How league’s 2.0 version failed as investor pulls out, what next for players, Australia event in Adelaide

The Shark has got his wish.

Not his original one, but the one that puts an end to the most tumultuous five-year period in the game of golf’s history.

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Greg Norman said in an interview in August when asked about LIV Golf’s future that he would “hate to see it wither away. I would rather just see it end”.

And the latter is what will happen to the former chief’s baby after The Financial Times reported on Thursday morning Australian time that potential investor BC Partners had dropped its bid to finance LIV Golf going forward.

After Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, who spent more than $7 billion on the breakaway league that began in 2022, removed its financial backing of LIV in April, the London-based private equity company was sent to spend almost half a billion dollars on ‘LIV 2.0’.

A new era for the controversial league ultimately has not eventuated because the superstars who abandoned the PGA Tour for LIV Golf did not see the vision.

LIV is set to have a bankruptcy hearing in the US on Friday Australian time and more of the dirty laundry will be aired then as, barring a last-minute lifeline from another investor, LIV liquidates its assets.

But for now, there is a lot to unpack about how LIV has come to an end and what happens next after five years of fighting that ripped the sport in two, and made what has long been called ‘a gentleman’s game’ anything but.

INSIDE THE FINAL DAYS

The demise of ‘LIV 2.0’ played out on phone calls, video calls and in meeting rooms around the globe.

Deadlines for players to commit to the future of the breakaway league were pushed back, not once but twice, as BC Partners’ senior executives, LIV chief executive Scott O’Neil and his top officials scrambled.

LIV’s players were disgruntled.

They have all earned a fortune from their deals worth if not tens, but hundreds, of millions of dollars.

But recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy hearing documents revealed that many were still owed exorbitant sums.

Jon Rahm topped that list as he was owed more than $10 million, and has walked away from almost $150 million more on his multi-year deal that he signed back in 2023.

While Australia’s Cameron Smith’s was high up on the list of players owed with the 2022 Open champion missing almost $7 million of promised money.

The players, and their teams around them, were disgruntled as a result.

And they knew that they held the power.

Co-founder and head of BC Partners, Ted Goldthorpe, made that clear in an interview with British golf magazine Bunkered last month.

“The players are everything. They’re our partners and they’re very, very important to our future,” he said.

Rahm was the first major domino to fall.

The Spaniard opted out. His Ryder Cup teammate Tyrrell Hatton and their Legion XIII teammate Tom McKibbin followed him out the door.

Shortly after some of LIV’s old guard, the veterans who were among the first to jump ship back in the early days, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen and Graeme McDowell called it quits too.

Only four players publicly committed for 2027, and without being disrespectful, Richard Bland, Cameron Tringale, Brendan Steele and Ben Campbell were hardly going to line the fairways with fans or draw significant television ratings.

The future depended on the likes of Rahm, Smith, Joaquin Niemann and Bryson DeChambeau.

None of them put pen to paper – even if DeChambeau had repeatedly claimed that he believed in LIV 2.0 and hoped that it worked out.

The Financial Times reported: “according to people familiar with the negotiations, BC had about 30 players committed with another set of 10 coveted golfers still in the mix. But negotiations with the player representatives became complicated by various financial demands that could not be immediately met.”

WHY THE STARS WOULDN’T COMMIT

Of course, money has been the biggest factor throughout the LIV’s existence.

But the significant reduction in money on offer was not the only reason for ‘LIV 2.0’ to collapse before it had even started.

The DP World Tour has often been at loggerheads with LIV – mainly over unpaid fines, but they allowed European stars to essentially have their cake and eat it too.

LIV players had struck deals with the DP World Tour to keep their membership on the formerly named European Tour and play its events around the 14-tournament LIV schedule.

The trade-off was that they must pay fines for missing events that clashed with LIV tournaments.

The DP World Tour’s hierarchy sensed an opportunity and said enough was enough, however.

They made it clear to players that in 2027 there would be no double dipping.

They could either play LIV 2.0 or the DP World Tour, not both.

The DP World Tour would no longer co-operate.

In an interview with The Scotsman earlier this week, DP World Tour chief executive Guy Kennings accused LIV of trying to “destroy the DP World Tour”.

