LIV Golf cuts purses, faces lawsuits as it prepares for season finale

WESTFIELD, Ind. — As LIV Golf concludes its shortened fifth season, the problems of its past are complicating its desire to move on to the future.

Players leaving a meeting Tuesday evening inside The Club at Chatham Hills said the league’s “secret investor” spoke to a room full of players on his plan to move the league forward. Sources with knowledge of the meeting confirmed the investor was BC Partners head Ted Goldthorpe, who was also in attendance at the last LIV event.

LIV is projecting optimism for 2027 while running out of money in 2026, as its original benefactor, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, is withdrawing its funding and has only pledged to finance the league through the end of the season.

In turn, LIV is facing financial hurdles as it prepares for a potential bankruptcy filing that could allow it to shed fiscal liabilities and provide legal protections. That includes cancelling its season finale Team Championship in Michigan next week and reducing its individual purse for this week’s LIV Golf Indianapolis event.

Multiple lawsuits have been filed against the league for missed payments. The latest known lawsuit is from Fresh Tape Media, the company that produced and operated the league’s media days in January. It’s seeking $1.2 million in damages, alleging LIV paid half of the money owed before the event but didn’t pay eight invoices due between Jan. 22 and March 22, before the PIF made its decision. The suit was filed July 21.

“It’s pretty simple: when a small business does the work, it deserves to be paid for it,” Fresh Tape founder Jared Kleinstein wrote on X.

Mobii Systems Group Limited, which supplied LIV’s “Any Shot, Any Time” feature, sued LIV for $1.1 million for breach of contract, unpaid invoices and interest.

Front Office Sports reported that LIV vendors and contractors have gone unpaid for months. And a player, Charles Howell III, confirmed Tuesday that players have yet to be paid for purses earned at LIV Golf New York two weeks ago.

LIV officials were adamant that all payments are made well within the time frame of any contractual agreements, and Howell said he was told payments would arrive Wednesday.

“No one is worried about not getting paid,” Howell said.

The purse for players this week in Indianapolis is $10.1 million, down from $30 million for other events. They will also decide a team champion with $30 million dedicated to it, down $10 million from what was scheduled to be up for grabs in Michigan.

LIV CEO Scott O’Neil is scheduled to speak in a news conference at 1 p.m. Wednesday, but it’s unclear how much more he can say at this moment. The league is pitching a shortened season with smaller purses, but offering players equity in the league.

While one player, Brendan Steele, said he is absolutely committed to staying with LIV going forward, most players who stopped to comment leaving the players’ meeting said their futures remain unknown as they figure out what the league will actually look like. Sergio Garcia said it was a productive meeting but only said, “We’ll see” when asked about his own future.

“I think we’re still trying to figure it all out, to be honest,” Howell said. “Because, and I’m not meaning to be vague or whatever, we just don’t know. We don’t know anything.

“I know Scott’s worked incredibly hard, and you can see it on his face and him that it’s obviously taking a toll. But yeah, fitting into the world of pro golf isn’t maybe the easiest thing to do. I think we’re all still waiting for a bit of clarity.”

Charles Howell III said players are expecting to be paid later this week. (Chung Sung-Jun / Getty Images)

Investors surely want guarantees top players are committing to the league’s future, and those players surely want further assurances of what is happening with the money. Which side officially comes through first will be telling, and perhaps that is why Goldthorpe speaking to players Tuesday could shed some light.

Bryson DeChambeau, the league’s biggest asset, has taken on an even larger role in league discussions, leading the players-only meeting at Bedminster earlier this month and reportedly joining O’Neil in meetings with potential investors.

“Bryson has put a whole lot of time and effort into it more than people could ever imagine,” said Howell, who plays for DeChambeau’s Crushers team. “He cares. I also think Bryson wants to be back in the system of golf, right? He’s kind of taking the lead.”

Less information is known about former world No. 1 Jon Rahm, who is reportedly owed north of $100 million from his contract. PGA Tour sources are clear that the tour cannot contact Rahm until he can prove he is out of a contract, as was the case with Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed within the last year.