By Frank Pingue
April 15 (Reuters) – LIV Golf’s 2026 season will proceed as scheduled with the full backing of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, sources close to the matter told Reuters on Wednesday, pushing back against reports that the rebel circuit was on the verge of collapse.
The sources, who have knowledge of the PIF’s investment and LIV operations, said funding would continue and the remaining nine tournaments of the 14-event schedule would go ahead as planned.
Earlier on Wednesday, The Daily Telegraph reported that LIV Golf executives had been summoned to an “emergency meeting” in New York, before the Financial Times reported that the PIF was on the verge of cutting its support, though no final decision had been made.
The news comes one week after LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil was in Augusta, Georgia, for the Masters along with several members of the circuit’s communications team. There were 10 LIV Golf players in the 91-player starting field at the Masters, including Englishman Tyrrell Hatton, who finished two shots behind winner Rory McIlroy in a share of third place.
‘UNINTERRUPTED AND AT FULL THROTTLE’
O’Neil, in an email seen by Reuters, told players: “Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle.
“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,” O’Neil continued.
“The life of a startup movement is often defined by these moments of pressure. 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 sixth LIV event of the season tees off on Thursday at Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico. O’Neil was on site on Wednesday as the pro-am was being played.
Former Masters champion Sergio Garcia, who signed with LIV Golf in 2022, was among the players who spoke to media in Mexico and was asked to comment on the reports that financial support to the circuit was on the verge of being cut.
“No, honestly, we haven’t heard anything other than what Yasir (Al-Rumayyan, LIV Golf Chairman) told us at the beginning of the year – that he’s behind us, that they have a long-term project,” said Garcia. “And well, honestly, you know how these rumours are. There are always a lot of them. And I can’t tell you anything more than what we already know.”
CRITICISM OF HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD
LIV Golf, which launched in 2022, is bankrolled by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund and critics have decried it as a vehicle for the country to attempt to improve its reputation in the face of criticism of its human rights record.
Through big-money contracts and lucrative purses, LIV managed to lure a number of golf’s biggest names, including major champions Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm.
After a year of acrimony, the PGA Tour, PIF and Europe-based DP World Tour announced a framework agreement in June 2023 to house their commercial operations in a new entity and set December 31 of that year as a deadline to reach a definitive agreement.
That announcement brought an end to legal battles between the parties but raised concerns in Washington from lawmakers who are mistrustful of Saudi Arabia and critical of the country’s human rights record.
The sides extended the deadline and as talks with the PIF dragged on, outside investor interest in the PGA Tour heated up by way of Strategic Sports Group, which invested an initial $1.5 billion into the for-profit entity PGA Tour Enterprises.
FORMER MAJOR WINNERS KOEPKA AND REED DEPART LIV
The divide has even captured the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump, an avid golfer who was part of two meetings on the matter at the White House in February 2025 when there was optimism that the schism between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour would be resolved.
In recent months, LIV has lost notable names including five-time major winner Brooks Koepka and former Masters champion Patrick Reed.
Earlier this year, LIV Golf Adelaide set a record as the highest-attended golf tournament in Australian history, with more than 115,000 spectators and in March more than 100,000 fans attended the circuit’s tournament in South Africa, making it the country’s highest-ever attended golf event.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; editing by Clare Fallon and Lincoln Feast.)
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