Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will end its funding of LIV Golf at the end of the 2026 season, a decision that leaves the breakaway league scrambling for new investors and raises fresh questions about the future of Bryson DeChambeau and its other marquee names. The announcement was made on Thursday.
LIV Golf, which fractured men’s professional golf when it began in 2021, is now trying to keep itself afloat while burning through around $100m per month. DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith are the league’s biggest draws, and all three are major champions with a combined 52 professional victories. Their status matters because the league’s remaining seven events may be their last before contracts are cancelled and players return to the established tours.
The timing matters because the PGA Tour has already opened a path back for some of the game’s biggest defectors. Earlier in the year, commissioner Brian Rolapp offered Rahm, Smith, DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka the chance to rejoin through the Returning Member Programme, a one-time offer for players who had won a major title in the previous four years. Koepka accepted and returned to the PGA Tour in January. Rahm, DeChambeau and Smith chose to fulfil their LIV contracts.
That history could shape what happens next. Sky Sports understands that multiple LIV players have already sounded out the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour about being reinstated, but any return would be handled case by case. Jamie Weir said Koepka took advantage of the deal while the others did not, and added that DeChambeau is one of the players who sued the PGA Tour, making a comeback “a little bit trickier.” Koepka’s own return came with a $5m payment to charity and the loss of any player equity shares for the next five years.
The clearest conclusion from Thursday’s announcement is that LIV Golf has been given a deadline, not a lifeline. If new backers do not arrive, the league’s stars may soon have to decide whether to ride out the final stretch of the 2026 season or begin the work of rebuilding their place in the game they helped split apart.
