481 $5,693,252
- Kristoffer Reitan 1,473 $6,227,739
- Alex Fitzpatrick 1,416 $4,590,614
- J.J. Spaun 1,414 $4,878,908
- Viktor Hovland 1,397 $6,371,326
- Alex Smalley 1,375 $5,118,908
- Justin Rose 1,355 $4,939,356
- Ryan Fox 1,352 $5,468,659
- Tom Kim 1,341 $4,663,710
- Adam Scott 1,315 $4,149,268
- Kurt Kitayama 1,259 $5,047,158
- Bud Cauley 1,258 $4,493,948
- Rickie Fowler 1,258 $4,870,736
- Gary Woodland 1,256 $4,409,712
- J.T. Poston 1,237 $5,752,029
- Nicolai Højgaard 1,208 $4,822,868
- Alex Noren 1,197 $4,169,215
- Jake Knapp 1,196 $3,882,296
- Robert MacIntyre 1,191 $4,353,388
- Aaron Rai 1,146 $5,094,602
- Ben Griffin 1,124 $4,103,407
- Sepp Straka 1,122 $4,307,687
- Sungjae Im 1,052 $3,190,077
- Michael Thorbjornsen 1,051 $3,750,041
- Nicolas Echavarria 1,040 $3,768,179
- Patrick Cantlay 1,029 $3,923,596
- Justin Thomas 1,027 $3,654,774
- Ryo Hisatsune 908 $3,335,671
- Sahith Theegala 898 $3,182,448
- Michael Brennan 875 $2,818,668
- Eric Cole 875 $2,869,154
- Maverick McNealy 863 $3,306,377
- Matthew McCarty 845 $3,044,181