Follow us on Google Discover The future of LIV Golf very much remains up in the air.
While LIV Golf may well survive, the landscape will look totally different for them from the start of next season onwards after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund terminated their financial support of the league at the end of the 2026 season.
LIV Golf 2.0 will undoubtedly operate on a much smaller scale moving forward and while the league’s struggles over the past few months have been obvious to see, the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour have gone from strength to strength.
LIV Golf‘s death knell came in July when the DP World Tour and the PGA TOUR announced a multi-year partnership with the Asian Tour.
The two tours partnered with the Asian Tour to help provide commercial and playing opportunities, establishing pathways for Asian Tour members to progress onto the DP and PGA Tours.
The DP World Tour’s alliance with the Asian Tour caught LIV Golf by surprise, and it proved to be a key move which the league was unable to recover from.
DP World Tour chief draws battle lines by sending message to LIV Golf
Ben Cowen, the DP World Tour’s chief tournament and operations officer, spoke with Golf Digest about what the future may hold.
“Look, it has been a constant battle for the last five years with LIV going after events that were on our schedule, going after venues that were on our schedule, going after sponsors that were part of our schedule as well,” Cowen said.
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“Everyone can say that’s fine, that’s business. We spent a lot of time talking to our partners and explaining to them why they should stay within our ecosystem as the global tour. The global TV distribution we have, the players that we have who have proven themselves when they get a card onto the PGA Tour. We were the ones that were providing the real value and that value has really been there for over 50 years as the European Tour, now the DP World Tour.
“There were a lot of rumors, that a lot of national opens, including Australia, were going to go to with LIV. It was great when we were able to announce the Australian Open continuing with us in partnership with the PGA Tour. That’s taken a lot of hard work, a lot of time and effort. It’s been a rocky road, but I feel we’re in a really good place.”
DP World Tour were threatened by LIV Golf, says Cowen
Ben Cowen explained how LIV Golf provided a constant threat to the DP World Tour over the past four years.
“Yeah, it was frustrating to see national opens being approached, but it’s also nice to know that people actually value what you’ve been doing,“ Cowen admitted.
“They want to try and take the product that you’ve been building up for years, so there’s a little bit of mixed emotions, but we’ve just got to concentrate on what we do. The LIV guys were obviously just trying to do what was best for their business at the time, and we’ll continue to do that ourselves.
“But it’s frustrating as well without a doubt, when everyone is now talking about trying to complete rather than compete. For us, it very much felt like a competition and a threat from outside and we had to do what we could to try and protect our business.
“Without a doubt, they were and are a competitor. I don’t think anyone could say otherwise. If they say they weren’t, that’s an interesting take on it.”
There you have it. LIV Golf presented a very genuine threat to the DP World Tour.
While LIV won the battles early on, the DP World Tour have clearly won the war.
Ben Cowen has drawn the battle lines by making a statement directed at LIV Golf, and it will be interesting to see whether the league is capable of bouncing back and competing with the DP World Tour once again without the financial might of the Saudis behind them.
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