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LIV Golf Is Falling Apart in the Most Embarrassing of Ways, According to New Reports
To say LIV Golf is limping to the finish line of its 2026 season would be putting it way too nicely. Instead, the state of struggling golf league heading into its final tournament of the year this week in Indianapolis is more like that GIF of a guy walking out to his car with a handful of things in his arms, only to drop them all in embarrassing fashion while falling to the ground.
The last few months have been dreadful for LIV Golf. The last few weeks have been even worse. And the past two days have been a downright disaster that is playing out for the world to see.
On Monday, LIV Golf officially announced that it had canceled next week’s event in Michigan, which was supposed to serve as the season finale where the team championship would be decided. With that no longer happening, this week’s event will determine the individual season-long champion and the team season-long champion.
On Tuesday, LIV Golf made this event seem even depressing when it shared that the total purse of the individual event would basically be in cut in half from what it was at all previous events, including the latest one in New York earlier this month. The individual winner will get $2 million, instead of the usual $4 million and the total purse will be just over $10.1 million. The team winner will get $30 million to split up between four players.
According to LIV’s media notes, the purse this week in Indianapolis will have just $10m for the individual portion. But $30m for the teams pic.twitter.com/KMjs11Nh6B
— Bob Harig (@BobHarig) August 18, 2026
New report shows LIV Golf has major cash issues
The biggest problem for LIV Golf right now is money. The league is losing its funding from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia at the end of the season and is struggling to make ends meet while also trying to find investors to keep it alive.
On Tuesday, Front Office Sports reported that Fresh Tape Media, a production company that handled the league’s media days back in January, is suing LIV Golf for $1.23 million in missed payments and interest.
Fresh Tape Media founder Jared Kleinstein addressed that lawsuit on on Tuesday, tweeting: “We worked with a lot of great people at LIV Golf and are proud of what our team produced. This isn’t about the work or the people we collaborated with. It’s pretty simple: when a small business does the work, it deserves to be paid for it.”
We worked with a lot of great people at @livgolf_league and are proud of what our team produced. This isn’t about the work or the people we collaborated with.
— Jared Kleinstein (@jarzod) August 18, 2026
It’s pretty simple: when a small business does the work, it deserves to be paid for it. https://t.co/AfPSjW5LJu
That comes after Front Office Sports reported on Monday that many contractors and vendors have gone unpaid by LIV Golf and are getting lawyers involved.
Late Monday night, Josh Carpenter of the Sports Business Journal reported that some LIV Golf players have not been paid their winnings yet from LIV Golf New York, which was played from Aug. 6–9. Players in the past usually saw their payments hit their accounts a few days after the event concluded.
As of Monday night, some LIV golfers were still awaiting payment from the league’s most recent event at Trump Bedminster, which concluded Aug. 9
— Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter) August 18, 2026
Players typically have been paid the Tuesday or Wednesday following a tournament https://t.co/CdHEu7YtOO
Speaking of money, Jon Rahm is still reportedly owed upwards to $150 million from the deal he signed with LIV Golf when he joined the league in 2023. With a league that is so strapped for money at the moment, how the Rahm situation plays out will likely tell us everything we need to know about the its future.
This all makes for a very awkward final event this week in Indianapolis where LIV Golf will do its best to celebrate the winners while working behind the scenes on lawsuits and a future that becomes more in doubt with each passing day.
As LIV Golf would say, don’t blink—or you could miss the next embarrassing report about a league that appears to be crumbling in front of our very eyes.
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Andy Nesbitt is the assistant managing editor of audience engagement at Sports Illustrated. He works closely with the Breaking and Trending News team to shape SI’s daily coverage across all sports. A 20-year veteran of the sports media business, he has worked for Fox Sports, For the Win, The Boston Globe and NBC Sports, having joined SI in February 2023. Nesbitt is a golf fanatic who desperately wants to see the Super Bowl played on a Saturday night.