Sports

LIV Golf May Be Shutting Down

By Curtis Jones · April 16, 2026

The breakaway tour that once threatened to swallow professional golf may be running out of road.

Reports emerged Wednesday that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — the sovereign wealth fund that has bankrolled LIV Golf since its 2022 launch — is on the verge of cutting off funding, potentially ending the tour entirely. The Financial Times reported that a formal announcement could come as early as Thursday, as LIV Golf executives were called into an emergency meeting in New York — an unusual development given that the league was simultaneously preparing to tee off for a tournament in Mexico City on Thursday.

Sources cited by reporter Ryan French, who runs the well-sourced golf insider account Monday Q Info, said LIV was shutting down, that players and employees hadn’t been paid, and that the power had been cut at an event site because a bill wasn’t paid. French said he heard the reports from people he trusted. “Players didn’t get paid today, power went out because the bill wasn’t paid, employees didn’t get paid. Stuff like that.”

LIV’s public face was business-as-usual Wednesday morning — social media posts about tee times, media availability ahead of the Mexico event. The organization has not confirmed any shutdown announcement.

The financial context makes the reports plausible. LIV reportedly suffered losses of more than $1 billion before the start of the 2025 season, and despite the PIF’s enormous balance sheet — estimated in the neighborhood of $1 trillion — the league has never achieved the commercial traction its backers hoped for. Television ratings averaged 175,000 viewers per event on Fox networks last year, compared to the PGA Tour’s 3.1 million average audience. The tour hasn’t signed a marquee player since Jon Rahm three years ago. Major champions Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed recently left to return to the PGA Tour. And the proposed merger with the PGA Tour that was announced in 2023 has never materialized.

Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee, one of LIV’s most consistent critics, said Wednesday he believed the reports. “Lame-brained tour,” he told Fox News, backing French’s account.

Whether LIV shuts down, restructures, or finds a way to continue is not yet known. An official announcement, if coming, was expected Thursday. What’s already clear is that a tour that spent more than $1.3 billion on player compensation and promised to reshape professional golf is facing a reckoning — and the people closest to it are no longer confident it survives.