LIV golfer Bryson DeChambeau on Sunday said the new unnamed lead investor in LIV “has a new and fresh vision” for the circuit and while it “won’t be changing too much … it’ll be changing in the right ways,” according to Alan Bastable of GOLF. DeChambeau said, “If we’re able to get the players all aligned, which I feel like it’ll happen in some capacity, I think it’ll happen.” LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil walked the final few holes Sunday at Trump Bedminster with “a special guest at his side” — BC Partners Credit co-founder & Partner Ted Goldthorpe. Goldthorpe’s team “reportedly has been kicking the tires” on LIV Golf. LIV has not officially acknowledged BC Partners as its would-be funder, or lender. Adding “intrigue” to the dealmaking is the fact that BC Partners is a lender to GSE Worldwide, the agency that represents DeChambeau and fellow LIV golfer Joaquin Niemann. GSE said in a statement that “it had no involvement with BC Partners’ ‘potential financing transaction involving LIV Golf,’” nor that it “was it aware of any discussions happening between the two parties.” As Goldthorpe paced the property with O’Neil, he also “got a taste for the LIV tournament experience: pulsating music; corporate hospitality that is more night club than country club;” and, on this Sunday, an appearance by President Trump. Goldthorpe described his day as “great” but otherwise declined an interview request (GOLF, 8/9).

QUESTIONS ARISE: GOLF’s Dethier, Colgan & Schrock discussed LIV’s future in a roundtable, and Dethier wrote, “I do feel slightly more confident that the league will continue to exist.” Dethier: “I am not sure that makes me bullish on its future. … Its future remains shrouded in mystery.” Colgan added “we need to know who the investors are, how much money they’re giving, and when we’ll know for certain this agreement was signed.” Colgan added “we need more details” before we can say this latest investor plan is “objectively good news.” Schrock noted, “What kind of investment did they get? Is it a loan? How will they pay players who still have money remaining on their current contract? Will the PIF agree to pay those out to avoid any legal disputes? What does it cost to retain Bryson? Why is this happening?” Schrock: “There’s a lot of questions that went unanswered as Scott O’Neil and LIV celebrated … something” (GOLF.com, 8/9).

AWKWARD APPEARANCE: In a separate piece, Colgan wrote PIF Gov. Yasir Al-Rumayyan’s “head-spinning return” to LIV Golf on Sunday “quickly earned a place in the annals of ‘awkward post-breakup behavior’ history.” DeChambeau said Sunday, “I think he needed to have some conversations with the president. That was a whole ‘nother thing. I’m not going to get involved with that.” Al-Rumayyan’s appearance “might not have been all that unusual were it not for the venue: At a golf tournament for the league Al-Rumayyan’s Saudi PIF is in the late stages of dropping altogether.” Once a fixture at events, Al-Rumayyan has “all but stopped attending LIV gatherings” after his employer’s decision to stop funding LIV. That is, except for Sunday at Bedminster. DeChambeau’s answer underlined “a theme that has been growing harder to ignore as the Saudi PIF prepares to pull the ripcord out of LIV.” That theme: “Al-Rumayyan and his Saudi brethren have enacted an enormous amount of change upon golf as we know it over these last five years.” And yet in that time, “they’ve said almost nothing” (GOLF, 8/9).

VICTORY OVERSHADOWED: The N.Y. POST’s Mark Cannizzaro wrote all of the golf accomplishments over the weekend were “lost in the LIV circus that included Trump and his phalanx of Secret Service stationed in every nook and cranny of the vast property.” Trump, Al-Rumayyan and World Golf HOFer Gary Player congregated Sunday morning “in one of the large country club ballrooms, where there were a number of LIV players present.” Cannizzaro: “Welcome to the tumultuous world of LIV Golf, where the actual golf is mere background music … all of the off-course drama.” Of course, there is a “good share of golf fanatics who come to the tournament to get up-close looks at some of the game’s stars,” like Rahm and DeChambeau, with “ample viewing along the ropes with modest crowds.” But the “sobering LIV Golf reality is this: The golf is just a backdrop to the rest of the activity taking place — particularly with the tour’s murky future hanging in the balance” (N.Y. POST, 8/9).