LIV Golf Is Winding Down After Its LIV 2.0 Rescue Collapses in Bankruptcy Court

LIV Golf is done. The Saudi-backed league that has tried to rewrite pro golf since 2022 is winding down its business and has given up on relaunching as "LIV 2.0," its lawyers said Thursday in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, Front Office Sports' David Rumsey reported (opens in a new tab).

"The debtors were ultimately unable to bring the key parties to a fully consensual arrangement that would have supported a financially viable LIV 2.0 league," Matthew Williams, a Gibson Dunn partner and one of LIV's attorneys, said at the hearing, per FOS. "As a result, the debtors are not currently proceeding with the LIV 2.0 plan. Instead, the debtors are toggling to a value-maximizing wind down of their business."

The Money Walked First

The final blow landed Wednesday. BC Partners Credit pulled out of its $300 million deal to provide LIV with financing after bankruptcy, FOS reported, which left the league with no real option beyond liquidating its assets.

That deal was the whole plan. Under the restructuring agreement, players would have become majority equity holders in LIV 2.0, with BC owning nearly half, according to FOS. BC had an Oct. 25 deadline for a required number of players to commit. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, LIV's largest creditor, had an Oct. 30 deadline to decide whether the league would move forward or wind down. Both dates passed without an announcement.

"While there was great support for the league, we are disappointed that mutually acceptable terms could not be reached among the various stakeholders," a BC Partners Credit spokesperson said, per FOS. The firm also thanked "the players who supported the future of LIV and engaged constructively throughout."

What Happens Next

The hearing lasted 13 minutes, Golfweek's Cameron Jourdan reported (opens in a new tab), and the liquidation process officially begins Monday. LIV's remaining assets will be sold off, and barring a late investor, the league will not exist beyond this year, according to Golfweek.

"We believe the wind down path is the best path," Williams said in court, per Golfweek.

LIV's creditors committee meets Nov. 20, and another hearing in the bankruptcy case is set for Nov. 24, FOS reported.

How It Fell Apart

The collapse came fast. LIV lost its Saudi funding in April after spending more than $5 billion since 2022, the Associated Press reported (opens in a new tab). That month, PIF changed its investment strategy and said it would no longer pay for LIV Golf after the 2026 season. The league filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 8.

The pitch for LIV 2.0 was player equity and prize money worth more than half of the $20 million individual purses LIV offered when it launched in 2022, per the AP. The players did not bite. Jon Rahm, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen and Tyrrell Hatton all said they would no longer stay with LIV, and the league also lost young players David Puig and Tom McKibbin, the AP reported. FOS also listed Ian Poulter, Adrian Meronk and Graeme McDowell among the notable players not returning.

The rest of the golf world closed the doors behind them. The Asian Tour, which got a financial boost from LIV for its International Series, renewed its alliance with the PGA TOUR and the European Tour in July. The European Tour then issued an ultimatum: anyone who signed with LIV 2.0 need not apply for DP World Tour membership, which would have made European players ineligible for the Ryder Cup, per the AP.

The Road Back

Some players already found their way out. Brooks Koepka got out of his LIV deal with a year left, and the PGA TOUR created a path back for him with financial penalties, the AP reported. Patrick Reed chose not to extend his LIV deal and is poised to return to the PGA TOUR next year through his play in Europe.

For everyone else, the questions start now, from what happens to their contracts to where they tee it up in 2027.

The Last Champion

LIV's final event turned out to be LIV Golf Indianapolis in August, where Michael La Sasso became the league's youngest champion and Legion XIII repeated as team champions. It is a strange coda: the AP noted that La Sasso failed to get through the second stage of European Tour Q-School last week.

The league that Greg Norman originally ran, the one that split men's professional golf in 2022, ends with a 13-minute hearing in New Jersey and a sale of whatever is left.

Sources: Front Office Sports, the Associated Press and Golfweek. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: JazzyJoeyD via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Dustin Johnson with the LIV Golf Invitational Boston trophy in 2022.