Report: LIV Golf to notify players that Saudi funding is officially coming to an end

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The long-term funding for LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed breakaway golf tour, has been in question for several weeks, ever since Saudi officials outlined a financial future that did not mention ongoing sports investment. Now, according to a new report in the Wall Street Journal, players will be notified Thursday that funding is officially coming to an end.

The WSJ reports that the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has poured billions into the tour over its four-plus years of existence, will end its funding as of the end of this season. The loss of PIF backing would all but certainly end LIV Golf in its current incarnation, with small fields of highly paid players competing for massive tournament purses.

Yahoo Sports has reached out to LIV Golf for comment.

LIV began in the early 2020s as a breakaway golf league offering players as much as nine-figure signing bonuses, and a significant number of notable players, primarily those on the back half of their careers, jumped at the opportunity for one more major paycheck. But LIV was also able to attract several stars in the primes of their careers — Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm — and, for a moment, appeared to be a viable competitor, and even an existential threat, to the PGA Tour itself.

https://sports.yahoo.com/golf/article/report-liv-golf-to-notify-players-that-saudi-funding-is-officially-coming-to-an-end-203705125.html

[2naSalit]

1. Ha HA!!!

All those fools who were lured away from the PGA are going to be out on their asses. Hope the PGA tells them to fuck off when they try to go back.

[Shrek]

2. WSJ: Saudi Arabia Pulls Funding From LIV Golf. Its Star Players Face a Painful Road Back.

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After spending recent weeks on life support, LIV Golf has lost the funding of its Saudi backers.

LIV plans to tell players and staff by Thursday that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will no longer bankroll the circuit after this season, according to people familiar with the matter. The move sounds the death knell for the upstart that sowed chaos in professional golf by plowing billions into the sport and poaching A-list players.

The writing had been on the wall for nearly a month. When PIF recently laid out its vision for the next five years, it made no mention of the league that has divided the golf world since it first teed off in 2022. The people said that while LIV has grown the sport globally, the operation was no longer consistent with the new phase of PIF’s investment strategy.

Even as LIV seeks outside investors to keep it afloat, it will be nearly impossible for it to exist bearing any resemblance to its current form after the Saudis lost billions on the endeavor. They paid exorbitant fees to put on tournaments with lucrative purses featuring elite players such as Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm. LIV is already in talks with outside investors, a person familiar with LIV’s thinking said.