LIV CEO says league is ready for 2.0. First, it has to survive 1.0

Ahead of LIV’s Indianapolis tournament, the tour’s final event of 2026, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil spoke to the media for what was billed as a “league update.” Given how much speculation has flown about the breakaway tour in the last four months, and how little hard information actually exists, the press conference was an opportunity for O’Neil to set the record straight on what the future holds for LIV. 

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“It's time to move forward. Let's once again put the game first,” he said. “I spent time over the last several weeks speaking with many of the guardians and stewards of the game of golf, and I heard a real appetite to put the parochial friction of the past behind us. I want to be crystal clear; that's what LIV Golf wants. The philosophy is simple, if you've been around me before, you've heard it: It's complete, not compete.”

However, while O’Neil projected cautious positivity about LIV’s future, he did not answer some pressing questions, and did not give a detailed sense of whether the league will be able to secure sufficient financing to continue forward past this weekend. 

The tour has been in freefall since April, when its financial backer, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, abruptly announced it was cutting funding to LIV, effective at the end of the 2026 season. It was a brutal, potentially mortal blow for the tour that was built on massive purses and conspicuous spending on every element of tournament golf. 

Since then, it’s become clear that the PIF has not, in fact, fully funded LIV through the 2026 season, since the team event scheduled later this month for Michigan has been canceled, the purse for the Indianapolis individual championship has been cut nearly in half and LIV is facing a number of lawsuits from vendors over alleged unpaid bills.

Scott O'Neil speaks at a press conference on August 19, 2026, before the first round of LIV Golf Indianapolis at The Club at Chatham Hills in Westfield, Indiana.Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Without its financial backer, and with costs mounting up rapidly, LIV needs an outside investor to survive. After months of searching, and with the input of Bryson DeChambeau, LIV announced that it had secured an agreement with an unnamed “lead investor,” to be finalized in September. 

On Wednesday, O’Neil stressed that he wants LIV to act as a complementary, not competitive force in professional golf — “complete, not compete,” a phrase he repeated several times. He indicated again that LIV 2.0 will be a player-owned, 10-event tour, with five events taking place in the United States and five in international markets. 

“Players aren't simply playing for LIV Golf. They have an opportunity to own it,” he said. “They get equity in what they're building. They regain a majority of their commercial rights, and teams become real businesses with real assets, and for the first time, the interests of the league and the players become truly aligned around building long-term value together.”

O’Neil declined to go into specifics such as the name of the “lead investor” — The Athletic is reporting that it is Ted Goldthorpe, head of international investment firm BC Partners — or the timeline for getting financing secured. He did suggest that he believes there’s a sense for most of golf leadership, with the exception of the PGA Tour, to come together for the good of the game, but did not elaborate. 

He also declined to comment specifically on the future of significant players, including Jon Rahm, whose participation would seem to be critical to LIV’s continued existence. DeChambeau has been involved with financing discussions, and O’Neil offered kind words for the two-time U.S. Open champion whose LIV contract ends Sunday.

“Bryson has become a good friend, a good advocate of the league,” O’Neil said. “I certainly hope he's with us for the future. He's been extremely supportive, as I can say most of the big guys have been.”

Despite O’Neil’s optimism, and the success of several international events, LIV still faces substantial headwinds. The coming weeks will determine the league’s future, but for now, O’Neil has a mantra, if not necessarily publicly available specifics.  

“Player-owned, commercially disciplined, globally relevant, built to last,” he said. “That's us in a nutshell.”

The question now for O’Neil, and for the tour itself, is whether LIV 2.0 will find the financing and the support from players to live up to that ambitious nutshell.

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