HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – Embattled LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil has spent the week on the defensive following multiple reports that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund intends to end its funding of the league. But last week at the Masters there was at least one friendly face, albeit from an unexpected corner.
Multiple sources confirmed that O’Neil and PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp met at the international pavilion at Augusta National. The interaction, which was in a public setting that included leaders from various international golf organizations, was characterized as cordial.
Rolapp and O’Neil have a relationship that predates their move to golf, but there doesn’t seem to have been any serious or substantial conversations between the two leaders of the rival organizations.
“I’m interested in doing whatever makes the PGA Tour better,” Rolapp told former ESPN anchor Trey Wingo on his podcast on Wednesday. “Fans want the best players playing together. Having said that, I don’t know what the circumstances are. Once there’s clarity, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
In a memo sent to players and staff late Wednesday, O’Neil wrote that LIV Golf’s “season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle.”
“The reality is you’re funded through the season and then you work like crazy to create a business and a business plan to keep us going. But that’s not different than any other private equity business in the history of mankind,” O’Neil said this week in an interview with TNT, LIV Golf’s international broadcast partner.
The second round of the LIV Golf event in Mexico City is scheduled to begin Friday afternoon.
LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil confirmed that the league is only funded through the rest of the 2026 season and then he’ll “work like crazy” to keep it going.