Reuters
BC Partners is dropping its bid to relaunch LIV Golf due to an inability to secure enough player commitments, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
The professional men’s golf league, a competitor to the PGA Tour, filed for bankruptcy protection in New Jersey in September as part of a restructuring after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which has invested more than $US5 billion ($7 billion) in LIV since its launch in 2022, announced it was ending its financial backing after the 2026 season.
LIV has said it plans to continue operating while it reorganises.
The private capital firm’s decision came as a deadline loomed to show there was enough player support to hold a tournament series in 2027, the FT said, citing people directly familiar with the matter.
BC Partners – which provides financing to middle-market companies – and LIV Golf did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Former world No.1 Jon Rahm is among a wave of high-profile golfers who have left LIV Golf since it filed for bankruptcy protection.
LIV is expected to appear at a Thursday hearing in US bankruptcy court in Trenton, New Jersey, to discuss various contracts, leases and assets. It is unclear whether LIV’s fate may also be discussed.
In October, BC Partners made an initial investment in LIV Golf and planned to provide up to $US300 million ($428 million) in financing to help the league emerge from restructuring and strengthen its finances ahead of the 2027 season.
LIV Golf launched in 2022 with funding from Saudi Arabia and lured leading players from the PGA Tour including Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Australian Cameron Smith and Dustin Johnson with lucrative contracts.
DeChambeau, one of the biggest names on LIV’s player roster, said recently the business model for the league’s proposed 2.0 era “makes a lot of sense” and that he hoped that it would last “forever”.
Others have been critical of LIV Golf, with DP World Tour chief executive Guy Kinnings saying that LIV had sought to undermine the European circuit.
Kinnings is having to weigh up regaining some star power with unhappiness among some of his members that LIV players are just walking back onto the tour having caused so much disruption.
In an interview with The Scotsman newspaper, Kinnings accepted there was a balance to strike in integrating the returning players.
“But we also have to protect the tour against an entity who spent, so we are told, over $7 billion, with one of their aims being to ‘destroy the DP World Tour,’” Kinnings said. “I have heard that from so many different people they talked to, who I have known for over 30 years within the game and who I trust implicitly.
“Clearly when you are faced with statements like that, and then people then ask why we are doing what we are doing with our membership and invite policy for 2027, then I think the answer becomes pretty obvious. Myself and everyone at the DP World Tour have a duty to our members to protect our tour.”
Six-time major champion Rory McIlroy, who has been outspoken against LIV Golf since its formation, backed up Kinnings’ comments.
Speaking Wednesday at the Abu Dhabi Championship, McIlroy said: “I agree with everything that Guy said. They took players, they took sponsors, they turned professional golf into an arms race.
“They were going around Augusta saying they wanted to destroy the European tour.”
McIlroy acknowledged that LIV’s investment had brought benefits, including the creation of the International Series on the Asian Tour, but said the latter had ultimately been left without the support it needed.
“Where did that leave the Asian Tour? They left them high and dry,” he said, adding that the tour had since returned to the fold through partnerships with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.
McIlroy said LIV’s financial model was always likely to face difficulties if investors failed to see a return or decided to redirect their money elsewhere, and that it was “ironic” that LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil’s motto is now “complete, not compete” – a reference to the breakaway league finding a place in golf’s ecosystem rather than trying to take over.
McIlroy, 37, added the disruption caused by the breakaway league could ultimately leave men’s golf on a more sustainable footing.
“For long-term sustainability for men’s professional golf, I think we are in a much better spot,” he said.
Reuters, AP
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