It didn’t LIV too long after all.
Hope for LIV 2.0 was dashed Wednesday following multiple reports that BC Partners, the investment firm that was set to provide up to $300 million to fund the rebel golf league, was dropping its bid to relaunch the league.
LIV Golf will now seek to liquidate the remaining assets it has, ending the last hope that the golf league would be able to survive following the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s decision to pull its funding after reportedly sinking in more than $5 billion since LIV launched in 2022.
The Post has reached out to LIV Golf for comment, but has not heard back.
The private capital firm came to the decision after it felt that LIV wasn’t going to have enough players committed to playing on the tour in 2027, according to a Financial Times report.
A source told The Athletic that roughly 30 players had signed on to play on the LIV circuit and there had been another 10 players, who were described as stars, who were on the fence about signing.
LIV’s board of directors remained confident that if those star players joined, there would be a path forward, but BC Partners ultimately made the call to pull its bid to fund the new league before any of those players made up their minds.
Questions about the golf league’s future had already been circulating since April when the Saudi PIF opted to end its financial backing and forced LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil to try to find new investors.
The Post’s Mark Cannizzaro broke the news in late July that LIV had found an investor willing to put more than $250 million into the league and days later, ahead of the LIV New York event at Trump National Bedminster, O’Neil confirmed the report.
LIV filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as part of a restructuring agreement with BC Partners.
A scheduled hearing in New Jersey bankruptcy court Thursday is expected to begin the liquidation process for LIV Golf, The Athletic reported.
While American Golf star Bryson DeChambeau has heralded the idea of LIV 2.0, other LIV Golf stars had not bought in. Jon Rahm, Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton and Ian Poulter all said they would not go to the new LIV Golf.
LIV 2.0 would have featured a smaller number of tournaments and a decreased prize pool from what had been seen during the years of Saudi funding.
Speaking ahead of this week’s Abu Dhabi Championship, Rahm told reporters that he “wasn’t thrilled with the changes they were doing to 2.0 and I just wasn’t willing to follow that path.”
“I didn’t like what they were going with 2.0,” Rahm said. “Too many unknowns at the time and there are still quite a few. It seemed like it was going away from team golf and some of the things that made LIV, LIV. It just became more of a regular tour.
“It wasn’t really ever much of a consideration, to be honest.”
