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The Saudi PIF is ending its funding of a $15 million series of elevated events on the Ladies European Tour.
It’s the latest financial pivot in the PIF’s global golf strategy, as Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is in the midst of severing its final ties with LIV Golf, which is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The PIF spent more than $5 billion on LIV since it was launched in 2022.
In the women’s game, the PIF Global Series, which is paying $15 million in prize money across five events on the LET this season, will not return in 2027, according to an announcement made on Monday. Last year’s five-event series paid $13 million in prize money. From 2021-2024, it was known as the Aramco Team Series, paying out mostly $1 million purses.
A spokesperson for Golf Saudi (the commercial development arm of the Saudi Golf Federation) tells Front Office Sports that “the shape of our investment has changed as our strategy has developed.” The $1 trillion PIF has been pulling back in many investment areas under a new long-term strategy announced earlier this year.
“Our focus now is on investing where it has the most impact: grassroots growth in Saudi Arabia, season-long support for the Ladies European Tour, and a championship at the top of the women’s game,” the Golf Saudi spokesperson says.
Most LET tournaments have purses around $500,000 or less, so the loss of the lucrative PIF-backed events is a major blow for the tour, which is largely a feeder circuit for players hoping to make it on the more premier LPGA Tour. The final two PIF-backed $2 million events on the 2026 schedule will still be played as scheduled in Korea and China this fall.
Amid the funding drop, Golf Saudi will continue to back an event in London that will be co-sanctioned by the LET and LPGA, with an increased purse of $4 million. The PIF Global Series played a $2 million event at Centurion Club in London the past two seasons, but a 2027 venue has not been finalized; the tournament will be played July 22-25, the week before the AIG Women’s Open in England.
The 2026 PIF Global Series also included a $4 million LET-LPGA co-sanctioned event in Las Vegas this year, but that is unlikely to return next year. The PIF Saudi Ladies International, which paid out $5 million in prize money this year, has been a main fixture on the LET schedule since 2020. The full 2027 LET schedule has not yet been announced.
Golf Saudi will also take over sponsorship of the LET’s Order of Merit season-long points race, currently called the Race to Costa del Sol, in a multiyear deal. This season’s bonus money is €75,000 for first place, €50,000 for second, and €25,000 for third. The Golf Saudi-backed bonus money up for grabs in 2027 will be announced later this year.
The overall dip in LET funding comes as the remaining events on the 2026 International Series—elevated $2 million tournaments on the men’s Asian Tour—lost their PIF funding amid LIV’s turmoil and the Asian Tour pivoting to a new deal with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.
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