LIV Golf doubts cloud $45 million North Adelaide course plan
Emergency talks over LIV Golf throw the competition’s future in doubt, as the SA government pushes ahead with plans for a $45 million golf course redevelopment. The government announcing a new motorsport event.
Reports of the multi-billion-dollar LIV Golf league’s collapse could have a ripple effect on South Australia, which has hosted the Saudi-backed sporting event since 2023 and is undergoing a $45 million golf course redevelopment to keep it here.
There have been numerous conflicting reports over the global competition’s future.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) was close to cutting its backing for LIV Golf, according to the Financial Times – while there were suggestions that executives had been called to an “emergency meeting” in New York, reported by the Telegraph.
However, Reuters sources with knowledge of PIF’s operations said funding would continue, with the remaining nine tournaments of the 14-event 2026 schedule to go ahead as planned.
State Development Minister Chris Picton told reporters on Thursday morning that LIV had “given assurances” to the South Australian government “that there’s no change from their perspective, but we wait to see if there are further changes”.
He said the government would still upgrade the North Adelaide Golf Course, it passed special legislation through parliament to seize control of the course’s land from Adelaide City Council last year.
“We think that there’s a much broader benefit of this development, that’s why we’ve invested in it,” Picton said.
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SA Greens leader Robert Simms said doubts around LIV’s financial backers “raise serious questions”, including whether taxpayers would pick up the bill, and called for transparency around the commercial arrangement between LIV Golf and the state government.
LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil sent an email to players reassuring them the remaining nine tournaments of the 14-event 2026 schedule will go ahead as planned, but did not address the tournament’s long-term future.
The email did not address reports that PIF might stop investing in the breakaway circuit after spending more than $US5 billion since its inception in 2022, or whether the league would continue beyond this season.
“I want to be crystal clear: Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle,” O’Neil wrote.
“While the media landscape is often filled with speculation, our reality is defined by the work we do on the grass. 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.”
Former Masters winner Sergio Garcia, one of the captains of the LIV teams, was asked about the speculation ahead of this week’s event in Mexico City.
“Honestly, we haven’t heard anything other than what Yasir [Al-Rumayyan, LIV Golf chairman] told us at the beginning of the year,” Garcia said.
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“That he’s behind us, that they have a long-term project. And well, honestly, you know how these rumours are. There are always a lot of them. And I can’t tell you anything more than what we already know.”
In October, financial papers filed in the United Kingdom revealed LIV Golf Ltd made a US$462 million ($AUD704m) total loss for the year ending December 31, 2024 – up from a $US396m ($AU604m) loss in 2023.
Australia propped up LIV’s revenue in 2024, bringing in about $US26 million for the company, followed by $10 million from Hong Kong.
Adelaide was the only LIV event in the country in 2024 and its whopping contribution leads the nine geographic areas LIV operated in, according to the financial report.
Five-time major winner Brooks Koepka quit LIV earlier this year to return to the PGA Tour, while former Masters champion Patrick Reed also walked away and is competing on the DP World Tour as he bids to return to the PGA Tour.
If the rumours are true and LIV does end up folding, it will leave Smith and Ripper teammates Marc Leishman, Lucas Herbert and Elvis Smylie in golfing limbo.
The PGA Tour had initially threatened defectors to LIV with life bans but cut a deal with Koepka, allowing him back to the tour after paying fines.
Reports that the Saudi-backed league is under threat come one week after LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil was at Augusta National for the Masters along with several members of the circuit’s communications team.
LIV Golf, which launched in 2022, has been decried as a vehicle for the country to attempt to improve its reputation in the face of criticism of its human rights record.
Through big-money contracts and lucrative purses, LIV managed to lure several of golf’s biggest names, including Koepka, Rahm, Smith and fellow major champions Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau.
After a year of acrimony, the PGA Tour, PIF and Europe-based DP World Tour announced a framework agreement in June 2023 to house their commercial operations in a new entity and set December 31 of that year as a deadline to reach a definitive agreement.
That announcement brought an end to legal battles between the parties.
Earlier this year, LIV Golf Adelaide set a record as the highest-attended golf tournament in Australian history with more than 115,000 fans, while last month’s tournament in South Africa attracted more than 100,000, another national record.
O’Neil has been contacted for comment.
– with AAP
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