LIV Golf has a new chairman and seeks to new funding without Saudi backing

LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman, left, applauds Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Governor of Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, at the LIV Golf Invitational-Chicago tournament Sept. 18, 2022, in Sugar Hill, Ill. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

LIV Golf announced a new board and a new business strategy Thursday as it tries to forge ahead without Saudi Arabian funding that allowed the league to launch nearly four years ago with oversized contracts and prize funds.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the Public Investment Fund governor who was behind the creation of LIV Golf, is no longer listed as chairman of LIV Golf.

LIV announced Gene Davis of Pirinate Consulting Group and Jon Zinman of the strategic advisory firm JZ Advisors are leading a newly created board, with Davis as chairman. The focus is on securing long-term financial partners when Saudi funding ends after this season.

LIV said it was seeking to move toward an investment model involving multiple partners and team franchises. The league has said it expects 10 of its 13 teams to be profitable this year.

“The executive leadership team, along with Jon and I, see a clear opportunity to help the league formalize its structure, attract and secure long-term capital, and position the business for growth while continuing to promote the game across the world,” Davis said in a statement. “We look forward to positioning LIV Golf for future success.”

Sports Business Journal reported Wednesday night Al-Rumayyan has resigned as LIV chairman. There has been no official announcement from PIF on Al-Rumayyan or LIV Golf funding.

Scott O’Neil, the CEO at LIV Golf, had told Britain-based TNT two weeks ago during the Mexico event: “The reality is that you’re funded through the season, and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going.”

That raised questions whether LIV Golf could keep some of its top players once their lucrative contracts expired. With financial muscle from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, LIV was able to spend US$1 billion to land the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Cameron Smith and eventually Jon Rahm, the last big signing at the end of 2023.

The newsletter Money in Sport reported earlier this year that LIV Golf already had spent $5.3 billion since the league launched in 2022, a figure that would be $6 billion by the end of this year.

LIV staff and players have been aware Saudi funding was only through the 2026 season. Thursday’s announcement was to outline plans to seek other sources of funding for a league that currently offers $30 million prize funds at each tournament.

Al-Rumayyan is passionate about golf and long wanted a seat at the table with the sport’s leadership. He signed a framework agreement in 2023 with the PGA Tour and European tour and was set to join the PGA Tour Enterprises board if it was approved.

The deal never materialized, except for ending antitrust lawsuits. PGA Tour Enterprises instead got a minority investment from a consortium of North American sports owners.

Al-Rumayyan was at the White House in February 2025 to meet with President Donald Trump along with a PGA Tour team that included Tiger Woods, Adam Scott and Commissioner Jay Monahan. But it was clear LIV and the PGA Tour could not find common ground, mainly because the Saudi league wanted to stick with a team component.

DeChambeau and Rahm -- both multiple major champions -- are considered LIV’s top two players.

DeChambeau said in an interview with the Flushing It social media site that “as long as LIV is here, I would figure out a way for it to make sense.”

“There’s a lot of moving parts like in any business,” DeChambeau said. “It’s a startup, right? And so there’s going to be times where we’re squeezed and punched. This is one of those moments. But I’m going to do everything in my power to make it work and I really see the value in franchise golf.”

LIV Golf earlier this week said it was postponing its June 25-28 event in Louisiana to the fall. The next event is scheduled for May 7-10 in northern Virginia, and O’Neil had said in a memo to staff two weeks ago the season would be uninterrupted and “full throttle.”

Al-Rumayyan was all about team golf when he and former CEO Greg Norman launched the league, even though the team concept was one reason it took more than three years for LIV to get recognized by the Official World Golf Ranking.

Koepka left LIV after last season and the PGA Tour granted him a path back with stipulations that included no access to equity grants for five years, a $5 million charity donation and no bonus money this year.

The tour offered it to three other LIV players who had won majors since 2022 -- Rahm, DeChambeau and Smith -- and gave them a Feb. 4 deadline to accept. None did.

In an interview earlier this week with The Wall Street Journal, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said: “We’re interested in having the best players who can help our tour. Not every player can do that.”

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Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press