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LIV Golf players have been assured that there are investors interested in saving the league, after the Asian Tour shocked the game by splitting and jumping in with the PGA Tour on Tuesday.
Telegraph Sport understands that at a captains’ meeting at the JCB Country Club – the Staffordshire venue which hosts this week’s $30m (£22m) LIV UK event – Scott O’Neil, LIV’s chief executive, delivered a positive report about potential backers who could ensure the breakaway circuit’s survival into 2027.
O’Neil has set himself a September deadline to secure $350m (£260m) to at least stave off LIV’s extinction following the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF)’s decision to withdraw its funding at the end of this season. And he has told the pros that he has been “extremely” encouraged in the last few months, as he has taken the league to market.
“Scott and his team have been in close talks with people who have very deep pockets,” an insider said. However, the news that the Asian Tour has signed a “strategic alliance” with the PGA Tour, as well as the DP World Tour, does little for O’Neil’s bargaining power.
Why did LIV’s alliance with the Asian Tour matter?
The Asian Tour was allied with LIV since 2022, providing a pathway to the breakaway league via its own order of merit and hosting the International Series – a series of lucrative, Saudi-funded tournaments.
When PIF pulled out of LIV – after stumping up more than $5bn (£3.7bn) in four years – it was initially believed that the $1trn (£740bn) treasure chest would continue to bankroll the International Series, just as it has its women’s tournaments. PIF ploughed in more than $300m (£220m) to establish the International Series on the Asian Tour and it has grown to be seen as the feeder tour for LIV.
One of O’Neil’s best selling points to court private equity was LIV staging national opens around the globe. But the Asian Tour boasts eight on their schedule and with the DP World Tour in control of 13, this pitch now has little, if any substance, as O’Neil tries to market LIV as an officially sanctioned worldwide spectacle.
Yet the Asian Tour was told the tap was being turned off and when the traditional tours came calling there was every chance it would quickly be a done deal. It was agreed at last week’s Open at Royal Birkdale and caught LIV on the hop.
Rory McIlroy, the long-time LIV critic, only turned the knife with his social media post soon after the announcement.
What the alliance will involve remains unclear, but there will be pathways to 2027 DP World Tour playing rights for the leading golfers in Asia. Certain events will return to being co-sanctioned between the DP World Tour and Asian Tour, as was the case before the latter’s alliance with LIV, and the PGA Tour will assist in driving the commercial side.
As the top 10 non-exempt players on the DP World Tour are handed PGA Tour cards, for the first time there will be a direct route from the Tour with its basic HQ in Singapore to the PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach.
“We feel the time is now right to collaborate with the DP World Tour and PGA Tour to enhance the Asian Tour for our members, fans and partners,” Cho Minn Thant, the Asian Tour’s chief executive, said.
“Bringing the three Tours together under one partnership will increase the bandwidth of the professional game in Asia. Not only will co-sanctioning events see our members competing regularly on the global stage, but we are excited to welcome players from the other tours to our pinnacle events.”
Asian Tour helped LIV gain world rankings access
This was not a deal struck simply for the good for the game; what was bad for LIV was surely a consideration. Brian Rolapp, the PGA Tour chief executive, has displayed his quiet but ruthless side. It is a multi-faceted kick in the teeth for O’Neil, as not only has his sales force’s leverage decreased, but the spectre of world rankings has reared its head again.
The Asian Tour meant there was a pathway to LIV through the International Series – with the top two on the standings graduating to the big time – and together with regulation and a LIV promotions event, this helped convince the rankings board to relent earlier this year and award LIV access to points.
The board will review at the start of 2027 and this could be desperate for LIV. If, that is, those investors have come on board and have not been frightened off as the narrative becomes increasingly foreboding.
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