LIV Golf Hires AlixPartners in Funding Scramble
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- LIV Golf hired AlixPartners to draw up a fresh business plan aimed at securing external investment and is days from retaining a leading investment bank to lead capital-raising talks.
- Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) confirmed it will fund LIV only through the end of the 2026 season, saying the longer-term investment is "no longer consistent" with its current strategy or macro dynamics.
- Insiders said the AlixPartners engagement could also serve as contingency planning for a winding-down or insolvency process by year-end if new investors fail to materialize.
- LIV Golf appointed two restructuring specialists — Jon Zinman and Gene Davis — to its board this week, with Davis calling the league a "global league with passionate fans, world-class talent, and demonstrated commercial momentum."
- LIV Golf's Louisiana tournament, scheduled for late June, was cancelled, with organisers citing concerns that the football World Cup's US/Canada/Mexico staging would hurt attendance and viewership.
- The 57-player, 13-team league had already begun exploring stake sales in individual teams, with Citi advising on that process, but its sponsor base remains heavily connected to the Saudi state.
- Jon Rahm reportedly signed with LIV for $300m (£222m), one of several mega-deals the Saudi-backed tour used to lure stars from the PGA Tour in a bid for global sporting dominance.
Why it matters: LIV Golf was bankrolled by Saudi sovereign wealth; PIF's exit at the end of 2026 forces the tour to court private capital to cover nine-figure player contracts and ballooning operating costs on a business that has never turned profitable. The fact that restructuring specialists were brought in — and could pivot to insolvency work — means a wind-down is now a live option for a league that reshaped professional golf but relies heavily on Saudi-linked sponsors for revenue.
