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LIV Golf will wind down and liquidate, ending the five-year breakaway
LIV Golf is shutting down. In a hearing that lasted 13 minutes in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey on Thursday, league attorney Matthew Williams told the court LIV is no longer proceeding with the LIV 2.0 relaunch and will instead move to a “value-maximizing wind-down” of the business (Golfweek). LIV confirmed the decision in a statement Thursday afternoon; the liquidation process begins Monday, Nov. 9, with the league’s remaining assets to be sold off (Golfweek).
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The end came through the financing. BC Partners Credit, which agreed last month to provide up to $300 million to fund a player-owned LIV 2.0, withdrew this week after the league could not secure enough player commitments for 2027 (USA TODAY). Only four players had publicly committed to LIV 2.0, and more than a dozen notable players had said publicly they would not join; Jon Rahm, the league’s best player, left in September (Golfweek). The Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, which spent more than $5 billion on the league after launching it in June 2022, ended its funding in April, and LIV filed for Chapter 11 protection on Sept. 8 (Associated Press). “We just couldn’t get to the level of combined financial and player support necessary for a viable LIV 2.0 within the required timeline,” Williams said in court (USA TODAY).
What is left is process. LIV’s attorneys intend to file the wind-down plan by Nov. 9; the creditors committee meets Nov. 20, and the next hearing in the case is Nov. 24 (Golfweek). The league’s bankruptcy filings show estimated liabilities between $500 million and $1 billion, owed to creditors that include media partners, vendors and charitable organizations (GOLF.com). In its statement, LIV said it would remain open to offers from third parties that could get more value from its assets during the wind-down (Reuters). CEO Scott O’Neil called building the league “the round of a lifetime for all of us” (Golfweek).
The players’ next step is not settled. The PGA Tour, asked for comment, said it did not have a statement “at this time” (GOLF.com). CEO Brian Rolapp said in September that the Tour will not re-introduce the Returning Member Program that brought Brooks Koepka back this year, and under current policy former LIV players face a one-year wait from their last LIV appearance before they are eligible to return (GOLF.com). The route Patrick Reed used is open to others: the top 10 finishers in the DP World Tour’s season standings earn PGA Tour cards, and Reed is currently No. 2 on that list (GOLF.com). Rahm plans to play the DP World Tour in 2027 (Reuters). Bryson DeChambeau, whose LIV contract expired after the 2026 season, has yet to apply for DP World Tour membership; the deadline is Nov. 16, and he is scheduled to play the Nedbank Golf Challenge in December (USA TODAY). Peter Malnati, who learned of the liquidation plan after his opening round in Mexico, put the league’s five years this way: “If their goal was truly to be additive to the golf space, they went about it in a strange way. If their goal was to be disruptive, they did a heck of a job” (Reuters).