The Public Investment Fund is walking away from LIV Golf, ending its financial backing after the current season concludes. The decision, first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, threatens to unravel the golf tour just four years after its Saudi-backed launch as a high-spending rival to the PGA Tour.
LIV plans to notify players and staff by Thursday that the funding will stop once this season wraps up, according to multiple reports. CNBC confirmed the PIF withdrawal. Neither the Saudi fund nor LIV Golf responded to requests for comment.
The move arrives after weeks of speculation following PIF's announcement of a recalibrated investment strategy through 2030. The fund signaled a pivot toward what it called "sustained value creation" and "raising the efficiency of investments," language that suggested tighter spending ahead.
LIV lured marquee PGA Tour names with eye-watering guaranteed contracts and tournament purses. Major winner Bryson DeChambeau and other star players jumped at the money. But the tour never cracked mainstream television viewership or built a grassroots fan base, leaving its business model dependent on the Saudi appetite to subsidize golf at massive scale.
The news throws the status of its roster into immediate question. Players signed multiyear deals expecting sustained funding. Now they face the prospect of unemployment or forced negotiations with other tours.
LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil struck a defiant tone earlier this month when addressing dissolution rumors, saying the tour would "work like crazy to create a business plan to keep us going." That pledge now runs headlong into the hard reality that the bank is closing.
Author James Rodriguez: "The Saudis gambled big on golf's vanity and lost interest when no one watched."
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