First Brooks Koepka, then Patrick Reed. But not Bryson DeChambeau or Jon Rahm. At least not this year. Or so it seems. LIV Golf still has some marquee names beside the latter two – Cameron Smith and Tyrrell Hatton to name a couple more – but the departure of Koepka and Reed sounds somewhat like the tolling of the bell for LIV. Its race may not yet be run but it is hard to see that it is other than on the road to pretty much nowhere. A rich road, granted, and given the enormous wealth of its backers, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), the destination may not be oblivion. In that case it is likely to be irrelevance.
The 2026 LIV season gets underway in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, tomorrow (February 4). Television coverage in the UK has now migrated to TNT Sports but it has to be doubtful that is going to lead to a substantial uptick in its audience figures. There has been a blizzard of press releases recently to mark the new season but the fact is that a match-up involving, for example, the Majesticks against the RangeGoats, interests almost no one. Team golf is fantastic when it’s the Ryder Cup. This isn’t that.
There has been some conjecture about the fact that the deal that the European Tour Group presently has with the PGA Tour is set to expire at the end of 2027. This agreement means the PGA Tour underwrites shortfalls in the finances suffered by the DP World Tour. In 2024, this amounted to as much as £21.5 million. I have seen it suggested that if the PGA Tour decides not to renew this deal, the PIF might look a mightily appealing prospect to the top brass at Wentworth.
I think it might not be that easy. I am (shockingly!) not party to the details of whatever arrangement has been agreed by the two tours, but I suspect that Brian Rolapp and Jay Monahan, respectively the present incumbent and his predecessor in charge of running the PGA Tour, have not signed up to the supporting of a tour on the other side of the Atlantic while leaving the latter free to walk away without obligation if that subsequently suited the suits in Europe.
There is also this from a Saudi perspective. Having already invested an estimated $6 billion in trying to establish LIV Golf as a viable commercial entity, why would it want to spend a shedload more to support an organisation in which it would only have a financial stake rather than a proprietary one? Events are invariably viewed better with hindsight but if the Saudis wanted to get involved in professional golf then picking a fight with the PGA Tour was probably not the best option. There were myriad other ways.
No one likes to throw good money after bad; in this instance, to continue to pour money into a project that would now seem to have zero chance of realising its aspirations. Any exit plan by the PIF would likely need to be accompanied by a credible face-saving strategy. That would not be easy. We shall see how this plays out.
You can follow Robert Green on Twitter @robrtgreen and enjoy his other blog f-factors.com as well as his golf archive on robertgreen-golf.com
