LIV Golf has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, bringing the first version of the Saudi-backed breakaway league to an abrupt end and leaving some of golf’s biggest names facing major decisions about what comes next.
The filing was registered in the United States on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund decided to stop financing LIV. League officials insist the move is intended to “preserve the company’s business” while allowing it to restructure ahead of a proposed relaunch in early 2027.
The plan is ambitious. LIV wants to emerge as what a senior official described to TG as the “first major global sports league majority owned by players,” with London-based private equity firm BC Partners lined up as a new “lead investor.” Discussions with other potential investors are expected to begin immediately.
For the players, however, the consequences are immediate.
What LIV Golf’s bankruptcy means for its biggest stars
All existing LIV player contracts are terminated as part of the bankruptcy process. Players will be invited to negotiate over joining the proposed “LIV 2.0,” but they will have no obligation to do so.
That creates considerable uncertainty around stars such as Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith and Tyrrell Hatton.
The Chapter 11 filing lists 30 creditors, with the Financial Times reporting that the amounts shown represent LIV’s third-quarter obligations for 2026 rather than the entire remaining value of player contracts.
Rahm sits at the top of the list and is owed $7.5 million for the third quarter. More significantly, he is believed to have more than $100 million outstanding from the reported $450 million agreement that brought him to LIV.
DeChambeau is listed as being owed $5.8 million, followed by Johnson at $5.5 million. Smith is owed $4.8 million, Adrian Meronk $4.4 million, Hatton $3.4 million and Bubba Watson $3.3 million.
Other creditors include Joaquin Niemann, Abraham Ancer, Byeong Hun An, Caleb Surratt, Lucas Herbert and Tom McKibbin. Brooks Koepka, who left LIV and returned to the PGA Tour in January, also appears on the list.
The creditors are not limited to golfers. Louisiana is included following the cancellation of LIV’s New Orleans event. At the same time, YouTube personality Rick Shiels is reportedly owed $1.4 million following his move to the league at the start of last season.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is owed almost $2 million from the $10 million LIV pledged in 2024.
Those immediate obligations have some protection. The Public Investment Fund has agreed to provide $50 million in debtor-in-possession financing, matching the amount owed to creditors for the 2026 season.
The larger question is what happens to the players whose original contracts promised far greater sums.
Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau face a major decision.
Rahm offered little indication of his plans when questioned at the Amgen Irish Open shortly before the bankruptcy filing became public.
“There’s just a lot of things in place, right?” Rahm told BBC Sport. “There’s a lot of things that could happen, and it’s one of those things where time’s going to tell.”
He also said he remained willing to fulfill his agreement with what he called “LIV 1.0.”
That version of LIV, however, is now effectively finished.
Rahm may not have known how quickly the situation would change. Industry insiders have suggested that the two-time major champion left the LIV Golf players-and-officials WhatsApp group over the summer.
DeChambeau has sounded considerably more positive about LIV’s future. Speaking shortly before the league’s final event in Indianapolis last month, he pointed to player alignment as a crucial factor.
“If we’re able to get the players all aligned, which I feel like it will happen in some capacity, I think it will happen,” he said.
CEO Scott O’Neil is also presenting the bankruptcy as a restructuring rather than an ending.
“Today, we took an important step forward to get there,” O’Neil wrote in an open letter to LIV supporters. “LIV Golf has entered a court-supervised restructuring process that provides us with the time and framework to address previous financial obligations and complete a transaction that will make the league’s next phase a reality.”
O’Neil cited companies including Marvel Entertainment, Delta Airlines and Caesars Entertainment, along with sports organizations such as the Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Leeds United, as examples of businesses that have previously undergone restructuring.
What LIV Golf 2.0 could look like
LIV’s proposed second incarnation would look noticeably different.
O’Neil said tournaments would be staged across five continents, naming Australia, South Africa, Mexico, England, Hong Kong and the United States among prospective locations. The field would expand to 75 golfers, a halfway cut would be introduced, and new qualification routes would include Monday qualifiers.
Team golf would remain central to the operation, with more teams expected to adopt national identities. LIV also intends to retain the music and entertainment surrounding its tournaments and continue allowing children under 12 to attend free.
The biggest proposed change, though, concerns ownership.
Rather than simply signing players to enormous guaranteed contracts financed by the PIF, the new structure would attempt to give players a direct stake in the league and its teams. Whether that proposition is attractive enough to keep Rahm, DeChambeau and the other established names together will be one of the central questions of the restructuring.
Those players now have considerably different circumstances than when they originally joined.
The old contracts are gone. The PIF will no longer bankroll the league in the same way. LIV needs new investment, and its leading players are free to decide whether they want to participate in the replacement.
That leaves Rahm’s “time will tell” comment looking particularly relevant.
LIV 1.0 offered extraordinary guaranteed contracts to convince major champions and established PGA Tour stars to leave golf’s traditional structure. LIV 2.0 is asking those same players to consider something fundamentally different: ownership, equity and a longer-term stake in a league now attempting to survive without the financial arrangement that created it.
The next negotiations with Rahm, DeChambeau and the rest of LIV’s roster may determine whether the bankruptcy becomes the beginning of the league’s second act or the point at which its biggest names decide to move on.
