LIV Golf Files Its Wind-Down Plan, Leaving $2 Million for More Than $100 Million in Claims

LIV Golf ran through more than $5 billion of Saudi money trying to buy its way into the center of men's professional golf. On Tuesday, it filed the paperwork that explains how it will stop existing, and the people it owes money are looking at a pot of $2 million.

LIV filed its formal Chapter 11 plan with the bankruptcy court in New Jersey on Nov. 10, laying out a wind-down that could have the league's liquidation underway by early January, Front Office Sports' David Rumsey reported (opens in a new tab). The Associated Press also reported (opens in a new tab) that LIV's parent filed a joint Chapter 11 plan in New Jersey on Tuesday, days after the league told the court it would shut down instead of relaunching.

The Calendar to Zero

The plan puts real dates on the end. A hearing on the disclosure statement that implements the wind-down is set for Nov. 24, and a confirmation hearing for final approval is scheduled for Jan. 7, per FOS. The plan's effective date is expected sometime in January. Judge Michael Kaplan is overseeing the case.

Once the plan takes effect, LIV's remaining assets and liabilities would move into a wind-down trust that pays creditors, resolves claims and cleans up whatever legal and financial loose ends are left, according to FOS. The trust has to terminate no more than five years after the effective date, though the court can extend it. In other words, even a January approval does not end this quickly. The process could stretch for months or years, FOS reported.

One detail says plenty about who is steering. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund would choose the trustee who runs that trust, per FOS.

$2 Million for a $100 Million Problem

Here is the math that matters. Unsecured claims against LIV total more than $100 million, and the plan sets aside just $2 million, funded by the PIF, to cover them, FOS reported. Players, contractors and vendors all sit together in that unsecured group. Spread evenly, that is less than two cents on the dollar.

The players are not a footnote in that pile. When LIV first filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 8, players made up 14 of the 30 largest unsecured creditors, FOS reported last week (opens in a new tab). Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Cameron Smith were all listed as unsecured creditors in that original filing, per Golf Channel (opens in a new tab). The rest of the list reads like a production crew's address book: IMG Media was owed $3.2 million and YouTube golf creator Rick Shiels $1.39 million, according to FOS.

The unsecured creditors committee will push the PIF to make that $2 million bigger, but several experts told FOS that is unlikely. "The outlook for unsecured creditors is likely quite bleak," John J. Sparacino, a principal at McKool Smith, told FOS last week.

One more number will not help the mood. Seven LIV executives received more than $15.6 million in retention bonuses in June and August, within the 90 days before the bankruptcy filing, FOS reported.

The PIF Holds the Pen

The reason the PIF controls this ending is simple: it is first in line. The fund's roughly $495 million to finish the 2026 season came as a secured loan, and it also provided $49.6 million in debtor-in-possession financing to keep LIV running through the case, per FOS.

The plan needs approval from the PIF and LIV's other creditors. If the non-PIF creditors vote no, Kaplan can still approve it if he finds it "fair and equitable to the rejecting class of creditors," FOS reported. That is a high bar to fight from a $2 million corner.

BC Partners Credit, the firm whose $300 million investment was supposed to fund "LIV 2.0," is also in the mix. BC pulled out of that deal last week, which pushed LIV into the wind-down in the first place. The firm could be repaid part of the additional $4 million in debtor-in-possession financing it put up in October, per FOS.

In its wind-down announcement on LIV's website (opens in a new tab), the league said it would still consider third-party alternatives that could create value along the way. Tuesday's filing does not read like a league waiting on a savior.

What Comes Next

The unsecured creditors committee meets again Nov. 20, per FOS, four days before the disclosure hearing. That is the next window for players and vendors to press for more than the scraps on the table.

For the golfers, the money is only half of it. Without LIV, the question is where they play in 2027. Rahm has already started over in Europe, winning in Abu Dhabi in his first start after leaving the league, while the PGA TOUR's path back for others is still under construction. The PGA TOUR is not expected to address former LIV golfers' status until the bankruptcy is finalized in early January, ESPN reported (opens in a new tab) Tuesday. That timeline now lines up neatly with Jan. 7.

The Bill Comes Due

LIV changed golf. It changed what players get paid, how the PGA TOUR does business and what tour loyalty means. It also built itself on one funder's checkbook, and when that funder decided it was done, there was no second act.

The ending is fitting in its way. The PIF lent the money, the PIF gets paid first, and the PIF picks the person who turns off the lights. Everyone else, including some of the biggest names in the sport, gets to split $2 million and hope the number changes before January.

Sources: Front Office Sports, the Associated Press, Golf Channel, ESPN, LIV Golf. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: LIV Golf. Fans surround the 18th green during Round 3 of LIV Golf South Africa in 2026.