LIV Golf has announced that it is laying off most of its U.S. and U.K. employees in a desperate, last-ditch move to stay afloat.
The league said that the huge wave of layoffs was an effort to remain alive after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) decided to end its financial support, according to the New York Post.
The organization reportedly already filed its Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice in July, allowing the layoffs to begin immediately.
“We are scaling back operations as we transition to the next chapter of LIV Golf and work toward making LIV 2.0 a reality,” said a LIV spokesperson, according to Sportico.
“We are grateful to our employees for their hard work and dedication in building LIV Golf, and we remain committed to supporting those affected through this transition.”
LIV had announced early this month that it had lined up a new backer after PIF pulled out.
Sports media rumor mills have claimed that Ted Goldthorope of BC Partners is the backer in question. Still, LIV has not made any formal announcements to that point, nor has the league said when this investment will be available for the league’s use.
Still, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil did say that he has had meetings with this still-unnamed backer.
“You have a visionary, charismatic, driven, well-connected leader, investor, businessman who answered questions with grace, shared his vision, and I think was able to convey a lot of the things that players and GMs and my colleagues wanted to hear,” O’Neil said. “It was a fantastic meeting.”
Whatever the status of this new financing, it has clearly not come through to date. As a result, LIV abruptly ended its 2026 season last week and canceled its remaining events.
The group still hopes to hold ten events in 2027.
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