On Wednesday ahead of the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship – the first event of the tour’s end of season playoffs – Rory McIlroy shed further light on Kennings’ comments with a bombshell claim from one of golf’s most sacred sites.

“I agree with everything that Guy said,” McIlroy said. “They took players, they took sponsors, they turned professional golf into an arms race. They were going around Augusta saying they wanted to destroy the European Tour.”

LIV Golf’s events only received world ranking points for the first time this year and the tour’s schedule has largely lived in its own orbit.

But LIV 2.0 would take it even further away from the other planets.

The proposed way forward was to reduce the limited schedule even further, and that did not sit well with players with ambitions to play and compete in major championships like Australia’s Lucas Herbert – who won twice on LIV this year.

“LIV was going to be from what it sounds like 10 tournaments, they were telling us there is going to be potentially more events to play outside of those as extra playing opportunities,” he said.

“For me 10 events is not enough to build a season around.”

While Herbert’s Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith shared his view with the Sydney Morning Herald in September that the picture of the future was simply too murky.

“It’s hard to make a decision when you don’t have at least some of the answers to make the right decision, or (any) decision. We need a few more answers, he said.

It was reported last month that BC Partners were looking to expand the plan from 10 events – five international and five in the US – to 17 events with 10 signature tournaments to give players more opportunities to compete.

But that proposal did not sit well either.

“As much as I liked the project and the idea on, let’s say, LIV 1.0, I wasn’t thrilled with the changes they were doing to 2.0 and I just wasn’t willing to follow that path,” Rahm said.

“It wasn’t anything special, anything that stood out. I just didn’t like what they were going with 2.0.

“There were too many unknowns at the time … it seemed like it was going a bit away from team golf and some of the things that we do.

“It just kind of became more of a regular tournament. It wasn’t really ever much of a consideration.”

Another former world No.1 in Lee Westwood was more blunt when asked about the direction the league was taking on The Chipping Forecast podcast.

“There’s nothing that’s been presented to me that was agreeable for LIV 2.0,” the 53-year-old Englishman said.

WHAT NOW FOR LIV’S STARS

Now, the fun might truly begin with LIV golfers set to go in a variety of directions.

The DP World Tour is set to be the biggest beneficiary with those who already hold membership, like Rahm, set to ply their trade predominantly in Europe.

For others, they have to take the more humble route.

Australia’s Elvis Smylie is among 13 golfers competing in the final stage of DP World Tour Q-School in Spain this week where a field of 156 golfers are vying for 15 tour cards for next season.

If the stylish left-hander enjoys a good week, he will join his old Ripper GC teammate Lucas Herbert on the DP World Tour.

Fellow Australians Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman are locked in to play in the Australian PGA Championship in Sydney later this month and the Australian Open in Melbourne next month – while Leishman will also defend his title at the Victorian PGA Championship.

But beyond that, their next move is uncertain.

Others are up in the air too.

Lee Westwood summed up his current status by declaring that he is “currently unemployed.”

“I haven’t signed up to anything anywhere. I haven’t made a decision on anything yet,” he added before saying that if he rejoins the DP World Tour, he will have to serve a 10-tournament ban as a result of his squabbles over fines.

The bad blood from those that left still lingers.

Sergio Garcia recently shared his intention to play on the DP World Tour next year.

“This tour has been a huge part of my career from the very beginning, and I’m proud to call it home again. I’m also keeping my options open for a return to the PGA Tour,” he wrote on social media.

The 2017 Masters champion teed off on the PGA Tour when he left for his LIV Golf and his blow up after a wayward tee shot at Augusta this year reportedly may have prompted Saudi officials to pull the pin on the LIV experiment.

Garcia is unlikely to be welcomed back with open arms by his colleagues.

“This has to be Sergio trolling us? Surely. Elite level s***housery, this. Or has he got dementia?” DP World Tour player Eddie Pepperell posted on X.

“To be clear, I think Sergio Garcia is still a wonderful player. He was my favourite golfer growing up, ahead of Tiger. And I can see the value he still brings, ahead of me certainly,” the Englishman added.

“But his statement today shows a remarkable lack of self awareness. Like, a stunning amount.”

Another controversial Masters champion in Phil Mickelson was absent from LIV this year following being accused of alleged “non consensual, inappropriate” contact with a female employee at a golf club in California.

