For LIV Golfers, the Party Is Over

LIV CEO Scott O’Neil can talk big, but that’s just part of his track record, writes Michael Rosenberg. The reality is that LIV’s new world includes the worst-case scenario for all of its participants.

Jon Rahm partied with his LIV Golf team at the end of last season. | Scott W. Grau/Getty Images

LIV Golf’s business is doing just fine, folks, except for running golf tournaments. That part’s not going so well. Golf’s gilded music-blasting good-time renegade tour recently postponed its New Orleans event, leading to the question: If you can’t party in New Orleans, where can you party?

Don’t ask Saudi Public Investment Fund governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan. He has finally dropped his golf dream and pulled his country’s money. LIV has been de-gilded and de-golfed. The tour just announced the formation of a new board, which means that LIV golfers are now at the mercy of private-equity sharks. Take a moment to lap that up.

None of this is surprising. LIV started conceding the fight when it let star Brooks Koepka return to the PGA Tour last winter. A lot has to happen from here, and many lawyers will bill many hours. But the PGA Tour is in position to win this fight decisively. If you need any more convincing, you should listen to one man:

LIV CEO Scott O’Neil.

Earlier this month, O’Neil told company employees via email that the tour was going “full throttle” and vowed:

“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. 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.” 

Scott O’Neil, in black at the Indianapolis event last summer, has done his best to put a positive spin on LIV’s situation. | Christine Tannous/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Big talk. But keep listening.

In November 2022, O’Neil became CEO of Merlin Entertainments, a United Kingdom-based theme-park company. In the spring of 2023, he gave an interview to trade publication Attractions Management. Some highlights:

“I can speak with certainty about where we’ll be in five years. This will be the greatest place to work in the world. Some companies are laying off—we’re not, we’re hiring. We’re in a growth phase … We’ll also be bigger in more gateway cities and our resorts will be top of the heap. You’re going to see us take off like a rocket ship.”

The next three years brought record losses; O’Neil leaving Merlin for LIV after two years; credit-rating downgrades; and this nugget from an S&P analyst: “Persistent high cash burn could lead to insufficient liquidity after 12 months, absent any cash injection.” 

Sound familiar?

O’Neil did not create Merlin’s financial problems, just as he did not create LIV’s. He just swooped in and talked confidently until the facts exposed him.

If O’Neil believes what he told employees, he is delusional. If he doesn’t believe it, he is a charlatan. Either way, he has the credibility of an 18-handicapper who says he will win next year’s Masters. 

After O’Neil left Merlin, the company has used all sorts of restructuring code words. Merlin touted a “Smart Spending” program, which is not the kind of thing one implements if one has already been spending wisely. The company took “decisive action” with a “transformation programme.” Merlin also says it is “simplifying and consolidating the operating model.”

Why is this relevant to LIV?

Even as it teetered, Merlin had a model to operate. It owns and runs all sorts of popular attractions: Legolands and Madame Tussaud’s and the London Eye and a bunch of others.

LIV has a model, but it’s not a model that’s worth operating. The tour’s deal with Fox Sports and $59.99-per-year streaming product obviously don’t come close to paying the bills; even O’Neil says they need to find more funding to exist in 2027. If LIV institutes a “Smart Spending” program, it will lose talent, which is all it ever had going for it in the first place.

Al-Rumayyan wanted to create a premier, financially viable golf tour. LIV’s new board members are going to want to maximize their assets. That means looking for leverage anywhere they can find it.

Al-Rumayyan pulling PIF funding, and LIV folding, always felt like the worst-case scenario for LIV golfers. But it wasn’t. The worst-case scenario is what is happening now: Al-Rumayyan pulled funding and LIV Golf still exists. The new board can try to squeeze every dollar out of what remains—and their priority is not going to be what is best for the players. 

Yasir Al-Rumayyan (left) with Saudi golf CEO Majed Al Surour has stepped down at chairman of LIV Golf’s board of directors. | Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images

Golfers who want to follow Koepka and Patrick Reed back to the PGA Tour could face resistance from two tours. When PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said the “Returning Member Program” was a limited window for a limited number of players, he was leaving himself options for this very scenario. But also: The LIV people who let Koepka leave are no longer in charge. 

Will they demand enormous exit fees? Will they schedule 12 straight winter events in northern Greenland and demand players show up? Players’ contracts should give them some protection, in theory. But what if the board wants to drag things out in court? 

Four years ago, golfers had two tours pleading for their services. Now the golfers are pleading. Scott O’Neil says LIV is going “full throttle,” but he also said Merlin would “take off like a rocket ship.” To be fair, he never promised the rocket ship would land safely.

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