LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil has admitted that the Saudi-backed league will only received funding until the end of the season, casting further doubts on its future.
Less than five years after the initial plans for LIV Golf were revealed the Saudi-backed rival to the PGA Tour looks like it may be on the brink of a total collapse.
Recent reports have suggested that league officials are preparing to make a “seismic” announcement, amid claims that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) may pull their backing.
LIV Golf chief O’Neil responded to these rumours by reaffirming that the ongoing season will 'continue exactly as planned' but failed to address the future of the league.
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But now, O’Neil appears to have confirmed that reports that Saudi Arabian funding will only continue until the 2026 season closer in Michigan on August 30
Speaking LIV's ongoing event in Mexico City, O’Neil told TNT Sports: "It's just not the way the world works. We have commitments to have this being a going concern.
"The reality is that you’re funded through the season, and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going.
"But that’s not different from any other private equity-funded business in the history of mankind."
The statement comes as a surprise after PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said to player only last month that they ere committed to supporting the league until at least 2032.
However, shortly after initial reports regarding the future of LIV Golf first emerged, the PIF chief announced that some deals and investments were being "reviewed, whether due to war (in the Middle East) or for reasons related to economic feasibility".
He later admitted that the ongoing conflict in the Middle East "places greater pressure on the need to reposition certain priorities".
However, it appears that currently the biggest players in LIV Golf are not yet concerned by the reports, with Jon Rahm addressing the rumours after his first round in Mexico City.
"Until the people in charge told me if the rumours were valid or not, it didn't make sense for me to think about it or to waste time thinking about it," he said.
"Since everything happened so suddenly and so quickly, I wasn't very worried about it because normally, before the rumours start, we already know something.
"There's always someone within the league who knows something; it happened so fast that I really didn't worry about it."
If LIV Golf were to shutdown, it is unknown what would happen to the 57 players currently competing in the Saudi-backed league, but it appears a place in the PGA could yet be available for some of the biggest names.
Topics: Saudi Arabia, Golf
Ben McCrum