LIV Golf Restructures With Loss of Saudi Funding Imminent

Amid considerable uncertainty and the acknowledged loss of its financial benefactor, the LIV Golf League is quickly attempting to pivot and forge ahead on its own.

League officials announced Thursday that they have set up an independent board of directors with official word expected from the Public Investment Fund that the Saudi Arabia sovereign wealth fund will no longer support the golf endeavor beyond this year.

Sports Business Journal reported Wednesday that Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF and the chairman of LIV Golf, is stepping down from his role.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday what it and other outlets disclosed two weeks ago while the league was in Mexico City-the PIF was set to drop its funding, believed to be in excess of $5 billion to this point, after this season, putting the league's future in peril.

LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil acknowledged at the time the league would have to find its own funding and investment sources beyond this year to continue past a fifth season that is scheduled to go on next week at LIV Golf Virginia but has already seen the circuit lose an event over money squabbles that was to be played in late June in New Orleans.

Eugene Davis and Jon Zinman were named to LIV's board on Thursday in an attempt to find more investment.

Davis is the chairman and chief executive officer of PIRINATE Consulting Group, which LIV said is a privately held consulting firm "specializing in turnaround management, merger and acquisition consulting, restructuring, and strategic advisory services for public and private business entities."

Zinman is the founder and managing member of JZ Advisors LLC, an independent strategic advisory firm that LIV said serves "companies across industry and life cycle, typically engaging at a time of transformation with a focus on maximizing the company's go-forward growth potential."

The task ahead is daunting. LIV Golf, with its $30 million tournament purses, is said to spend in excess of $40 million per event without the backing of a significant television media rights deal and title sponsorship.

It boasts bringing on sponsors such as HSBC, Qualcomm, Under Armour, Rolex and others while increasing year-over-year revenue, and has found success in international markets such as Australia and South Africa. But it has failed to gain widespread traction and is likely looking at restructuring, including the possibility of reducing tournaments.

LIV Golf appears committed to its team format and its 13-team franchises are still viewed as a potential lucrative revenue source as the expectation all along has been to sell them, reap the revenue from those teams, and let them operate on their own as franchises.

Although there have been inquiries among players and their representatives about pathways back to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour-Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed left LIV Golf prior to this season-those remaining, including Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, are expected to express their support for the league and its future.

LIV Golf's seventh event of the year is scheduled to take place next week at Trump National D.C. followed by a tournament at the end of May in South Korea and then a week later in Spain.

More Golf from Sports Illustrated

• LIV Golf Will Inform Players of Loss of Funding, Per Report
• Witnesses Contradict LIV Golf, Say New Orleans Venue Is ‘Pure' Despite Recent Cancellation
• Keegan Bradley Explains How Jim Furyk Was Selected Again to Be U.S. Ryder Cup Captain
• With Donald Trump, Doral and the Cadillac Championship, the PGA Tour Has Come Full Circle
• Scottie Scheffler, Justin Rose Offer Thoughts on Crowded Schedule: ‘Not Ideal'

This article was originally published on www.si.com as LIV Golf Restructures With Loss of Saudi Funding Imminent.

Copyright ABG-SI LLC. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. All Rights Reserved.