LIV Golf\u2019s future is in doubt as multiple reports say its financial backer, Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund, mulls stopping funding for the golf circuit.<\/p>\n
Amid growing speculation that the league may be discontinued at the end of 2026, the Financial Times <\/a>reported that PIF is weighing the prospect of no longer funding LIV, with an announcement coming as soon as Thursday. Though the sovereign wealth fund’s estimated worth hovers near $940 billion, the Iran War and Middle Eastern conflict has taken a toll on the fund, according to reports. Saudi Arabia was already retreating from promised investments before the war, strained by budget shortfalls and unrealistic designs. The U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran accelerated the reckoning. Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has cut Saudi oil exports nearly in half. The kingdom has shut down<\/a> most of its offshore fields and this month halted one of the world’s largest petrochemical plants.<\/p>\n Additionally, on Wednesday, PIF announced its new strategy focusing on domestic programs rather than investing in global entities, as well as tightening its expenditures on projects that have not brought a return. PIF has injected more than $5 billion into LIV Golf since the league launched in fall 2021. However, the league has hemorrhaged<\/a> billions and failed to gain investors for its teams. LIV CEO Scott O\u2019Neil said earlier this year that it could be another decade before LIV sees profitability.<\/p>\n On Wednesday the The Athletic<\/a> reported that members of LIV\u2019s leadership team were informed on Masters Sunday that they would soon lose their positions, while the Telegraph<\/a> reported that LIV executives were brought to New York for an emergency meeting. Sources have told Golf Digest that LIV leadership is looking for alternative funding for the league but so far is coming up empty.<\/p>\n LIV Golf has an event this week in Mexico City. On Tuesday, press conferences were canceled and the media center closed for what was later described as a power outage. On Wednesday, the league held a press conference, where Sergio Garcia said players have not been informed of any developments. For the moment, it appears this week\u2019s event will be played as scheduled.<\/p>\n “Honestly, you know how these rumors are,” Garcia said. “There are always a lot of them. And I can\u2019t tell you anything more than what we already know.\u201d<\/p>\n LIV Golf has not responded to a Golf Digest request for comment. <\/p>\n This is a developing story and will continue to be updated. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIV Golf\u2019s future is in doubt as multiple reports say its financial backer, Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,6933,755,15811,14239,296247,296246,1747,85,155],"class_list":{"0":"post-609429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-bryson-dechambeau","11":"tag-golf","12":"tag-jon-rahm","13":"tag-liv-golf","14":"tag-liv-golf-future-in-doubt-as-saudi-arabias-pif-mulls-ending-funding","15":"tag-masters2026","16":"tag-pga-tour","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-story"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}