Report: LIV Golf Set To End After Losing Investment Deal

A LIV Golf sign in white at a LIV Golf tournament — (Image credit: Getty Images)

It looks like the end of the line for LIV Golf with multiple reports of it's $300m investment deal with BC Partners falling through.

As first reported in the Financial Times and later by the BBC, investors BC Partners withdrew its support due to the lack players signing up for the proposed 2.0 version of the team tour.

After filing for bankruptcy a deal with BC Partners worth $300m was agreed in principle to back LIV Golf following the withdrawal of the Saudi PIF back in April - but with the caveat that enough good players had to sign up.

An official announcement is expected on Thursday when the PIF, which funded the restructuring process, will tell a court hearing that LIV 2.0 is a none-starter - with the league set to be wound down and remaining assets liquidated.

CEO Scott O'Neil had been trying to convince enough star players to sign up before multiple deadlines passed but the vast majority ruled out that option.

The likes of Jon Rahm, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter all decided to turn down LIV 2.0, but there was said to be around 30 players signed up to continue with the project.

BC Partners have decided, though, that not enough quantity or quality was there to satisfy its criteria for being a viable option to back LIV 2.0 to the tune of $300m.

LIV Golf has been contacted for comment.

LIV Golf - the end of the great golf disruptor?

Jon Rahm and Greg Norman shake hands at Rahm's LIV Golf unveiling

If confirmed it will bring an end to the most tumultious period in the sport's history, with Greg Norman first leading LIV Golf into battle as a great disruptor to the men's pro game.

Huge contracts were handed out to huge PGA Tour names such as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm.

DeChambeau has become the poster boy for LIV Golf and the league's biggest and most marketable asset - and his most recent comments suggested he was fully committed to 2.0.

Intense legal battles followed before a shock handshake deal with the PGA Tour that never grew into anything more. Norman left to be replaced by a less combative figurehead in O'Neil, who wanted to work with the two main tours rather than against them.

Then the big bombshell of the Saudi PIF withdrawing funding - and withdrawing any kind of leverage LIV had in trying to strike a deal with either tour.

Bankruptcy followed but confidence remained high that 2.0 would be run more like a business and become profit making - but it all rested on that $300m investment deal, which has now disappeared.

And with it seemingly the hopes of LIV Golf surviving into 2027 and beyond.

What are your thoughts? Is this the end for LIV Golf? If it is what will be the big legacy it leaves behind? Send us your thoughts and comments by joining the conversation below...

Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website. Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.