LIV CEO says season to continue 'at full throttle'

Amid reports that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund might be on the verge of pulling its funding for the league, LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil told staff in an email Wednesday that its season will go on "as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle."

The email, which was obtained by ESPN, didn't directly address reports that PIF might stop investing in the breakaway circuit after spending more than $5 billion since its inception in 2022, or whether the league will continue competitions beyond this season.

"I want to be crystal clear: Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle," O'Neil wrote in the email. "While the media landscape is often filled with speculation, our reality is defined by the work we do on the grass. We are heading into the heart of our 2026 schedule with the full energy of an organization that is bigger, louder, and more influential than ever before."

LIV Golf is scheduled to play its sixth tournament of the season starting Thursday at Club de Golf Chapultepec near Mexico City. Its first tournament in the U.S. is scheduled for May 7-10 at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.

"The life of a startup movement is often defined by these moments of pressure," O'Neil wrote. "We signed up for this because we believe in disrupting the status quo. We have faced headwinds since the jump, and we've answered every time with resilience and grace. Now, we answer by doing what we do best: putting on the most compelling show in sports."

The Financial Times and other outlets reported Wednesday that PIF was on the verge of pulling its funding for LIV Golf. A source familiar with the situation told ESPN the league's executives were on the ground in Mexico City on Wednesday.

The league had promised to be a more entertaining version of professional golf with shotgun starts, 54-hole events and team and individual competitions being played simultaneously.

While LIV Golf has drawn large crowds to its tournaments in Australia, South Africa and other international sites, it has struggled to gain footing in the U.S. It has had low TV ratings and limited commercial revenue from its broadcast deals with The CW and Fox Sports.

It also has struggled to land contracts to stage its events at top-rated courses in the U.S., which frustrated many of its star players, who didn't feel they were properly preparing to contend in the major championships.

PIF invested more than $5 billion in LIV Golf since 2022, reportedly spending $100 million per month during the past three-plus years. Much of that money was spent on golfers' contracts and tournament purses, which increased from $25 million to $30 million this season. The extra $5 million went toward team purses.

With guaranteed contracts purportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars, LIV Golf -- led by former CEO Greg Norman, with the help of six-time major champion Phil Mickelson -- was able to lure former major champions such as Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and others away from the PGA Tour.

The tour played its first tournament at the Centurion Club in England in June 2022.

Norman had described LIV Golf as a "disruptor" and a champion for players' rights, arguing golfers should be allowed to play anywhere in the world and not on just one tour.

Then-PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan suspended more than 30 golfers for competing in LIV Golf tournaments without conflicting-events releases.

Eleven LIV Golf players, including DeChambeau, filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour in August 2022, accusing it of using its monopoly powers to squash competition and influence vendors, media companies and others to avoid working with LIV Golf. The PGA Tour countersued LIV Golf, accusing it of interfering with its contracts with players.

The legal drama took a stunning turn of events in June 2023 when the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour signed a framework agreement to form an alliance and move forward in a larger commercial business. The circuits said the agreement ended all pending litigation between the parties. LIV Golf was prepared to invest as much as $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises, the tour's new for-profit entity.

Monahan was harshly criticized for secretly negotiating the deal and leaving PGA Tour members in the dark. The deal was also scrutinized by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee, which held a three-hour hearing in July 2023 to scrutinize the planned merger. Senators raised concerns about "sportswashing," antitrust issues and Saudi influence in the U.S.

The PGA Tour and the PIF worked for more than a year to finalize the deal, including meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump, but a merger was never completed. The PGA Tour then reached a deal with Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of billionaire sports team owners, to infuse up to $3 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises.

LIV Golf was dealt a couple of blows before this season when Koepka, a five-time major champion, asked to be released from his contract to return to the PGA Tour. Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters champion, also didn't renew his deal and plans to return to the PGA Tour this fall.

Koepka came back to the PGA Tour as part of its new Returning Member Program, which allowed LIV golfers who have been away from the tour for at least two years -- and who won the Players Championship or one of the four majors (the Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open and Open Championship) since 2022 -- to return under certain conditions and with severe financial penalties.

DeChambeau, Rahm and Smith were also eligible to return but elected to stay with LIV Golf. The window for them to return expired Feb. 2. At the time, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp, who replaced Monahan, described the program as a "one-time, defined window and is not a precedent for future situations."

In February, O'Neil -- who replaced Norman in January 2025 -- was able to secure LIV Golf's inclusion in the Official World Golf Ranking, which is awarding world-ranking points to the top-10 finishers and ties in its events.