Garcia says LIV Golf told players league would last for years

Sergio Garcia said LIV Golf’s players were told earlier this year that the circuit was built to last for "many years," a statement that now sits at the center of fresh questions about how firmly the Saudi-backed league’s future was sold to athletes, sponsors and broadcasters.

Garcia said Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the chairman of LIV Golf and governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, told players at the start of 2026 that he was "behind us" and that the league was a long-term project. Garcia added that he and other captains had not been told of any imminent announcement, even as rumors spread that the breakaway circuit could be headed for a major change.

The speculation accelerated after social media posts on Tuesday night, April 14, 2026, and reports that an announcement could be imminent. Executives were then said to have been summoned to an emergency summit in New York, adding to the sense that something significant was being discussed behind the scenes. Yet players at Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City said preparations continued as normal ahead of LIV’s next event.

That event, scheduled to begin Thursday, April 16, 2026, is the sixth tournament on the 2026 LIV calendar, which currently lists 14 stops. The circuit’s planned U.S. debut this year remains on the books at Trump National Golf Club in Washington, D.C., from May 7-10, a sign that the public schedule has not yet changed even as the private chatter around the league has intensified.

LIV Golf launched in 2021 as a Saudi-backed rival to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, drawing stars such as Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm and Dustin Johnson away from the established tours and splitting men’s professional golf. More recently, Bryson DeChambeau and Joaquín Niemann have also been among the league’s biggest names, underscoring how much star power the circuit assembled in a short period.

The financial backdrop is now under sharper scrutiny. Reports have said Saudi Arabia has already pumped nearly $5 billion into LIV over four years, while the Public Investment Fund is considering a 2026-30 strategy that would put more emphasis on domestic investment and investment efficiency. That has sharpened concern about whether the league can keep spending at its current level.

For now, LIV is still posting tee times and moving ahead with its Mexico City event. But the gap between the promises made to players and the collapse rumors now circulating has turned the league’s leadership into a credibility test that goes beyond golf, touching the confidence of everyone who bought into the circuit’s long-term pitch.