GOLF’s weekly Tour Confidential roundtable explains the game’s biggest headlines. In this special edition, we dig into the collapse of LIV Golf, where it all went wrong and what’s next.
LIV Golf, the breakout league that took the sport by storm five years ago, it is no morea future that we learned in the bankruptcy court of the United States on Thursday in New Jersey. In short, LIV was unable to get enough player support to secure a financial commitment from BC Partners. While this news isn’t a complete shock, are you surprised that the end has officially come? Or at what point did you think this would become reality?
Sean Zak, Senior Writer: I think once Jon Rahm decided he wasn’t part of the future of the league, it was a massive domino that led to this point. So no, not surprised. Mostly just trying to take note of all the things that will likely remain unexplained — like the full value of Rahm’s contract — for years and years to come.
Nick Piastowski, Senior Editor: It would have been surprising … last November. But then, yes, as Zak notes above, you can see the things leading up to it. Koepka’s departure. The departure of the PIF. Departure of other players. failure It would also have been a little shocking to see this happen in December 2023, when Rahm signed. Then again, as we began to look back, the chances of LIV surviving at all were probably small.
Dylan Dethier, Senior Writer: This is the only result that makes sense. I was kind of confused by the whole existence of LIV 2.0. If the first version of the league crashed into failure and bad vibes, why go to a scaled-down second attempt? I hope we hear more about how close it was to happening – or if it was all basically a ploy to make a few more people a few more bucks on the way out the door.
A big question now is what happens to former LIV players. If you are Brian Rolapp, CEO of the PGA Tourwhat’s your move
Zak: Let all those players earn their return to the PGA Tour fold by other means, such as the DP World Tour or Q-school. The Tour is in GREAT financial shape. It is to go to market with a new competitive format for (hopefully) increased TV money. The DP World Tour may benefit from a host of ex-LIV players competing on its 2027 slate, but the DPWT is not doing well financially. He needs a Ryder Cup year (and those monetary winds) as much as ever. So the PGA Tour is really good and doesn’t have to go out of its way to stir the pot with members. The best players will find their way back.
Piastowski: I agree with this. But I wonder: if the PGA Tour presents itself as a fan-first league, and its fans want all the best players under one roof, do you tell the fans to wait a year?
Dethier: Yes, I think so. Because Jon Rahm (2023 Masters) and Bryson DeChambeau (2024 US Open) have each won recent majors. You can suspend a year and also allow you to return to the 2028 Championship Series of the Tour through a major exemption of five years without ruffling feathers internally. Just not really need someone else. Of course you would like to see Tyrrell Hatton and Joaquin Niemann requalify via the DP World Tour. You may find a way back for Dustin Johnson through lifetime membership. But the Tour should be happy that Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed are back a year early – making this chapter much easier.
Who won LIV Golf? And who lost it?
Zak: The media business has had a hell of a story to cover for those more than five years, I’d say. Donald Trump seemed to be having a good time during the LIV years, getting elite golf at his courses. Rahm made a ton of money, although he also suffered some reputational damage. On the contrary, I think Rory McIlroy’s outrage will age well with time. Looks like a winner in the end. Then there’s the DP World Tour, which will benefit from maintaining its rigid rules by hosting stronger tournaments throughout its 2027 roster. Oh, and Brian Rolapp probably won the LIV Golf era, too.
Piastowski: LIV gave us media types some things to write about, hey? He also started the PGA Tour. I think that the LIV era has also opened more eyes to play in the world, and from all indications, that seems to continue. But man, there had to be another way to get there besides shelling out billions and billions of dollars. Or maybe not.
Dethier: If your measuring stick is money, LIV has spawned many winners in the professional golf community. Beyond that? I don’t know, but I’ll take a shot. The PGA Tour needed an apology; maybe a winner has arrived. As far as LIV players go, Bryson DeChambeau has fared well in the LIV era, in part because he’s played less frequently and leaned more fully into his YouTube career, which he seems to enjoy. Anthony Kim stands out as LIV’s biggest story. The LIV golf communities reached in Australia and South Africa were each talking about the good times they had; hopefully it will inspire more big time events in those markets. But I’ll give you an actual winner: Luke Donald. Without LIV, he will never end up the Ryder Cup winning captain in 2023 – let alone 2025. He has become a legend of the game. By the end of 2027 he may be the greatest Ryder Cup captain in history. That would never happen without LIV. Who lost LIV Golf? I would say to anyone who was forced to shill for a league that was, in the end, as hollow and fragile as its critics suspected from the start.
While some LIV defectors have already announced that they will be joining the DP World Tour next season, we’re not sure what will happen to what used to be LIV’s top asset, Bryson DeChambeau. What do you think Bryson does next?
Zak: DeChambeau is a pretty stubborn cat and I’m so curious if he’s stubborn enough to only play in the majors in 2027. I’d be endlessly fascinated by that move.
Piastowski: Let’s go with him just hitting the world. His own personal tour.
Dethier: I could see him vlogging his way through a handful of DP World Tour events, pairing those with the majors and then playing next year’s Internet Invitational as Ryder Cup prep.
What you do unanswered question Do you want to have the answer now?
Zak: I want to know how much money these small businesses unpaid by LIV lately will receive as a part of this wind.
Piastowski: How close were the PGA Tour and LIV to actually merging?
Dethier: How would things have gone differently – for Phil, for LIV, for the players who were thinking of signing – had their scary “m—-f—-” comments not been printed that first year? There are dozens of sliding door moments from the half-decade life of the league, but this is certainly one of them. (Another: If the US never goes to war with Iran, like LIV in 2027?)
Ultimately, how do you think LIV Golf will be remembered?
Zak: LIV will be remembered as a fatal case study of 1) player empowerment, and 2) geopolitics entering sports. Numerous sports leagues have made decisions about Saudi investment in the following years, and each time it seems that they make better decisions than the bodacious, lavish way that LIV existed. Mainly because of how LIV got out of the blocks, struggled to gain footing and ultimately crashed. This was player empowerment in the greatest era of pro sports empowerment. And it all ended so unsatisfactorily for basically everyone involved.
Piastowski: That he woke up an established professional sports league by almost killing it.
Dethier: We suspect we remembered it as a glaring and explosive failure. We will remember the excess and extravagance of those early events and we will remember how overwhelming it seemed at the end. And we remember the 4Aces. Everyone knows the Aces.