{"id":932568,"date":"2026-10-14T09:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T09:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/932568\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T09:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T09:48:17","slug":"liv-golf-players-face-another-deadline-with-their-future-in-the-game-at-stake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/932568\/","title":{"rendered":"LIV Golf players face another deadline with their future in the game at stake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Captain Jon Rahm of Legion XIII reads his putt during the final round of LIV Golf Bedminster at Trump National Golf Club earlier this year in Bedminster, N.J.Montana Pritchard\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

For the second time in nine months, players who took the Saudi riches of LIV Golf are facing a tight deadline on their future. The first was a lot easier to ignore.<\/p>\n

Brooks Koepka in January became the first LIV player to return to the PGA Tour under financial penalties that included no access to equity grants for five years. CEO Brian Rolapp then offered the same deal to Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith.<\/p>\n

They had three weeks to decide and none took it. Why should they? The United States was not at war with Iran. Saudi Arabia\u2019s sovereign wealth fund was still pumping cash \u2013 more than US$5-billion and counting \u2013 into the LIV Golf League. They were rich and getting richer.<\/p>\n

The deadline set by the European tour<\/a> this week is far more daunting.<\/p>\n

As LIV is trying to emerge from bankruptcy without Saudi funding, European tour CEO Guy Kinnings delivered a \u201ctake it or leave it\u201d ultimatum to anyone seeking a home on his circuit \u2013 take up membership, but only if they leave the new version of LIV Golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers need to make a choice,\u201d Kinnings said. \u201cWe have rules and regulations which are there to protect our tour and which our members must all abide by. Players who are not willing to comply with our rules and regulations should not be seeking to join our tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

They have three weeks to decide.<\/p>\n

European tour membership is the best alternative because the PGA Tour bans players for one year dating to their last LIV event. Those who want European membership have to disclose where they plan to play in 2027, and if that includes LIV 2.0, there\u2019s no need to apply.<\/p>\n

For European-born players \u2013 Tyrrell Hatton of England, Thomas Detry of Belgium and Spaniards David Puig and Josele Ballester come to mind \u2013 no membership means no chance at playing in the Ryder Cup.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil looks on during Day 4 of LIV Golf New York at Trump National Golf Club earlier this year in Bedminster, N.J.Jordan Bank\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Jon Rahm already has made clear he is leaving LIV after reviewing the proposed terms of LIV 2.0. The prize funds are no longer US$20-million. The schedule is 10 tournaments, leaving plenty of weeks to play elsewhere, except that the PGA Tour and now the European tour are not options. Maybe they still have their MENA Tour cards.<\/p>\n

Scott O\u2019Neil, the CEO at LIV Golf, has been preaching \u201ccomplete, not compete,\u201d as a way of saying tours around the world should all work together. This is a different message than the one his predecessor, Greg Norman, had in 2022 when LIV Golf launched by spending more than US$1-billion to lure away stars who couldn\u2019t ignore the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an opportunity to start a movement that will change the course of history by bringing new and open competition to the sport we all love,\u201d Norman said.<\/p>\n

Saudi-backed LIV was a threat that thrived on disruption. Bankruptcy LIV wants cooperation.<\/p>\n

BC Partners Credit has pledged US$300-million for LIV 2.0 to move forward. The amended restructuring support agreement has moved the deadline to Oct. 25 to secure a \u201ccritical mass of players sufficient to operate a bona fide professional golf league.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s up to BC Partners to decide how many players \u2013 and who they are \u2013 can satisfy the requirement. And it can extend the deadline so it can move on with restructuring.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s a bleak future, certainly not as appealing as it was when LIV was burning through Saudi cash to tempt players to leave. Now the carrot is equity ownership in a league coming out of bankruptcy amid concerns everyone might jump ship.<\/p>\n

And then where do they swim? The European tour made its position clear. Rolapp, meanwhile, said in January there was no guarantee the program that brought Koepka back would be available again. He is guided by what\u2019s best for the PGA Tour. He also answers to a membership that stayed put when so many others were chasing generational wealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 225 guys with tour cards,\u201d Xander Schauffele said last week in Japan. \u201cAnd if you sat down and interviewed all of them, you\u2019re going to get probably three or four boxes of how guys feel. Some guys don\u2019t care, some guys are really ticked off, some guys want them to have a huge fine, some guys would let them back tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rolapp said in August the tour is built on players earning their place, it\u2019s a membership organization that has rules and rules only matter if they\u2019re enforced.<\/p>\n

The PGA Tour, trying to sort out final details of the new competition model for 2028 (where and when to play and who\u2019s going to pay for it), also has to consider a path back for the stars it lost who undoubtedly would make the tour better.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neil and Ted Goldthorpe, partner and head of BC Partners Credit, remain bullish on their path out of bankruptcy and into a future that appears as clear as haar on the East Lothian coast of Scotland.<\/p>\n

Goldthorpe was at the Sportico Invest London conference last week when he spoke to the financial sustainability of LIV 2.0.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the money that was spent created the ecosystem and infrastructure that exists today,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think we can run this in a financially sustainable way because much of that spending went to getting the players, and the players are here.\u201d<\/p>\n

But are they staying? The clock is ticking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Captain Jon Rahm of Legion XIII reads his putt during the final round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,622,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-932568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-golf","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}