Nate Tramdaks, Staff Writer

LIV Golf set out to disrupt the golf world back in 2022; now just over four years later, the league that promised to reinvent professional golf is being forced to reinvent itself. After more than $5 billion in investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund between 2022–2026, LIV Golf filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September. The filing marks the lowest point yet for a league that, not long ago, looked capable of permanently changing the structure of professional golf and forced the hand of the PGA Tour. 

How did we end up here? At the beginning of 2025, LIV Golf did not look like a league headed toward bankruptcy. In fact, professional golf appeared closer than ever to putting its civil war behind it. After more than a year of negotiations between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the discussions made their way to the White House. Then PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, Tiger Woods and Adam Scott met with PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan and President Donald Trump in February, with hopes that a deal could finally reunify professional golf. They eventually never came to a deal, hung up on what “reunification” looked like. Monahan wanted to allow LIV to control a global circuit; Al Ruemeyer wanted to have LIV operate as an entity under the PGA, and wanted to have a co-Chairman seat next to Monahan.

The two tours went their separate ways, with reorganizing occurring in both. Brian Rolapp took over as president of the PGA Tour, and Scott O’Neil as president of LIV, succeeding founder and golf legend Greg Norman. Things eventually came to a head for LIV in April of 2025.

The PIF announced it would stop funding LIV Golf beyond the 2026 season. After pouring more than $5 billion into the league since its inception, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund was finally turning out after four years of the tour not getting off the ground. For a league built almost entirely around the financial backing of the PIF, the announcement immediately put LIV’s future into question. This marked the beginning of the end for LIV 1.0. 

From April 2026 to now, LIV has endured a series of events that evoke a sarcastic, “you really hate to see it.” There are too many to list. Eventually, the season got cut short, mass layoffs ensued and eventually Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

LIV is not disappearing completely. Instead, bankruptcy will serve as a reset. “LIV 2.0” is expected to operate with a smaller schedule, outside investment and a more sustainable structure than the guaranteed-contracts model that defined its first four years. The biggest question is who stays. Jon Rahm, Joaquin Niemann and Michael La Sasso are the three names to watch to return to the PGA Tour. Rahm and Niemann have held tour cards, so their return may be straightforward. La Sasso, on the other hand, skipped his senior year at Ole Miss to join LIV, never held a tour card; his road to PGA Tour status is one in question. 

LIV 2.0 has been speculated to be a “social media” dominant tour. Meaning that it will lean into the “YouTube Golf” scene led by none other than the YouTube golfer himself, Bryson DeChambeau.