He also reportedly spent time at an addiction treatment facility, and with LIV is gone is set to be confined to the golfing abyss.

The most fascinating case will be that of Bryson DeChambeau, however.

Earlier this year, the two-time US Open champion suggested that if LIV collapsed, or if they could not strike a suitable deal with him, only playing the majors and making YouTube videos would be a “viable option”.

DeChambeau dropped hints about a move away from LIV in recent videos as he ditched his Crushers branded apparel for his personal brand.

While in a recent podcast interview on Figuring Out with Raj Shamani, DeChambeau shared his disappointment about how things played out with LIV.

“The point of it is that the team golf stuff, I was very excited about,” he told the Indian entrepreneur.

“I really care, and I still do care deeply about the team golf stuff. And the top company just wasn’t really managed that effectively. And I know that now… I didn’t know that during the time.

“Our teams were doing very well. Like our teams, we generated almost $29 million last year in revenue,” he added.

“We had $21 million in cost just from payment of players and expenses and travel and everything. So we made $8 million EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) last year.

“And the teams were doing well, but then all the player payments and everything got pushed down to the teams when they went bankrupt because the top company wasn’t being run effectively.

“Which, no fault to each other, it’s just we thought that there was a lot more capital that was going to be at play with the guys that were funding it. Yeah. And it didn’t work out.”

WHAT NEXT FOR WORLD GOLF AND AUSSIE GOLF?

If the likes of Bryson DeChambeau go down an entirely new path, it may still be an interesting time for golf.

But it will almost certainly be a calmer time.

Rory McIlroy believes the “false economy” created by LIV will disappear and the brakes will be pumped on massively escalating prize purses.

“I think we’ll look back on it as a very strange time,” the Masters champion said in Abu Dhabi.

“It gave players a lot of leverage over the Tours, and I don’t necessarily think that’s a good thing for the overall health of the professional game. I think there has to be a balance there. There has to be a bit of give and take.

“You know, I’ve said this from the start, like there’s never been a better time to be a professional golfer. Talk to Jack Nicklaus or any of these older guys, they would have loved LIV to come around in their day. They would have made more money, and we are all making more money because of it. But I do think there has to be a bit of a reset.”

The danger of things calming is that Australia loses out.

Australian golf was one of the biggest beneficiaries of LIV.

Adelaide was undoubtedly its most successful events with Australians fans travelling from all over the country to catch a glimpse of major champions and some of golf’s biggest names – as well as the after-party headlined annually by world famous Australian DJ, Fisher.

While Ripper GC partnered with Golf Australia’s introductory program MyGolf to help get more kids nationwide swinging a club.

The South Australian government and Australian golf officials held out hope that LIV Adelaide might be saved.

“There’s a critical date on the 2nd of November, I think it is, for their financial restructuring and then we’ll see,” Peter Malinauskas said on SEN last month.

“We anticipate that at some point in the next two or three weeks, we’re going to know one way or another whether or not they’re playing at Kooyonga in March next year.

“They’ve been in town the last few days and they’re telling all of our officials that they’re planning to be here in March and that things are coming together.”

But contingency plans made earlier this year to host both the men’s and women’s Australian Opens at the redeveloped North Adelaide Golf Course – which was set to stage LIV Adelaide from 2028 to 2031 – showed that they knew the end of was on the cards.

Despite losing such a popular event from the calendar, the upcoming Australian PGA Championship and Australian Open could be big beneficiaries of LIV 2.0’s demise.

Both events are co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour.

The fields for the showpieces of the Australian summer are yet to be set although the likes of Cameron Smith, Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee are confirmed to play both, while Rory McIlroy returns for the Australian Open at Kingston Heath.

A flurry of new DP World Tour members may be enticed to kick off their 2027 seasons down under in what the tour calls ‘the opening swing’.

If that is the case, it would be a decent compromise for Australian golf fans.

The end of LIV may also pave the way for a stronger International team for the 2028 Presidents Cup at Kingston Heath.

There is still a lot more water to pass under the bridge for those possibilities to play out.

But what is certain is that the Shark got his wish.

He may have originally envisioned a new-age, thriving global tour to rival the US-centric PGA Tour.

But at least Greg Norman will not painstakingly watch the project he launched with the financial backing of an oil-rich kingdom crumble into irrelevance.