LIV Golf faces the prospect of liquidation after BC Partners Credit reportedly pulled out of a plan to finance its relaunch. A U.S. bankruptcy court hearing scheduled for Thursday, November 5, is now expected to address the liquidation of the league's assets, though its ultimate fate remains uncertain.
According to the Associated Press, the investment firm had committed up to $300 million to a reorganized competition called LIV 2.0. It withdrew that proposal after the league failed to secure sufficient commitments from players. Neither LIV Golf nor BC Partners immediately responded to CNBC's requests for comment.
The financing setback follows LIV's September filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. That filing came after Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund announced it would end its support for the league after the 2026 season. According to the bankruptcy filing, PIF had invested more than $5 billion in LIV since its launch in 2022.
Under the relaunch proposed by BC Partners, players would have held majority ownership of the reorganized league, which would have operated with a reduced schedule. But efforts to assemble a field for the new competition coincided with the departures of prominent players, including Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the Abu Dhabi Championship on Tuesday, Rahm said questions about LIV's future and planned format changes had influenced his departure. He also said the revised competition appeared to be shifting away from the team format that had helped draw him to the league.
Garcia obtained a release from his LIV contract in October and has outlined plans to rejoin the DP World Tour while considering a possible PGA Tour return. Golf Digest reported that just four players had publicly committed to LIV 2.0: Richard Bland, Cameron Tringale, Brendan Steele and Ben Campbell.
LIV entered professional golf in 2022 as a rival to the PGA Tour, using lucrative contracts to attract players including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau. The resulting split brought PGA Tour suspensions for members who entered LIV events and legal challenges involving players and the rival organizations. The PGA Tour denied the allegations against it, and LIV rejected the counterclaims.
In June 2023, the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF reached a framework agreement that brought their litigation to an end. It also proposed uniting their commercial businesses, but that transaction was never completed.
