Mystery investor tipped to keep LIV teeing off in Adelaide
A mystery new investor is expected to keep the Adelaide LIV Golf tournament on the green – with the news emerging just days after SA’s premier met with the event’s CEO.
After months of uncertainty, the global LIV Golf competition that has been trying to secure $350 million investment, has secured a new investor, LIV Golf chief Scott O’Neil has announced.
O’Neil said the new agreement with a lead investor would allow the breakaway golf league to forge ahead without the backing of Saudi funding, and also make players major equity holders.
“So many of them came because this was a good opportunity for them to make some money, and this second bite at the apple is equity instead of cash,” O’Neil said at a news conference at Trump Bedminster, the site of this week’s LIV Golf New York event.
It comes after SA Premier Peter Malinauskas had breakfast with LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil in New York on Sunday.
Previous reports found LIV’s Australian tournament in Adelaide – slated to be at the Kooyonga Golf Course in 2027 – appeared safe if the new investment was secured.
There was no further information about what the talks involved between Malinauskas and O’Neil. InDaily is not suggesting that the state government has invested.
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Malinauskas is currently on a nine-day trade investment mission in the United States, primarily focused on AUKUS and artificial intelligence.
It comes as Adelaide’s $45 million North Adelaide Golf Course – a plan spearheaded to host LIV 2028 – faces staunch opposition from protesters against the felling of 585 trees.
The 2027 edition of LIV is expected to be hosted at Lockley’s Kooyonga course, with the Premier saying last month that his government would need to know by October 2026 at the latest whether there would be impacts on the 2027 event.
O’Neil was short on details about the new LIV deal, and was tight-lipped about the identity of the investor and how much money was involved.
He said the lead investor “has signed a term sheet approved by our board, which will carry and fund LIV going forward”.
“It’s very good news for all of us,” O’Neil said.
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O’Neil said LIV are getting “strong interest” from more than a dozen other parties who would be minority investors as the league tries to survive.
“We don’t need them, but we have the opportunity to do it,” he said of other investors.
LIV Golf New York is the penultimate individual event in a season that has been marked by upheaval, particularly the announcement in March that the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia – the financial muscle of LIV since it began – is withdrawing funding after 2026.
One tournament in New Orleans already has been scrapped, and there are serious doubts the season-ending team event in Michigan meant to be played from August 27 to August 30 will be played, particularly after reports the tournament has not started preparations.
“We have not made any final formal decisions and hope to in the coming weeks,” O’Neil said.
LIV Golf, which launched in 2022, has spent more than $7 billion ($US5 billion) on the league. That includes some of the nine-figure bonuses to lure top players like Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Phil Mickelson.
But it all began to fall apart earlier this year. Koepka was let out of his contract and returned to the PGA Tour, and Patrick Reed chose not to renew his deal. He is leading the European tour points list and will be eligible to return to the PGA Tour next year.
O’Neil met team captains on Tuesday, and DeChambeau led a player-only meeting later in the afternoon, though none of the players shared details.
O’Neil said he expected to finalise terms with the lead investor in the next few weeks with the goal of getting it done in September. The plan for what is being referred to as ‘LIV Golf 2.0’ is for 10 team events each year, five of them in the United States and five others around the world.
They also want to stage events leading into the majors and have a schedule that allows their players to compete on other circuits.
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