By Andrew Beaton and Alexander Gladstone

LIV Golf, the sports upstart originally backed by Saudi Arabia, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, all but closing the most tumultuous period in the history of the game, four years after the group briefly tore it apart with an unprecedented influx of money.

The league said it has between $500 million and $1 billion of liabilities, between $100 million and $500 million in assets and is seeking to restructure financially after filing for chapter 11 protection in New Jersey. The league has been on life support since earlier this year, when Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, LIV's longtime backer, abruptly pulled its funding.

Despite its deep-pocketed investors, who helped lure star players from the PGA Tour with eye-popping guaranteed contracts and enormous prize funds, LIV hemorrhaged cash from the outset. After plowing over $5 billion into LIV since it teed off in 2022, the Saudis decided that the golf league was no longer a priority. And now, the golfers who bolted to LIV for its seemingly bottomless coffers have a new role. They are now LIV's biggest creditors.

Two-time major champion Jon Rahm heads the list, according to the league's bankruptcy filings. The documents say that Rahm, who joined LIV in late 2023 and said earlier this year that there were still years left on his contract, is owed $7.4 million. The top seven creditors are all players, including Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson. LIV estimates that in total there are between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors.

LIV said that it has entered into a restructuring support agreement with BC Partners, the British investment firm, and other potential investors to recapitalize the organization when it emerges from bankruptcy. PIF is also providing a $49.6 million loan to fund the chapter 11 proceedings.

"This process gives us the structure and time to pursue a landmark transaction and begin the next chapter of LIV Golf," LIV chief executive Scott O'Neil said in a statement. "We believe deeply in LIV Golf's future."

LIV's bankruptcy filing had been widely expected in the aftermath of PIF's about-face this spring. Since then, LIV had canceled two tournaments and allowed bills to pile up. Several vendors sued LIV this year for failing to pay them, and the company conducted mass layoffs last month.

Still, LIV is angling to play on in 2027 and beyond under what it's calling "LIV 2.0." O'Neil has been seeking some $300 million in outside investment to keep the league afloat. Even if LIV continues, its era of poaching elite players with giant paydays is likely over.

"I still have a contract with LIV 1.0 that I'm more than willing to fulfill," Rahm told the BBC earlier Tuesday.

Under O'Neil's proposed new model, LIV players would become its majority owners, with equity stakes replacing the enormous checks that originally coaxed them to join. What remains unclear is whether superstars such as Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau will find that palatable or seek a path back to the PGA Tour-potentially spelling the end for LIV. As creditors, the players stand to get a fraction of what they were initially promised.

The filing caps a stunning downfall for a league that sowed chaos in professional golf from its inception. Initially led by legendary Australian golfer Greg Norman, the league attracted the likes of six-time major winner Phil Mickelson, and those who joined faced blowback from the golf establishment, including Tiger Woods. LIV's players were accused of helping Saudi Arabia whitewash its global reputation after incidents such as the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. LIV always said that its only mission was to grow the sport globally.

Its launch instantly divided the industry. LIV and the PGA Tour sued each other, with Tour commissioner Jay Monahan calling the rival a "foreign monarchy that is spending billions of dollars in an attempt to buy the game of golf." So it was shocking when the Tour and PIF agreed to drop their litigation to work together in 2023. The pivot was so jarring that there was a Senate hearing on the matter.

Yet, despite interventions from President Trump, a deal between the two sides to stitch the sport back together never materialized. And in the time since, LIV continued to face the problem that dogged the league from the outset: It failed to latch on with fans.

In the meantime, the bankruptcy filing amps up the pressure on O'Neil to secure investors that can keep the league afloat. That will also require convincing players that the business can be viable.

"The entirety of our focus is to get to this transaction and get through it. Without the players, that becomes very difficult," he said last month. "I have a good level of confidence in my conversations that we'll have a critical mass of the right players to move this league forward."

Write to Andrew Beaton at andrew.beaton@wsj.com and Alexander Gladstone at alexander.gladstone@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 08, 2026 17:02 ET (21:02 GMT)