LIV Golf begins exploring bankruptcy options

LIV Golf is apparently exploring plans that could include a future bankruptcy, according to a new report from Bloomberg, raising fresh questions about Saudi Arabia’s expensively-assembled golf league.

This comes three weeks after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) confirmed it will no longer fund the league once this season is finished. 

Since launching in 2021, LIV Golf is believed to have consumed more than $5 billion in funding from the PIF under the leadership of Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund. 

Bloomberg has reported that LIV appointed restructuring experts Gene Davis and Jon Zinman to oversee the corporate board in an attempt to stop bleeding funds, navigate a "complex situation" and unlock long term value. Recently, LIV's CEO Scott O'Neil admitted LIV was unlikely to make a profit and funding would not continue ad infinitum, while also searching for approximately $250m of outside investment. 

Part of the restructure is believed to include a relocation of LIV's corporate entity to the USA to benefit from the favourable Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection laws to allow assets to be shielded from creditors. 

“LIV Golf is firmly focused on securing a transaction that positions the organisation for the long-term,” a spokesperson for LIV Golf said this week and that “there are multiple pathways under active exploration.”

LIV Golf’s next event is scheduled to take place in South Korea with attention increasingly shifting away from the fairways and toward the league’s uncertain financial future. LIV players are also reported to be facing additional hurdles to be readmitted to the PGA Tour.