Reports Reignite Saudi PIF’s LIV Golf Exit Talk

Questions continue to arise about LIV Golf’s future, one week out from the league’s first U.S. event of the 2026 season.

On Wednesday afternoon, multiple outlets reported that LIV plans to inform its players and staff that the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia will no longer fund the league following the 2026 season.

The move would confirm previous reports that surfaced two weeks ago, revealing that the PIF was close to cutting its support for LIV.

According to the Wall Street Journal, LIV plans to tell players and staff “by Thursday.” CNBC reported LIV is “expected to tell players and staff as early as” Thursday.

However, sources with knowledge of LIV’s operations pushed back on the reports, telling Front Office Sports that all players and staff were already aware of the PIF’s looming exit, which has been widely reported.

Neither LIV nor the PIF has released any official statements about their relationship ending.

LIV Already Looking for Investors

Since questions arose about the PIF’s future funding, LIV CEO Scott O’Neil has already said on multiple occasions that the league is searching for new investors.

“We have commitments to have this being a going concern,” O’Neil said in an April 17 interview with LIV’s U.K. media rights partner TNT Sports. “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.”

The video from TNT Sports was briefly taken down before being reposted without the above quote.

“Do you have to raise money? Probably,” O’Neil said during an interview during the FS1 broadcast of LIV’s Mexico City event on April 16. “This is business, but if we keep the trajectory going the way we are and the revenue growth going, this is going to be a really good business for a really long time.”

This past weekend, O’Neil told Korea-based Maeil Business that LIV had “secured all of the operating funds for the 2026 season” and that “like other general companies, we are trying to grow by attracting investment and expanding profits.”

LIV’s Season Shifting

O’Neil, in a memo to LIV staff on April 15, wrote, “I want to be crystal clear: Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle.”

However, the 2026 season was interrupted this week with the postponement—and likely cancellation—of LIV Golf Louisiana, the league’s debut event in New Orleans originally scheduled for late June. LIV, in a statement, said the shift “allows us to avoid peak summer heat and the crowded global sports calendar.” The event could be rescheduled for the fall, according to LIV. 

LIV Golf Virginia is the league’s next event on the 2026 schedule—next week at Trump National Golf Club, in Washington, D.C.