Scott O’Neil Has Herculean Task to Sell LIV Golf to Investors, Sponsors

Michael Lore | mlore@bigswingmedia.news

When Scott O’Neil, former CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, took over for Greg Norman as CEO of LIV Golf in January 2025, the upstart tour appeared to be on a path to industry acceptance—or at least tolerance.

A few factors working in LIV’s favor were:

• The “us-vs-them” narrative with the PGA Tour was put to bed when the two tours announced in December 2023 they would unify under one umbrella along with the DP World Tour.
• Jon Rahm quickly established his dominance by winning the LIV Golf Individual Championship his first two seasons after joining in December 2023.
• Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau proved LIV golfers could still compete among—and beat—the world’s best by winning the 2023 PGA Championship and 2024 U.S. Open, respectively.
• LIV Golf announced its most significant media rights deal to date in January 2025: a multi-year deal with Fox Sports based on a plan to live broadcast nearly all of the tour’s 210 hours of competition.
• In February 2025, both the USGA and The R&A announced they were easing exemptions for qualifying LIV golfers.

The golf industry was finally accepting the Saudi-backed league where players competed (in shorts if they wanted) as both individuals and teams in 54 holes of no-cut golf for eye-popping sums of money no more than 14 times per year across the globe from Adelaide to Bedminster, N.J.

But on April 30, 2026, LIV Golf’s biggest supporters, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), announced it was severing funding at the conclusion of the current season.

Only 17 months into his role, O’Neil is tasked with having to not only prove that LIV Golf is valuable, but, more importantly, it can be profitable as he seeks between $250 million and $350 million from “long-term financial partners” in order to keep the tour operational beyond its Individual Championship and Team Championship events scheduled for late August.

“These guys are out on an island now,” one industry executive said. “I don’t envy Scott O’Neil at all because this is not what he signed up for. … At the end of the day, it’s a bit of an albatross.

“Unless something fundamentally changes, I don’t see how it hangs on.”

Big Swing Media spoke to multiple veteran industry executives with 50+ combined years of experience leading marketing, sponsorship and partnerships at some of the biggest sports properties.

‍Is LIV Golf valuable to investors & sponsors?

With limited broadcast viewership and brand appeal/interest in the U.S., stars like Patrick Reed and Koekpa returning to the PGA Tour, and trimming its already-limited tournament calendar to a reported 10 potential events for 2027—though players will be playing 72 holes—O’Neil has his hands full … just not with cash.

Industry sources believe the amount of funding LIV is looking for to ensure it survives post-PIF isn’t even enough to continue.

The PIF invested a reported $5 billion into LIV since it launched in June 2021. The tour lost a reported $461.8 million in its non-U.S. operations in 2024 alone.

“If PIF is completely out of it, they’re going to need a lot more than $250 million to operate,” another industry executive said.

Despite an uncertain future, O’Neil remains bullish in LIV’s value, particularly its themed teams, like DeChambeau’s Crushers GC, Rahm’s Legion XIII, the all-Aussie Ripper GC and Korean Golf Club.

“If you ask me where the value of this business is, it’s in the teams,” O’Neil said at a press conference ahead of LIV Golf Virginia in May. “If you’re looking for direction, we believe that teams will have extraordinary value. We believe that once we set the business in the right direction with the right trajectory, with the right revenue base and cost base—which we’re well on our way to doing—that these teams will have extraordinary value.

“And that’s where, if you’re an investor and you’re listening to this or reading this, that’s where you’re going to get your value.”

The statement screams as much (false) confidence as it does desperation.

LIV executives had also previously revealed in January that they could envision each of their 13 team franchises reaching $1 billion valuations.

Whether or not investors see value in LIV Golf—and its highly touted teams—is to be determined, but O’Neil is running out of time. LIV’s financial uncertainty is already impacting its current operations, including its tournament schedule (see: LIV New Orleans) and broadcast/streaming (see: Any Time, Any Shot).

