Saudi Arabia to end LIV Golf funding after 2026 season

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund was set to end funding for LIV Golf after the 2026 season, a move that put the league’s future on a knife edge and reopened questions about whether a breakaway circuit built on sovereign money could stand on its own. LIV was expected to tell players and staff Thursday that the cash would stop, after years of spending designed to build a direct rival to the PGA Tour.

The decision lands as a stress test of the model that brought LIV to life in 2022. The league used massive guaranteed contracts to pull in marquee names and spent billions of dollars in the process, but reports have said it still struggled to turn that star power into durable attendance and viewership. Golf Digest said earlier this month that without immediate and significant backing, LIV would not be able to continue after this year.

CNBC reported that an independent committee of directors would evaluate strategic alternatives once the funding cutoff takes effect, while Bloomberg said LIV had an announcement scheduled Thursday about next business steps. Golf Channel reported that Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor who helped found LIV and served as its chairman, had stepped down from the league’s board leadership. A June LIV event in New Orleans had already been postponed, a sign that the schedule was already under pressure.

The funding decision also raises the question of who has leverage now. Some LIV player representatives have already reached out to the PGA Tour about possible returns, but any path back is expected to be more restrictive than the individualized exits seen before. That leaves players such as Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson staring at a narrower market than the one that lured them away.

The unresolved June 6, 2023 framework agreement among the PIF, the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour hangs over the moment as well. That proposed merger never closed, and the latest shift suggests the Saudi side may be recalibrating its sports spending even as LIV tries to keep its place in golf. If new investors do not arrive quickly, the league’s business case could collapse under the weight of the contracts and commitments it used to build itself.