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Report: LIV Golf league 'on the verge' of losing funding from Saudi Arabia's PIF

Byington mugby: Alex Byington04/15/26_AlexByington

The PGA might be in for another big win less than a week after its 90th Masters Tournament in Augusta.

Saudia Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund appears on the verge of cutting its financial support for the LIV Golf Tour, according to a report by the Financial Times. An announcement on the future of the PGA’s largest competitor could come as early as Thursday, per the Financial Times.

The LIV Tour is currently scheduled to hold this weekend’s event in Mexico City even amid rampant speculation about its future as a professional golf tour. First-round tee times for Thursday’s start of the LIV Golf Mexico City even were also posted Wednesday on the LIV website.

“Rumors have been really building on this front for the last 48 hours, and adding fuel to those rumors, just this morning there was a bit of a back and forth and some confusion whether they were even going to play the Pro-Am (on Wednesday),” The Golf Channel‘s Rex Hoggard said in a clip posted to the network’s X/Twitter account Wednesday afternoon. “We had players saying that the golf course had been closed down. We had players saying they were preparing for the Pro-Am. It turns out the Pro-Am is underway. Also adding to the fuel, I’ve talked to players and vendors who haven’t gotten paid by LIV Golf for the last few weeks, so certainly there are a lot of question marks going into this (week).”

Hoggard went on to explain there’s a scheduled general managers meeting for 4 pm ET Wednesday in Mexico City, though that’s not out of the ordinary for LIV Golf events.

Legendary sports broadcaster Trey Wingo reported LIV Golf recently held an emergency board meeting in New York to discuss the tour’s future, and reportedly discussed “whether to cease operations following this week’s event in Mexico City or continue through the end of the season,” per Wingo.

“Sources indicate LIV is preparing to wind down operations as the Public Investment Fund (PIF) reassesses its broader strategy amid (the) ongoing conflict in the Middle East,” Wingo wrote in a Wednesday post to X/Twitter. “… Importantly, this is not a reflection oof LIV’s commercial performance. The league was fully funded through 2030 — this is a to-down strategic shift driven by evolving geopolitical priorities. MBS (Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman) pulled the plug.”

LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil reportedly told Golf Channel sources at last week’s Masters Tournament at Augusta National that “LIV Golf is funded through 2032,” according to Hoggard.

LIV golfer Sergio Garcia addressed the current rumors about the league during a pre-tournament press conference Wednesday in Mexico City: “We haven’t heard anything,” Garcia said, per Golfweek, “from what Yasir [Al-Rumayyan] told us at the start of the year … he’s behind us with a long-term project. … There are always rumors, but I can’t say more than what we already know.”

Yasir Al-Rumayyan is a Saudi businessman who governs the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) which finances LIV Golf.

The Saudia Arabia-backed LIV Golf League started in 2023 as a serious competitor to the PGA after negotiations between the Saudi Public Investment Fund and the PGA broke down.