LIV Golf is entering liquidation after failing to secure new financial backing, leaving two-time major champion Bryson DeChambeau until November 15 to take up DP World Tour membership for 2027.
The breakaway league confirmed on November 5 that it would begin an orderly wind-down of its operations, ending a five-year effort to establish a permanent rival to the PGA Tour. LIV Golf's creditors committee will meet on November 20, followed by a bankruptcy court hearing on November 24.
The collapse began in April when the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced it would stop funding the circuit. DeChambeau said LIV players were left "surprised" by the PIF decision to withdraw support.
"The writing was on the wall from April of this year, when the Saudi Public Investment Fund [PIF] announced they'd be pulling the plug, that they wouldn't be investing in the tour any longer," Sky Sports News reporter Jamie Weir said. "They came in with the intent to change the face of men's professional golf. £6bn of Saudi money has been pumped into it over the last four years and most of it has gone down the drain."
Collapse of the $300m LIV 2.0 rescue plan
Weir added that the league "haven't made much of an impact", particularly in television viewing figures. Following the loss of Saudi backing, LIV Golf filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September.
Investment firm BC Partners emerged as a potential backer with a proposed $300 million deal to launch a revamped circuit known as LIV 2.0. That rescue plan collapsed amid a mass player exodus, prompting BC Partners to withdraw its investment.
Weir reported that in an August meeting of LIV's 13 team captains, DeChambeau was the only captain who passionately felt there was a way forward and tried to win over the other 12, who were resigned to the league's fate.
"LIV Golf's eventual demise throws into doubt what the future holds for many, but no one more so than the league's biggest star and most vociferous advocate," Weir said. "Love him or hate him, DeChambeau has star factor. He puts bums on seats, he commands eyeballs and column inches. He is box office. Until the bitter end, he believed fully in LIV 2.0, the phoenix from the flames version of the beleaguered and controversial golf tour."
Bryson DeChambeau's DP World Tour deadline and PGA Tour pathway
DeChambeau earned a five-year DP World Tour exemption by winning the 2024 US Open at Pinehurst. Under tour rules, a major champion loses one year from the end of that period for every year they fail to take up membership.
Having not joined in 2025 and 2026, DeChambeau lost his exemption for 2028 and 2029. He can still take up membership for the 2027 season if he informs the tour by November 15, a lifeline that former player Laura Davies said would be a great success for both DeChambeau and the DP World Tour.
Weir noted that joining the tour would allow DeChambeau to "do a Patrick Reed". Reed, the 2018 Masters champion, left LIV in January to play his 2026 season solely on the DP World Tour, winning twice early in the year in Dubai and Qatar and finishing runner-up in Bahrain and Ireland to sit second on the Race to Dubai standings and earn one of 10 PGA Tour cards for 2027.
However, the PGA Tour is restructuring toward a more cut-throat, meritocratic model in 2028 and has not decided whether 10 cards will still be offered to DP World Tour members in 12 months. Weir said indications are that "the carrot will remain in place" with an unspecified number of cards, making DeChambeau's pathway back potentially trickier than Reed's.
YouTube content creation and major exemptions
Weir also raised the "nuclear option", in which the 33-year-old DeChambeau retires from professional tour golf. Described by Weir as a one-of-a-kind character who threatened to walk out mid-tournament at this year's Open after receiving a two-shot penalty for improving his stance, DeChambeau has over three million subscribers and nearly 750 million views on his YouTube channel.
"A bombshell retirement announcement can certainly not be ruled out, especially given the adulation and gratification he derives from what would appear to be his true passion, content creation," Weir said.
DeChambeau could focus on YouTube while playing only the four majors, as he is exempt for the next 12 major championships through The Open in 2029 and for the US Open until 2034. However, he indicated in August that he still wants to play regular tour events.
"Personally, I'd love to be able to play events on the PGA Tour. I think that's best for golf. I'd love that. It's not an either/or mentality. It's 'can we do both?' I think that's where everybody wants to be," DeChambeau said. Weir added that "we certainly haven't seen the last of Bryson Aldrich DeChambeau" and that "he'll no doubt believe he holds all the cards".
Why LIV Golf failed against the PGA Tour
Former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that LIV was destined to fail from the start. "I think it was based on bad fundamentals, I think that was the main thing," McGinley said. "LIV had an idea that team events was going to work in an individual sport that golf is. They also took on the might of America, but as Warren Buffet would say in business terms, 'don't bet against Uncle Sam'."
"They went head-to-head, toe-to-toe with corporate America, which is the backbone of the PGA Tour, and came out on the wrong side of that," McGinley added. "Ultimately, LIV wasn't thought through well and it wasn't a great idea. It was a flawed business model with really bad advice that the Saudis got in terms of the power that they were taking on."
The Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee, who also said LIV made golf less competitive, pointed to October 12 when DP World Tour chief executive Guy Kinnings announced that players signing with LIV 2.0 would be barred from the tour. "When Guy Kennings [DP World Tour CEO] said what he did, that was the death knell strategically," Chamblee said. "He was saying, 'look, you don't get to have your cake and eat it too'. We're going to say it's November 5 when LIV died. But really, LIV died on October 12."
McGinley told Sky Sports that LIV players "filled their pockets with money", decided LIV 2.0 would not make money, and took the chance to "get back on the gravy train of the DP World Tour, along with the PGA Tour". Speaking to the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi, Rory McIlroy called LIV "half a good idea, executed poorly", admitted it "wasn't good" for the game, shared concerns over future PGA Tour schedules, and said players leaving LIV would be "a good thing" for the DP World Tour.
Rules for Phil Mickelson and returning LIV players
The fallout for LIV's players has also been analysed by Guardian journalist Ewan Murray, Sky Sports Golf Podcast host Rob Lee, and Golf Central's Rex Hoggard and Todd Lewis. Six-time major winner Phil Mickelson, who joined LIV in 2022 and was involved in legal disputes against the PGA Tour, has not stated his plans at age 56 following his 2021 PGA Championship win.
Mickelson played only one LIV event this year, in South Africa in March, missing the rest of the schedule for "a family health matter". Golf publication Skratch alleged earlier this year that he is no longer welcome at three California golf clubs over inappropriate behaviour towards women, allegations Mickelson denies and his representatives called an "anonymously sourced drive-by shooting". He could focus solely on majors where he holds exemptions.
Weir said the PGA Tour requires a one-year suspension from a player's last LIV event, making players ineligible until August 2027. There will be no repeat of January's "come back and all is forgiven" offer extended to Brooks Koepka, DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, and Cameron Smith, which only Koepka accepted.
Eligible players have until November 15 to join the DP World Tour. Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton never gave up their memberships, while veterans Lee Westwood and Paul Casey hold career money list exemptions but have not stated their intentions. That door is closed to Mickelson, Smith, and Dustin Johnson, who must rely on invites to non-premier DP World Tour events where they add value. While LIV showed an appetite for team golf, a better schedule, international events, and bigger prize funds, and investors could still buy its remaining assets or trademarks, convincing burnt players and backers to attempt another breakaway like football's 2021 Super League will be nearly impossible.
