{"id":803023,"date":"2026-10-15T04:10:33","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T04:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/803023\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T04:10:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T04:10:33","slug":"liv-golf-ceo-said-to-have-slipped-up-when-speaking-about-the-tours-saudi-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/803023\/","title":{"rendered":"LIV Golf CEO said to have slipped up when speaking about the tour\u2019s Saudi Funding\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

LIV Golf looks to be on its last legs. <\/p>\n

The tour is bankrupt without its Saudi funding; players are leaving in droves, and it\u2019s unclear how the tour will survive next season or beyond. The DP World Tour dealt LIV its latest blow, declaring that LIV players will not be eligible for membership. <\/p>\n

For years, LIV golfers have said they joined the tour because they\u2019re passionate about growing the game worldwide. Many insisted it had nothing to do with the eye-watering sums of money the Saudi Public Investment Fund was throwing at them. <\/p>\n

But what LIV CEO Scott O\u2019Neil said recently has exposed those comments for being total nonsense. <\/p>\n

LIV Golf CEO lets slip on Saudi Public Investment Fund <\/p>\n

The moment LIV Golf went bankrupt and the ridiculous amounts of money stopped being thrown at players, the talk about growing the game suddenly fell silent. Players have been leaving the tour in droves in recent weeks, and even CEO Scott O\u2019Neil has reflected on how the tour used to do business. <\/p>\n

Speaking at a Sportico Conference in London, O\u2019Neil said, \u201cSaudi-type business plan to, as I like to say, a business business plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

And with these comments, analyst Trey Wingo says O\u2019Neil put the entire \u201cgrow the game\u201d narrative to bed.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Trey Wingo Golf, \u201cIt bothers me immensely that of the LIV legacy, it\u2019s going to be generational players got more money and businesses, and independent contractors got shafted. That is something that\u2019s going to bother me immensely. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe 30 for 30 on LIV is going to be fantastic in all the good and possibly bad ways it could be. Here\u2019s what I would say about that. Yes, but they never would have gotten the players to go if they didn\u2019t give them obscene amounts of money.<\/p>\n

What do you make of the news that LIV Golf has now filed for bankruptcy? <\/p>\n

LIV 1.0 looks to be officially dead\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Scott <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s the problem. It was never about growing the game. That was a ruse. It was a con. You know, it was sleight of hand. It was it was look over at my left hand when my right hand is over here. The whole thing was never about building a sustainable business model. <\/p>\n

\u201cScott O\u2019Neil said that at the Sportico Conference in London. \u2018We went from a Saudi business model to actually having an actual business model.\u2019 I mean, that\u2019s it in a nutshell. It was never a business model to begin with. It was an attempt to be a disruptive force in one of the greatest sports in the world so they could have a seat at the table. That\u2019s all it ever was supposed to be. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd some credit I\u2019ll give Graham McDowell and the others who finally acknowledge that when they\u2019re like, \u2018Yeah, I never wish I\u2019d spouted this grow the game stuff. I just went for the obscene checks.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that some players, like McDowell, have backtracked on their LIV Golf stance, but many have tried to sneak off silently into the night. At least we can all now recognize that it was only ever about the money. <\/p>\n

Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n

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\"\"\/ Add to Preferred Sources <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover LIV Golf looks to be on its last legs. The tour is bankrupt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,11769,237574,101,263730,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-803023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-liv-golf","tag-scott-ou2019neil","tag-sports","tag-trey-wingo","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803023","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=803023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}