'It's just golf': LIV season ends amid shaky future
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- Jon Rahm clinched his third consecutive season points title and second straight team crown, but finished one stroke behind individual winner Michael La Sasso, the 22-year-old 2025 NCAA individual champ from Mississippi, who closed with a 65 to finish at 18 under.
- Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund announced in April it would end its investment after this season, having spent more than $5 billion over five years to launch and fund the breakaway league.
- LIV Golf canceled two 2026 events — New Orleans in June and the originally scheduled Michigan season finale — and scrapped the weekend entertainment that had been a tour signature.
- CEO Scott O'Neil unveiled plans for 2027 and beyond: five team championships overseas, five U.S. individual tournaments scheduled near the majors, and players becoming equity owners with restored commercial rights.
- A source confirmed to ESPN that the lead investor under a non-binding term sheet is Ted Goldthorpe of BC Partners, though O'Neil declined to disclose investment size, a binding-agreement timeline, or a commitment deadline for players.
- Bryson DeChambeau's contract expires this year while Rahm is signed through next season, and O'Neil said he had "a good level of confidence" that a critical mass of players will sign on to what he called "LIV 2.0."
- Last year's Indiana event drew an American LIV-record 60,000-plus fans over three rounds; organizers did not announce attendance figures for this year's tournament.
Why it matters: Five years and more than $5 billion from Saudi Arabia's PIF produced a tour whose future now rests on a non-binding term sheet from BC Partners. Top stars hold the leverage: DeChambeau's contract expires this year, giving him — and any holdouts — leverage to demand terms before committing to a restructured league. If the BC Partners deal collapses or enough marquee names walk, LIV loses both its roster and the broadcast viability it was built to secure.
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