In LIV’s new era, everyone (even Bryson!) has same question

STERLING, Va. — Is this the beginning of the end?

Or the beginning of a new beginning?

On a steamy Tuesday here at President Trump’s Washington D.C.-area club, where a hulking white colonial-style clubhouse stands sentinel atop the property like a ski lodge clinging to a mountain’s edge, that was the question on everyone’s minds in what is LIV Golf’s first event back since its funders, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, announced it would pull its billions at the close of the 2026 season.

You could feel the buzz about LIV’s uncertain future, from the players, the caddies, the media, the staff, the volunteers driving carts up the vertiginous climb to the clubhouse. Even from the league’s biggest star, who said he was as blindsided as the rest of the golf-following world when reports began to surface in mid-April that the league he had helped put on the map suddenly was in crisis mode.

“Same day as everybody else,” Bryson DeChambeau told GOLF.com of when he learned of the PIF’s decision. “I didn’t know. It was quite quick.”

When DeChambeau got the news — by way of LIV CEO Scott O’Neil — he said his immediate rection was, “There’s no way. That’s frickin’ impossible, considering what I’d heard a couple months earlier. I thought there was a plan through 2032. It was a flip of the switch.

“I wish [the PIF] the best of luck. I just wish they would have stayed in a little longer, because we’re really close on the team side, for every team being profitable.”

How close is hard to know. O’Neil has said that he expected 10 of LIV’s 13 teams to turn a profit this season but the finer points of how those teams would get there have never been spelled out. LIV also was working toward selling stakes in its squads and said it had appointed Citi to find buyers. In February, O’Neil told the Financial Times, “There’s a commitment to the long term of this business, that’s beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

If you listened to O’Neil’s long and at times wandering press conference Tuesday morning, there’s no question there’s still commitment, just not from the PIF; it’s now coming from O’Neil and the fleet of bankers and advisors he has recruited to help him find new investors for his five-year-old league. It’s a tall order but one O’Neil says he’s ready to embrace.

“Guys, remember, when my phone rings, it never is the case that everything is going well,” O’Neil, who ran professional sports teams and entertainment companies before joining LIV, told the media Tuesday morning. “I am not a status quo manager. I never have been. Like this is what I do … so, it would be naive to be surprised, and it would be irresponsible to be thinking anything else other than how far we have to go to make sure that we can continue to grow this game around the world.”

O’Neil declined to say whether he was surprised by the PIF’s exit but did say “it was very clear 18 months ago that for this to be a growing concern, we were going to have to make significant and substantive changes in terms of the way we do business.”

Speaking of growing concerns, one veteran pro told me Tuesday that there is a sense of “worry” among LIV players, particularly those less established players who, should LIV not survive, could find themselves with nowhere to play, at least in the short term. There’s also a possibility that the league lives on but with smaller purses and contracts. “I do believe that for the business plan to change, whatever they’re coming up with, there will need to be some concessions on our part,” Jon Rahm said at his Tuesday press conference with his three Legion XIII teammates, Tyrrell Hatton, Tom McKibbin and Caleb Surratt.

When Surratt, who is 22, was asked whether he’d be willing to make concessions, he said, “I don’t think any of us know what those concessions may be or if there is going to be any at all, right? I think there’s multiple ways it can go. For me, when I say I’m looking forward to the future, I’m just thinking about myself. I’m thinking about the betterment of my career and the path that I’m on. Regardless of what tournaments that entails, my goal is to be in majors and win majors one day, and I know that when I get there, I’ll be more prepared for that moment because I’ve spent multiple years out here regardless of whatever happens or whatever concessions I have to make.”

Out here, on Tuesday, looked much the same as past LIV events; there were no obvious signs of financial duress. DeChambeau, hot off a morning visit to the White House, entertained LIV partners with a shot-making session on the range; the short-game practice area was ringed with signage from the league’s supporters (HSBC, Maaden and Trackman among them); and double-decker corporate suites lined the 18th fairway leading up to a green backed by a 100-foot manmade waterfall.

As afternoon melted into evening, DeChambeau was still on the practice green but most of his peers had departed. Duty called, in the form of an offsite player meeting on Tuesday evening.

I asked DeChambeau whether the energy around LIV and it tournaments feels any different with so much uncertainty about the league’s future.   

“You can always look at it in numerous ways; I view it as an opportunity,” DeChambeau said. “Anytime a door closes, another one opens. I don’t think if a door closes, you’re just locked in forever. For us, this is the opportunity that we have in this country and also internationally, the freedom and the opportunity to build businesses. If it’s restructured in the right way, and people see the value of team golf, and want to be a part of something special, I think there’s opportunity out there.”

Time will tell, most likely sooner than later.