LIV Golf’s survival is now in question, while at least 1,000 creditors, including star players, await a bankruptcy hearing that is expected to focus on liquidating the league’s assets. Bankruptcy filings put LIV’s estimated liabilities at between $500m and $1bn.
BC Partners Credit withdrew its plan to finance a relaunch after LIV Golf failed to secure enough player commitments, the firm’s proposed rescue having depended on support from the golfers it hoped to retain.
LIV began in 2022 as a challenger to the PGA Tour, backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. It drew leading PGA Tour players including Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson.
PIF invested more than $5 billion in the league after its launch. It later said it would stop funding LIV after the 2026 season, prompting the league to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September.
BC Partners made an initial investment in October and set out a plan for LIV 2.0, a reorganised league with a shorter schedule and reduced prize money. The proposal would have put players in majority ownership.
The firm had pledged up to $300 million for the revamped operation. It later pulled the funding commitment it had originally made in August after concluding it could not secure enough player commitments before a looming deadline.
Only four golfers publicly committed to LIV 2.0: Richard Bland, Cameron Tringale, Brendan Steele and Ben Campbell.
Jon Rahm left LIV Golf on Tuesday, saying uncertainty about the league’s future and the proposed changes to its format had shaped his decision. Rahm said the new competition appeared to be moving away from the team format that first attracted him.
“There were too many unknowns at the time, and there’s still quite a few,” Rahm told reporters.
Sergio Garcia secured a release from his LIV contract in October. DeChambeau had taken a different view of the proposed relaunch, saying recently that the business model for the 2.0 era “makes a lot of sense” and that he hoped it would last “forever.”
Koepka accepted penalties and returned to the PGA Tour ahead of the 2026 season. The DP World Tour also reversed its policy allowing golfers to play events on both tours, requiring players such as Rahm to choose.
Rahm, DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson hold LIV’s largest unsecured claims, each totalling more than $5m. Rory McIlroy, a PGA Tour player and LIV critic, said of the league: “They took players; they took sponsors; they turned professional golf into an arms race.”
LIV is due to appear in US bankruptcy court in Trenton, New Jersey, on Thursday. The expected focus is the liquidation of its assets, though the final outcome of the hearing is unknown.
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