LIV Golf Has LOST The Billion-Dollar War With The PGA Tour

The LIV Golf Tour is hemorrhaging money — and no one seems to care. In this deep-dive, we break down how LIV Golf has reportedly lost over $1.1 billion, why the Saudi-backed league was never about building a better golf product, and how the PGA Tour fought back to regain control.

This isn’t just another loud take — it’s a grounded, data-driven analysis of the business, politics, and power plays behind LIV’s rise and (possible) fall. From Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka to Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, we look at what’s next for golf’s biggest names as massive contracts come to an end.

If you’re tired of the noise and want smart, factual sports commentary — you’re in the right place.

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So, the news came out over the weekend that the Live Golf Tour is hemorrhaging money. This is not a surprise. Estimates are since their inception, they’ve lost anywhere from 1.1 to$ 1.4 billion. This just in. The Saudis have plenty of money and they have it to lose. And they don’t care about losing money. They never created this thing to be a sustainable business model. What they did do is create it to bring attention to the sport so they could use that attention to leverage themselves to get a seat at the table on the PGA tour and be in a position of power. So what they do care about is not losing money. They care about losing money and losing attention and losing credibility, not that they had any to begin with. and losing the focus, right? When Liv started body blows to the PGA tour, when they took Dustin Johnson and Brooks Kepka and Bryson Dashambo, US Open winners, all of them. And of course, Brooks also has won some PGA championships. That was a heavy blow to the PGA Tour and it sent the tour reeling. And then after fighting back for a little bit, they took John Rom. And John Rom at that point was number one in the world coming off his second major win, the 2023 Masters. And then what happened? No one cared. No one [ __ ] cared about what Liv Golf did. Suddenly in 2024 and 2025, what happened? Scotty Sheffller becomes the most dominant player on the planet. Rory Mroy in 2025 completes the career grand slam. Tommy Fleetwood finally breaks through. We have all these amazing things happening uh on the PGA tour and people said live and this is the reaction. What what did they do? No one cares. And that’s the problem for the Saudis. There’s a phrase in politics called useful idiots. Okay? That’s when you use somebody for something that they don’t know you’re using them for because they think they’re doing something else. And that’s what buying all these top players was. Now granted, I’m not I’m not upset with anybody who’s going to take that kind of money. I understand why you would take it, but understand who you’re taking it from and understand what you’re getting yourself into. This was never about establishing live golf as a preeminent golf league. It was about creating enough diversion, creating enough controversy to wedge the Saudis in to a seat at the power table of golf being involved with the PGA Tour. And they came this close, right? We had the we had the deal done with Jimmy Smith uh who brokered a deal between the PGA Tour and LiveGolf to come together and then there were some regulations that needed to be hurdled and taken care of from you know a US government perspective about what was happening and suddenly everything got really interesting on the PGA Tour and that balance of power where Liv had really taken a lot of that money and attention and those top players away and they had the upper hand. PGA Tour came right back and took it away from Liv. There’s an old saying in negotiations, when you have the hammer, swing it. And when Liv started taking players away, they had the hammer. Good for them. They swung and they swung hard and they put real dents in the PGA Tour. And then no one gave a [ __ ] about the product. No one’s denying that Live Golf has really, really good golfers. No one is also claiming that they have a product that is worth a damn because no one is watching and no one cares. And I don’t care what anyone says and how hard they try to spin it. You know, Phil Mickelson a few weeks ago said, “You know, I feel much more relaxed when I play the Lib Tour as opposed to the PGA.” You know why? Cuz it’s not real competition. It’s an exhibition than you’re making a ton of money from. Because you know, first of all, you’re in your 50s. You don’t give a [ __ ] as much because you made a ton of money. Some of it you gave away gambling, but good for you. You’ve stopped that. Kudos to you and you don’t have to worry about that anymore. So, you got a fat bank account and they’re still paying you. Yeah, I’d be a lot more relaxed, too. Oh, you know what? You’re not as relaxed when you play in majors and you don’t play very well because that’s real competition. And the other thing, Greg Norman is trying to just whitewash his reputation in that first interview, saying, you know, you I was not expecting the abuse that I took. Dude, stop it. You knew exactly who you signed up with, and you knew exactly what they were about. So, cry me a freaking river, okay? You knew what you were doing. You knew what you signed up for, and you knew what was going to happen when you did it. So, you get nothing from me. You get no sympathy from me. You got paid. Good for you. Grow. It was never about growing the game. Let’s just be honest about it. It was about creating enough of a diversion that the PGA Tour would have to recognize you guys and somehow the Saudis would do what they’ve done in Formula 1, what they’ve done in EPL, English Premier League, buying teams, getting a seat at the table in the most powerful sports leagues in the world. They wanted to do that in golf and it’s failed and it’s failed miserably. And what’s really interesting now, all those giant contracts that they took all those players away from, those contracts are about to end. What happens now? What happens next? Look, there there are players that that went on the live tour and they were honest about it. Richard Bland, who went, I think the longest in DP or European tour history without winning before finally winning an event. He said, “Look, I’m in my 50s. They’re offering me more money than I’ve ever made in my life. Of course, I’m going to take it. Harold Varnner, same way. He said, and Harold’s a friend of mine, by the way. He said, Trey, they offered me so much money, I don’t think I’ll ever make this on the PJ tour. It changed my family. That I get, but for the John Roms of the world, uh, the Dustin Johnson’s, the Brooks Kepo, you already had generational wealth. You already had all that kind of money. And Brooks on some level I understand because when he took that money to be honest about it his knee was so [ __ ] up he wasn’t sure if he was ever going to be able to really compete again on the PGA tour. So he’s like this is my exit strategy. This is my golden parachute. This is my retirement clause. This is my pension. I get it. But Dustin Johnson said it best. He said I didn’t take the live deal to play more golf. I took it to play less. He has checked out. He doesn’t care anymore. Phil did it to help his gambling debts. Which by the way, good for him. I’m glad he solved it. All that kind of stuff. You didn’t do it to grow the game. You didn’t do it to grow the game. You took the money. Just be honest about it. You took the money. Liv, the Saudis, they took a shot and good for them. Swing or swing, shoot or shoot. They [ __ ] missed and no one cares. And it’s really interesting to see what happens going forward. How long are the Saudis with that PIF, the the public investment fund, which has billions of dollars in it, how much more are they willing to squander if it doesn’t give them anything they want, which is attention and a seat at the table? Well, if they did this in the art world, too, there’s a great documentary about the last, it’s either the last Da Vinci or the lost da Vinci, a painting that was discovered in New Orleans that may or may not have been somewhat at one time painted by Leonardo da Vinci. Now, since then, it’s been retouched a million times. And so whatever the whoever the actual artist was, if it was Da Vinci, there’s very little of it left. It went on auction a few years ago. People thought it was going to be the highest piece of art ever bid on, they expected it to be about $100 million. It went for almost a billion dollars. Why did it go for a billion dollars? Well, it was bought by the Saudi government. Why did the Saudi government buy it? because they went and then uh made a partnership with the Louvre, the museum, the the maybe arguably the most famous museum in the world in France to help create a museum of great art in the desert because the Saudis know oil is running out. They’ve got to find new ways to bring in income. So, they wanted to buy a seat at table at the art world. They’ve tried to buy a seat at the table in all the Premier Leagues and the big leagues uh in sports, including EPLL and Formula 1, and they tried it on the PGA Tour, and so far it hasn’t stuck. And who knows what the hell’s going to happen going forward with Liv. They have plenty of money. How much are they willing to burn when no one gives a [ __ ] about their product? And that’s straight facts, homie.