{"id":787554,"date":"2026-09-30T15:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T15:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/787554\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T15:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T15:30:09","slug":"richard-bland-liv-golfs-future-is-down-to-the-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/787554\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Bland: LIV Golf&#8217;s future is down to the players"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">LIV golfer Richard Bland has said the future of the league will rely on &#8220;player support&#8221; with members still in the dark as to what will happen going forward. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In early September LIV <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/golf\/articles\/ce8x39wj5p1o\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">filed for bankruptcy protection<\/a> with at least $45m (\u00a333m) owed to players.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">This followed news in April that the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/golf\/articles\/cp3p9we4v0yo\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">end its multibillion dollar backing of the tour<\/a> at the end of the season, leaving the future of the series in doubt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In August, the tour announced it had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/golf\/articles\/c1e14g1d192o\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">secured an unnamed lead investor<\/a> to keep the competition running in 2027, a proposal widely branded as &#8216;LIV 2.0&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Southampton-based Bland joined in 2022 and admitted he is yet to definitively know what will happen going forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The funding is all there,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/play\/p0pd5hnr\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he told BBC South Today.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Once everything does get sorted out with LIV 1.0 it&#8217;s then down to player support and who is going to sign up for the new league.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Even though the funding is there, theoretically there&#8217;s no guarantee that LIV 2.0 will continue if they don&#8217;t have the player support.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Since entering the sport in 2021, LIV has signed some of the biggest names in golf, with Bryson Dechambeau and Jon Rahm among the notable figures to leave the PGA Tour for the lucrative venture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">According to Bland, a meeting took place at the start of the year where players were told that tour would be financially backed for the next six years. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But in April around an event in Mexico, reports started to emerge that this would not be the case as PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan stepped down from the board.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We were told in Riyadh in around late January that the league was going to be funded through to 2032,&#8221; Bland added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;That was from Yasir as well, so from the horse&#8217;s mouth so to speak.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Everyone came away from that player meeting really positive and excited for the future, then four months later in Mexico to find out that the tour was going to get wrapped up, a lot of guys couldn&#8217;t believe it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s very sad and it&#8217;s been a very difficult journey to navigate, more so for staff and Scott [O&#8217;Neil, LIV CEO] to forge a pathway forward, we&#8217;re still a bit in the dark with how it&#8217;s going to be going forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIV golfer Richard Bland has said the future of the league will rely on &#8220;player support&#8221; with members&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-787554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}