LIV Golf, the beleaguered international golf tour, is reportedly set to wind down after investment fund BC Partners dropped its plans to fund the league in 2027 and help its relaunch into LIV 2.0.
BC Partners’ withdrawal, first reported by the Financial Times newspaper, comes amid LIV Golf's failure to secure sufficient player commitments, including major stars Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia, with the investment fund deciding the project would not be viable.
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The future of the LIV 2.0 project relied heavily on the league being able to convince its best players to stay on, as a weakened field will not have the same pulling power for audiences and corporate sponsors.
A scheduled hearing in New Jersey bankruptcy court today is expected to start the liquidation process of LIV Golf.
Commenting on the latest news, Conrad Wiacek, head of analysis and consulting at GlobalData Sport, said: “LIV Golf being wound up should come as a surprise to no one. Given the lack of commercial partnerships established outside of a few sponsors, namely the lack of any sort of paid media rights deals, LIV Golf was simply unsustainable without significant capital backing, and once the PIF pulled the plug on their support, the end was nigh.
“With no money, the players had no incentive to stay. The ones still committed, like Bryson DeChambeau, had burnt their bridges so thoroughly that they were left with no option but to try and gut it out, but for the likes of Jon Rahm there was a way back to golf's main tours, and they took that route as soon as possible.
“While the leaders of LIV Golf may have held out some hope of resurrecting the event and used appearances at Leaders to try and convince the industry of the viability of the event, the reality is once they terminated the commercial staff and the players started leaving, it was over.
“The fanciful idea that anyone would step in to fund this endeavor beyond the $300 million BC Capital provided was a pipe dream, and so here ends the story of golf's disruptor, a move unlikely to be tried again anytime soon.”
LIV had already announced its 2027 schedule, with an event planned in Adelaide, Australia from March 18 to 21 at Kooyonga Golf Club. However, speaking to Australian public service broadcaster the ABC, South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said he did not expect the event to go ahead, given the latest move.
He said: “It feels like it's game, set and match as far as I can tell. That's because BC Partners, that is, the funders of LIV 2.0, I guess, have arrived at the same conclusion that we were, like, if you don't get the players to sign up, then it doesn't go ahead.
“In terms of other arrangements, we'll have to take advice on that … but clearly the event, as far as we can tell, won't be going ahead at Kooyonga next year.”
It is the second time the league’s main financial backer has pulled out, after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) shock announcement that they would no longer fund the competition in April, having spent approximately $5 billion over five years to set up the league’s calendar across five different continents.
A race to find a new financial backer with pockets as deep as the Saudi government had begun, with LIV hiring international investment bank Ducera Capital to help lead a new investment charge as it looked to extend its position in the sports industry beyond 2026.
In August, things were looking up after LIV Golf chief executive Scott O’Neil announced that he had secured investment from an unnamed source that would allow it to function beyond 2026, and a month later LIV Golf voluntarily declared bankruptcy in the US.
The move allowed it to enter into a restructuring support agreement, with investment fund BC Partners supporting the league’s recapitalization via a potential $300 million injection.
Announcing the funding, LIV Golf said a new deadline to secure player commitments had been extended until October 25.
LIV Golf said the investment from BC Partners will be used to help the league through its restructuring and strengthen its financial position ahead of the 2027 season, which will go ahead as a scaled-down tour, with a 75-man competitive field, but with an ambition to continue to host events across five continents.
Under its plans, LIV Golf would then shift to a new financial model in which the tour will be majority-owned by its own players, backstopped by minority external investment from BC Partners to offset the loss of PIF backing.
However, the rug was pulled from under O’Neil and BC Partners days after the announcement when Rahm, one of the league’s most high-profile players, announced he would leave after labelling the proposed terms for LIV 2.0 “unacceptable,” while former Masters champion Sergio Garcia was granted a special deal allowing his contract to be “terminated” and “rejected,” allowing him the freedom to negotiate with third parties.
The US-based PGA Tour has put an automatic one-year ban on LIV Golf players, but there are no restrictions on the players agreeing to a deal with the DP World Tour once their contracts with LIV are terminated.
The DP World Tour also provides a pathway to joining the PGA Tour, with the top 10 players allowed to gain membership to the top-tier league.
Click here to read a GlobalData Sport Deep Dive on how Rahm's exit in October plunged LIV into crisis.
