LIV Golf Prepares Bankruptcy Filing for Week of September 7 as Saudi Funding Runs Out

Since Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund announced in April it would end funding after the 2026 season, LIV Golf has spent the summer scrambling. Last week the league laid off most of its workforce and canceled its Team Championship finale in Michigan. Now the Financial Times reports LIV could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as soon as the week of September 7, a report confirmed independently by Bloomberg, the Straits Times, and Reuters.

The Money Problem

PIF has poured more than $5 billion into LIV since launching it in 2022 to challenge the PGA Tour, according to Newsmax and Bloomberg. That money bought a wave of star defections, nine-figure signing bonuses, and years of guaranteed player contracts. It did not buy profitability. The Express reports LIV never landed a major U.S. broadcast deal or the corporate sponsorships needed to sustain itself financially.

PIF told LIV in April its backing would stop at the close of this season. Since then the fund has been unwilling to write more checks, according to the Financial Times reporting cited across multiple outlets. The fund is expected to provide less than $100 million in debtor-in-possession financing to keep the league running through bankruptcy, but nothing beyond that, per the FT.

Players Owed Millions, Offered Pennies

LIV has sent settlement offers to current players still owed guaranteed money beyond 2026, and those initial offers amount to just a few cents on the dollar, according to the Financial Times. Golfers who signed multi-year, guaranteed contracts expected Saudi money to keep flowing regardless of results.

A reasonable read of that is straightforward: these players took a business risk on a startup league backed by a sovereign wealth fund, and now they're being asked to eat most of the loss while a private equity firm potentially buys the reorganized assets on the cheap. Unsecured creditors in a Chapter 11 case routinely get a fraction of what they're owed, and golfers who reject the settlement can pursue full value as unsecured creditors, but that route offers no guarantee of a better outcome and could take years to resolve.

The LIV 2.0 Plan

The restructuring LIV is pursuing is a prepackaged bankruptcy designed to hand control of the league to the players, according to Bloomberg. LIV has been negotiating with the credit arm of private capital firm BC Partners to finance a slimmed-down "LIV 2.0" for 2027. BC executives have shown up at recent LIV events in Indiana and New Jersey to court players directly, according to Newsmax and Yahoo Sports.

The reworked league would run roughly 10 tournaments globally, down sharply from LIV's current schedule, and would let golfers play other tours the rest of the season, per the Financial Times reporting. That's a far smaller footprint than the league Saudi money built.

But LIV has struggled to lock down enough big-name commitments to make the numbers work for BC Partners, according to the FT. A bankruptcy filing could proceed even without finalized player agreements or financing, meaning the league may enter Chapter 11 court before it actually knows who's staying.

DP World Tour Pushes Back

LIV's plan to let golfers freelance on other tours during the year is already running into resistance. The DP World Tour has warned LIV players could face fines or suspensions if they compete in events scheduled against DP World Tour tournaments, according to Newsmax.

LIV CEO Scott O'Neil pushed back on that at the league's 2026 finale in Indiana this month. "We shouldn't live in a world where one group of golfers is uniquely restricted from playing elsewhere," O'Neil said, per Newsmax. The DP World Tour hasn't backed off that position, and neither side has resolved the dispute.

What Happens Next

A filing would reportedly land in federal bankruptcy court in New Jersey, where LIV has a subsidiary, according to the Financial Times. BC Partners is weighing an equity-style investment structured to preserve more than $5 billion in LIV's U.S. and U.K. net operating losses, which could carry tax advantages for whoever ends up owning the reorganized league.

Neither LIV Golf nor PIF responded to a Reuters request for comment outside normal business hours, according to Reuters and the Straits Times. No filing has actually been made as of today, and the exact terms of any player settlements, the size of BC Partners' investment, and whether enough marquee golfers sign on for LIV 2.0 all remain unresolved questions heading into next week.