LIV Golf appears to be over, with it announced this week that it will enter liquidation. But how has it got to this point for the breakaway league that threw huge sums of money at the sport and played the role of major disruptor when it entered onto the scene five years ago. What now for the big-name players that haven't yet announced their departure ahead of the ultimately doomed LIV 2.0?
And what next for LIV itself? LIV Golf's attempt to establish itself as a permanent rival to the PGA Tour has effectively come to an end as, on November 5, the league confirmed it would begin an orderly wind-down of its operations after failing to secure the financial backing needed to continue. "The writing was on the wall from April of this year, when the Saudi Public Investment Fund [PIF] announced they'd be pulling the plug, that they wouldn't be investing in the tour any longer," Sky Sports News' Jamie Weir said.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player "They came in with the intent to change the face of men's professional golf. £6bn of Saudi money has been pumped into it over the last four years and most of it has gone down the drain. "You would have to say that, because they haven't made much of an impact - certainly not in terms of viewing figures." LIV subsequently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, with investment firm BC Partners emerging as a potential new backer, proposing a deal worth around $300m to help launch LIV 2.0. However, that rescue plan collapsed amid a mass player exodus and the proposed investment was withdrawn.
LIV has now moved towards liquidation rather than attempting to launch another season. Former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley believes LIV Golf was destined to fail from the very start, following the news of the former PIF-backed venture being wound down. Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, McGinley said: "I think it was based on bad fundamentals, I think that was the main thing.
"LIV had an idea that team events was going to work in an individual sport that golf is. They also took on the might of America, but as Warren Buffet would say in business terms, 'don't bet against Uncle Sam'. "They went head-to-head, toe-to-toe with corporate America, which is the backbone of the PGA Tour, and came out on the wrong side of that.
They were incredibly strong and able to move the financial needle in order to stand toe-to-toe with the Saudis. "Ultimately, LIV wasn't thought through well and it wasn't a great idea. It was a flawed business model with really bad advice that the Saudis got in terms of the power that they were taking on." McGinley added to Sky Sports: "To be quite blunt and frank, they [LIV players] filled their pockets with money and had made enough they needed to make and now was an opportunity to come back in, join the ecosystem again, get back on the gravy train of the DP World Tour, along with the PGA Tour, back inside the fold and move forward.
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