LIV Golf Internal Memo Says Season to Continue at ‘Full Throttle’

Multiple outlets reported Wednesday that the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund would be cutting funding to LIV Golf but no one from the league has commented on those reports.

Bryson DeChambeau and LIV Golf are playing as scheduled this week in Mexico City. | Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters via Imagn Images

After a day of uncertainty about LIV Golf’s future, including several reports of financial distress or reduced funding, the league is going on with its schedule on Thursday in Mexico City and plans to continue with its 14-event slate.

Although nobody from LIV Golf has commented publicly—and Sports Illustrated reached out several times for clarification—SI obtained an internal memo sent by CEO to staff on Wednesday afternoon in which he said the season will continue at “full throttle.”

The memo was obtained through a source with knowledge of league operations.

“We are heading into the heart of our 2026 schedule with the full energy of an organization that is bigger, louder and more influential than ever before,” O’Neil wrote in part. “The life of a startup movement is often defined by these moments of pressure. We signed up for this because we believe in disrupting the status quo. We have faced headwinds since the jump, and we’ve answered every time with resilience and grace. Now we answer by doing what we do best: putting on the most compelling show in sports.”

Earlier in the day, there were doubts that LIV would even play this week’s event in Mexico City, despite all of the players and personnel being on site, but unclear what was occurring.

League executives were reportedly at a meeting in New York on Tuesday at league offices but were said to be on-site Wednesday. O’Neil was among LIV executives and staff who were at the Masters last week.

The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal both reported via sources on Wednesday that the Public Investment Fund, which backs LIV Golf, was cutting funding to the league going forward. What that means, exactly, is unclear.

According to financial documents, the PIF approved some $266 million in additional funding for LIV Golf, bringing the total investment dating to 2022 inception to more than $5.3 billion.

LIV Golf has $30 million purses each week and has paid hefty signing bonuses to the likes of Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson. Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed, who joined in 2022 with bonuses, have since left LIV Golf.

The league has had a successful run in various international markets such as Australia, South Africa, Spain, Singapore and Hong Kong but has struggled to gain a lucrative media rights deal nor robust title sponsorship. Still, it has continued plan for the future, announcing tournament dates and locations into next year.

That is what led to considerable consternation Wednesday over the various reports.

Earlier, players and internal staff had said they had not been updated by the league. At a news conference in Mexico City, Sergio Garcia and his Fireballs teammates were asked about the situation.

“We have not heard anything,” Garcia said. “That is not what [LIV Golf chairman] Yasir [Al-Rumayyan] told us at the beginning of the year, that he is behind us, that they have a project of many years.”

But LIV employees and players have typically been left out of the loop. When the 2023 framework agreement was announced in June of that year, it came as a surprise to all at LIV Golf, including then-CEO Greg Norman, who was not part of the discussions. (The negotiations which ended all litigation between the sides was also not disclosed to PGA Tour players.) That deal has yet to result in any kind of alliance.

The LIV Golf Virginia event is the next scheduled tournament in three weeks, prior to the PGA Championship.