Source : ABC NEWS
LIV Golf is ending its season one week earlier than planned, announcing on Monday it will not hold the team championship in Michigan next week and instead crown the team champion this week.
The 12 events this year — New Orleans was previously postponed — are the smallest schedule for LIV since it was launched with massive Saudi Arabian funding and eight tournaments in 2022.
Jon Rahm has already clinched the individual season title for the third straight year. LIV Golf Indianapolis, which starts on Thursday at The Club at Chatham Hills, will determine who finishes second and third among the players, and the top team.
The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the financial muscle of the rival league from the start, decided in March this would be the final year of funding.
LIV Golf announced earlier this month it had an agreement with a lead investor that would sustain a new version of the league for 2027.
“By concluding the season now, we can put our full resources behind what comes next and maintain the operational rigor this transition demands,” LIV CEO Scott O’Neil said in a statement.
“We are reimagining LIV Golf as a fundamentally new league owned by the players and anchored in a sustainable business model, with an evolved fan experience built for the markets where the game is growing fastest across the globe and the support of world-class partners.”
The cancellation of LIV Golf Michigan was not surprising.
There have been reports in recent weeks the tournament had not even started preparing with grandstands and other amenities. LIV Golf said ticket holders would get refunds.
In another cost-cutting move LIV attributed to “unavoidable changes in the entertainment program”, the league informed Thomas Rhett and Disco Lines their live performances would not take place at LIV Golf Indianapolis.
The final event, with a $US20 million ($28.1 million) purse that pays $US4 million to the winner, could be the last big pay-off for LIV and its 57 players.
LIV did not identify the lead investor or how much of a cash infusion was involved, or say whether it was an investment or a loan.
O’Neil has said the LIV 2.0 version for 2027 and onward would involve making players equity owners. He referred to it as a “second bite at the apple” being equity instead of cash.
But this likely is the end of $US20 million purses for individual outcomes, and there have already been cutbacks. Rahm earned $US6 million for winning the points title, down from $US18 million the previous two years.
“As we concentrate on finishing the season strong and building the next chapter of LIV Golf, we’ll carry the energy and enthusiasm our fans have shown us into what comes next,” O’Neil said.
The format for the 2027 season and the rosters also remain unclear.
Still to be determined is whether Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau — the two biggest names — and other players who joined the league for its exorbitant prize money will want to stay for LIV 2.0.
As for the final event, Joaquin Niemann, Lucas Herbert and Tyrrell Hatton are in the mix for third place, which pays a $US1 million bonus. DeChambeau is comfortably in second, which pays $US3 million.
Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces team has a narrow lead over Australia-based Ripper, with Rahm’s Legion XIII and Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers team all in the mix for the team title.
AP
