LIV Golf members all packed into the Chatham Hills clubhouse on Tuesday night to meet with CEO Scott O'Neil and the new, still unnamed, investor that is supposedly set to bankroll the venture next season. But after that meeting, even with very little actual info coming out, it doesn't sound like everyone is on board with the league's future plans.
"The investor is excited, but obviously there's a few things that need to be figured out," Martin Kaymer said, via ESPN's Paolo Uggetti. "It's still early to tell what next year will look like, but they're working very hard to get more specifics."
LIV Golf's future has been uncertain for weeks, ever since Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund announced that it would no longer fund the startup league after the 2026 campaign. The season will end after this week's tournament in Indianapolis after the team championship was called off. It marked the second canceled event of the season. The league is now facing multiple lawsuits, and some players are still waiting on payments from the Bedminster tournament in New Jersey earlier this month, according to the Sports Business Journal. The league has reportedly been running on loans for months. And several big names have already left LIV Golf. Brooks Koepka is already back on the PGA Tour, and Patrick Reed is preparing to rejoin the league after his year-long suspension is up. Jon Rahm is reportedly considering leaving LIV in 2026, too, and is allegedly still awaiting a "nine-figure" portion of his contract with the league.
Things, undoubtedly, aren't great. But even with all of the chaos, LIV and O'Neil are still trying to push forward with a new "LIV 2.0" mindset. But what that truly looks like, or who the new investor is, still remains to be seen. Players didn't give up much information after the roughly 50-minute meeting on Tuesday night, and Bryson DeChambeau just pushed past reporters waiting near the clubhouse.
"I think there's a lot of excitement in the room," Brendan Steele said. "I think getting the players to be comfortable with how we want to move forward, I think, is the most important thing … It's just a different way of looking at how we've been operating. I think there's a lot of things that we can do that haven't been optimized."
O'Neil is expected to meet with reporters on Wednesday afternoon. While the promise of an investor absolutely helps things with LIV Golf, compared to where the league was even just a few weeks ago, there are plenty of unknowns. The league has struggled to take off with golf fans as it is. At this point, not everyone is willing to commit just yet.
"We'll see," Sergio Garcia said when asked about his future. "There's a lot of things being talked about and we're working through it."