LIV Golf’s attempted relaunch collapses after new lead investor withdraws, reports say

The rebel LIV Golf tour’s attempt to relaunch itself after filing for bankruptcy has collapsed following the withdrawal of the new lead investor BC Partners, according to reports on Wednesday.

The private capital firm made the decision to walk away after struggling to convince several star players to commit fully to the league going forward, the Financial Times and the Athletic reported, citing anonymous sources.

The once free-spending Saudi-backed league that turned the golf world upside-down by luring superstars away from the traditional PGA Tour is now expected to have its remaining assets liquidated.

The tour is expected to appear at a Thursday hearing in a bankruptcy court ‌in Trenton, New Jersey, to discuss various contracts, leases and assets. It is unclear whether LIV’s ultimate fate may also be discussed.

LIV Golf did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund had poured an estimated $5bn into the tour since 2022, before abruptly pulling the plug earlier this year.

LIV formally filed for bankruptcy protection in September, though officials vowed to relaunch as “LIV 2.0” next season with a shorter schedule and reduced prize money, and equity stakes in the league for players. The new lead investor BC Partners Credit had pledged an initial funding commitment of a potential $300m.

However, several players including Spain’s Jon Rahm and Sergio García announced publicly their decisions to withdraw from the new version of the tour in recent weeks. Several others were believed to be on the fence. Bryson DeChambeau – arguably the breakaway circuit’s biggest name, who continued to back the tour – did not commit publicly to returning.

LIV’s attempt to relaunch was made more complicated after the DP World Tour reversed its policy of allowing golfers to appear in events on both tours, instead forcing player such as Rahm to choose.

The DP World Tour chief executive, Guy Kinnings, told the Scotsman on Tuesday that he had a duty “to protect the Tour against an entity who spent, so we are told, over $7bn, with one of their aims being to ‘destroy the DP World Tour’”.

Rory McIlroy, an outspoken critic of LIV, on Wednesday lent his support to Kinnings’s stance and said he also believed LIV had set out to eradicate its rivals. Speaking before the DP World Tour playoff Abu Dhabi Championship event, he said: “I agree with everything that Guy 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.

“It’s ironic that a week later, now they are talking about ‘completing and not competing’ and all that. That’s different from what they were saying at the start of the year.

“It was always going to be good for a few years until something like this happened, or they realised they weren’t going to get any return on investment, or they were going to leave the golf space and go invest in something else ⁠and invest in something that would actually make them money,” McIlroy said.

McIlroy, who plays on the PGA Tour and ​DP World Tour, believes men’s golf needs a reset. “I ​think we’ll look back on it as a ​very strange time,” he said.

“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.”

Documents from bankruptcy filings showed that LIV owes between $500m and $1bn in estimated liabilities to at least 1,000 creditors, including star players.

Rahm, DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson hold the largest unsecured claims against the tour, totalling more than $5m each.