Even DeChambeau is trying to determine his future. In one breath he says he’s debating prioritizing YouTube golf and content creation while only playing majors to recently hitting the campaign fundraising trail alongside O’Neil, Richard Marsh and Ducera Partners in search of millions by “giving all I can” to help attract investors.

‍How does LIV’s uncertainty impact sponsors?

While LIV is looking to secure its future, the tour has to continue to deliver on contractual obligations made to corporate partners and suppliers, some of whom may have paid upfront.

Whether they’re looking to cut contracts and losses short or trying to recoup any dollars spent, leading sales and sponsorship executives say a few scenarios could play out:

• Contracts that have a clause regarding change of ownership can give sponsors an opportunity to leave, but if it remains the same technical ownership with new investors, then contracts could remain binding.
• If LIV folds, sponsors can attempt to recoup any invested dollars through litigation, which will be a lengthy and complex process.
• The entire operation is shuttered if LIV Golf files for bankruptcy which would enact force majeure, freeing both sides from liability and obligation as a result of an extraordinary, uncontrollable or unforeseeable event occurring.

Already operating at a massive loss, LIV Golf losing all of its funding and not being able to operate certainly seems to be a justifiable excuse to trigger that clause. Sources told Bloomberg that LIV management and advisers were looking into filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a “last resort.”

Prior to the PIF’s proclamation of withdrawal, O’Neil claimed at an October 2025 event that LIV brought in “half a billion” dollars worth of sponsorship over the prior 10 months.

Multiple industry sources agreed that that figure should be taken with a grain of salt if you trace the money.

“As far as sponsorship goes, they’ve struggled really, really mightily in the U.S. market to generate any real interest,” one industry executive said. “I’ve read about their $500 million (in sponsorship). The vast majority of that is Saudi brands, and likely part of PIF itself. So companies like Aramco and Riyadh Air—and there are one or two others that they probably post on their website—but it’s basically one hand sort of feeding the other.”

‍Who are LIV Golf’s partners?

Four of LIV Golf’s six Global Partners are Saudi companies with PIF ties.

The PIF owns a combined 16% (8% direct, 8% indirect) of Aramco, a Saudi Arabian national oil company boasting a market cap of $1.749 trillion. The PIF is the majority shareholder (63.78%) of Saudi Arabian Mining Company, Ma’aden, the largest multi-commodity metals and mining company in the MENA region. Riyadh Air and Roshn Group, Saudi Arabia's leading multi-asset class real estate developer, are both wholly owned subsidiaries of the PIF.

LIV Golf and the PIF aren’t hiding this fact nor is it new news. The tour’s partners page also includes non-PIF-owned giants HSBC, one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organizations with assets of $3.054 billion, as well as Salesforce, the world’s leading cloud-based CRM platform with a $164.49 billion market cap.

LIV also lists Bahri and JCB as Premium Partner and Presenting Partner, respectively. Official suppliers like New Era, Panini and Trackman provide everything from wine to headwear, trading cards and technology.

Rolex, announced as an Official Partner in January, isn’t listed on LIV Golf’s “Our Partners” page at the time of publication. Despite the omission, the luxury watch manufacturer remains committed to LIV. When asked for comment, a Rolex rep said: “Rolex remains a global partner of the LIV Golf League.”

How much longer Rolex and other LIV sponsors remain in their corner is contingent on whether or not the tour continues operations beyond this year. How they “end the relationship” and whether or not it's an amicable split will be a case-by-case scenario.

“All those Saudi-based companies, they’re going away because they’re connected to the Saudi funding,” an exec said. “So now you’re down to HSBC, Rolex and Salesforce. I’m sure all the folks over there are going, ‘WTF. What?’

“I don’t know what the ‘outs’ are in their contracts to be able to get out if the Saudis backed out. The smart guys probably would have had a clause of some sort for that because that was really critical to the success of the league. It’s going to be interesting going forward here, and I don’t think it’s a long-term horizon either.”