LIV Golf's Chaotic Week: Rahm Wins, But Future Hangs in the Balance
Jon Rahm stood there. Just off the 18th green. “Disbelief,” he called it. A week after leaving Augusta National feeling like crap after a major performance that wasn’t up to par, Rahm went and absolutely smoked everyone at LIV Golf Mexico City. Grabbed his second win of the season. On paper, it should’ve been a straight-up celebration. Another big name, another LIV title. The first five events of 2026? Rahm’s won twice. DeChambeau’s taken two. Anthony Kim even pulled off that wild comeback. It’s basically everything LIV could have dreamed of to kick off the year. Right? Wrong. Because Rahm’s win? It was more like a footnote. A sidebar. Because while he was making his way around Club de Golf Chapultepec, bigger questions were hanging in the air. Questions about LIV Golf’s future. A future that felt pretty damn uncertain after a chaotic week for this five-year-old league.
The Funding Fiasco: Rumors Fly Wild
Then Wednesday hit. Boom. Multiple outlets are reporting the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) is about to pull the plug on LIV. Now, the PIF is loaded. We’re talking around $925 billion. But apparently, the Iran War and all that Middle East drama? It’s messing with their budget. Their strategy. Reports say Saudi Arabia was already shifting its spending. Away from pipe dreams like “The Line” – part of that Neom mega-project – and towards stuff that actually makes sense. And then, these LIV funding rumors drop. The same day the PIF unveils this new five-year plan. All about the domestic economy. Diversifying away from oil. They said it themselves: “a period of rapid growth and acceleration to a new phase of sustained value creation.” Fancy words for “we’re getting serious.” They’re looking at maximizing impact, making investments smarter, and running things with, you know, actual governance and transparency. The PIF expects 80 percent of its money to be invested at home over this period. International investments? Down from 30 percent to 20 percent. Ouch.
So, no official word on LIV Golf. But Thursday rolls around, and guess what? The PIF sells a massive 70 percent stake in a Saudi soccer team, Al Hilal. And at the same time, word gets out that LIV officials were summoned to New York City. For an emergency meeting. You can’t make this stuff up.
The Tournament Goes On, Amidst the Chaos
While all this was going down, LIV Golf was supposed to be getting ready for a tournament in Mexico City. Tuesday. Press conferences? Canceled. Later blamed on a power outage. Real smooth. Wednesday. Sergio Garcia and his Fireballs team show up. Garcia, the 2017 Masters champ, steps up and says the LIV players? They haven’t been told a damn thing about any changes. “We haven’t heard anything other than what Yasir [Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor] told us at the beginning of the year,” he says. “That he’s behind us, that they have a long-term project. You know there are always a lot of rumors, and I can’t tell you anything more than what we already know.”
Then, the same day, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil sends an email to his staff. He’s saying the league is going “full throttle” in 2026. No mention of any future plans. Just pure denial. “I want to be crystal clear: Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle,” O’Neil wrote. “While the media landscape is often filled with speculation, our reality is defined by the work we do on the grass. We are heading into the heart of our 2026 schedule with the full energy of an organization that is bigger, louder, and more influential than ever before.” He keeps going, “The life of a startup movement is often defined by these moments of pressure. We signed up for this because we believe in disrupting the status quo. We have faced headwinds since the jump, and we’ve answered every time with resilience and grace. Now, we answer by doing what we do best: putting on the most compelling show in sports.” Bullshit. Pure, unadulterated bullshit.
The Broadcast and the Numbers Don't Lie
Thursday. First round coverage for LIV Golf kicks off. And who do we hear? Arlo White and David Feherty. They’re basically brushing aside all those reports about LIV’s funding being pulled. Feherty, bless his sarcastic heart, says, “There are still some writers and broadcasters that take pride in their work, but this generation has spawned a bunch of fast typists, you know, that consider themselves to be experts, and evidently, they’re not.” White chimes in, “Yeah, it must be exhausting, trying to will the LIV Golf league out of existence. Take a day off, everybody.” Then, get this, the broadcast gets hit with a two-hour blackout. You guessed it. Another local power outage. The universe is having a laugh.
And the numbers? They’re not pretty. Business filings in the UK, first looked at by The Athletic back in October, show LIV Golf Ltd – the UK entity handling things outside the US – lost over $590 million in 2024. Since 2022? That’s a cool $1.4 billion down the drain. O’Neil himself told The Financial Times in February that he doesn’t see LIV turning a profit in the next five years. Maybe even ten. He was asked in a TNT interview on Thursday if the league was fully funded through 2030. His answer? “It’s just not the way the world works.” He then went on to say, “The reality is you’re funded through the season and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going. But that’s not different from any other private equity-funded business in the history of mankind.” That interview? Later taken down. A partial segment without that gem of an answer was re-posted. Lovely.
What the Players Are Saying (or Not Saying)
So, what about the LIV stars? Bryson DeChambeau? Didn’t talk to the media this week. Withdrew before Sunday’s final round with a wrist injury. Dustin Johnson? Also silent. Phil Mickelson? Wasn’t even in Mexico. He’s on an extended break for “personal reasons.” Real convenient.
Jon Rahm? He said he tried to ignore the news. “Until the people in charge told me whether the rumors were true or not, for me, it didn’t make sense to think about it or waste time thinking about it,” Rahm said Thursday. “We were here; we knew we were going to play, so the idea was to prepare for a tournament. And that’s it. Since everything happened so suddenly and so quickly, I wasn’t very worried about it because normally, before the rumors start, we already know something. There’s always someone within the league who knows something; it happened so fast that I really didn’t worry about it.” Yeah, okay Jon. Whatever you say.
A Glimpse of the Future, Maybe?
Sunday. Rahm is absolutely crushing it. The LIV Golf broadcast flashes an ad. For the league’s return to Mexico City in 2027. Feherty, seeing this, just had to jab at those early-week reports again. “That’s really amazing,” Feherty said of the promo, “considering just a few days ago we had to announce we were returning this week.”
Rahm ended up beating David Puig by six shots. He mentioned finding something at the Masters on Sunday. His game’s in a better spot now. He stood on the 18th green with his Legion XIII teammates. Celebrating a team victory. Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Tom McKibbin, and Caleb Surratt. All facing questions about their team’s third consecutive win in Mexico. These forward-looking questions? Much easier to answer. “Four in a row sounds even better,” McKibbin said. For now, that’s the only thing certain.
The future of LIV Golf remains a giant question mark. Despite Rahm’s stellar performance and the team’s success, the whispers about funding and the PIF’s commitment are deafening. Golf fans are left watching and waiting, wondering what’s next for this controversial league. Will it survive? Will it adapt? Or is this just the beginning of the end? Only time will tell, but one thing’s for sure: it’s never dull watching LIV Golf unfold. For more on the business side of professional golf, check out this primer on Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.