Could a future LIV Golf Adelaide winner also lift the Australian Open’s iconic Stonehaven Cup? That was one of several eyebrow raising hints dropped live on air by LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil on Friday as he fronted growing speculation around the league’s future.
The noise around LIV Golf intensified this week, with unconfirmed reports that its Saudi backers, the Public Investment Fund, could reconsider funding amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.
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On Friday morning in Mexico City, the under-fire league chief stepped into the spotlight and pushed back hard. Quizzed by LIV Golf commentator Arlo White during the league’s round one broadcast, O’Neil didn’t deny the noise. He dismissed it completely.
“This notion of secret meetings and getting summoned through to New York… I live in New York, so it’s easy to summon myself there. But it was a lot of reaching and grabbing for headlines and clickbait and stories,” O’Neil said of reports his team were hauled in for crisis talks with PIF.
It was a pointed response to a week that saw rumours gather like wildfire, particularly from media in his native USA. For O’Neil, it is all part of the ride.
“Having been in private equity now for over a dozen years, this is the process you go through,” he said. “And sometimes it’s not smooth and sometimes it’s not easy. But I can tell you, given the momentum of this business, we’re really excited about where we are and the position where we are.”
Still, beneath the confidence, there was an acknowledgement that LIV is not immune to pressure.“For us, it’s business as usual, but if you want to ask me if this business is tough, I would say absolutely. If you ask me that if we’re managed very, very tightly, I would say absolutely. Can this be challenging? Absolutely. And that’s what we signed up for.”
That tension, between confidence and reality, sits at the heart of where LIV finds itself right now. The 2026 season is rolling on. The product remains strong and appealing, at least outside of the US. But questions about what comes next are getting louder, not quieter. O’Neil, though, is leaning firmly into the long game.
“How we go forward is what I’m really excited about,” he said. “I talked about some structural changes, they’re coming. You can ask the 50 people I met in Augusta (last week), I rolled out the plan (to them). We have one and it might surprise some people.”
#LIVGolf CEO Scott O’Neil breaks down the future of LIV Golf, potential structural changes, what he’d say to prospective LIV players, media coverage, and more.
Briefly turned into an ad there for a bit, but he seems to be full steam ahead and optimistic about the future.
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— Tee Times (@TeeTimesPub) April 16, 2026
Part of that future, he suggests, could involve a shift in how LIV is funded and structured. “This notion of, do you have to raise money? Probably. This is business,” he added.
It is one of the clearest signals yet that LIV may not rely solely on PIF forever. Evolution, in O’Neil’s view, is inevitable. “But if we keep the trajectory going the way we are and the revenue growth going, this is going to be a really good business for a really long time.”
And that “trajectory” is something he is keen to highlight. LIV’s pitch has always been global, and O’Neil doubled down on that vision.
“I’m American, I love the US market – it’s the number one TV market in the world, period. It’s the number one sponsorship market in the world, in golf and in sport. But long term, do you want to bet on 340 million people or 7.5 billion people? That’s all I’m saying. That’s the only difference – I’m taking a 7.5 billion person bet.”
It is a familiar argument, but one that continues to define LIV’s identity. As his predecessor Greg Norman preached ad nauseam, LIV Golf is not about competing with the PGA Tour. It is about expanding golf’s footprint far beyond its traditional strongholds. That message also extends to players. If LIV is still recruiting, O’Neil made it clear the league is not for everyone.
“The first thing I say when I’m talking to any player is LIV Golf is not for everybody,” he says. “If you want to spend your time in the US, this is the wrong league for you. But if you want to grow the game of golf around the world, this is for you. If you love to explore new cultures and new courses and have new experiences, this is for you.”
He also pointed to the league’s team format as a key differentiator.
“If you feel like golf can be lonely sometimes, and this is the toughest, most lonely sport in the world, boy, there’s nothing like a team to pick you up after a bad round.”
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Then came the numbers. And for O’Neil, they tell a compelling story. “We’re now in over a billion homes around the world,” he says. “We had 5.5 million people tune into (LIV Golf Adelaide), our event in Australia with the great Anthony Kim win, the Rocky Balboa story of today. It was the largest tournament in the history of the country.
“We go to South Africa, the largest golf event in the history of country and a hundred thousand people with fans singing the national anthem on 18.”
For Australian fans, that mention hits close to home. LIV Golf Adelaide has become the league’s standout success story, a high energy, sold-out spectacle that has redefined what a golf event can look like, locally. If LIV’s long term future were to shift, the ripple effect on Australia would be immediate.
O’Neil’s argument is that the fundamentals are strong, and hinted the league’s international strategy moving forward could even bring a co-sanctioning arrangement with the Australian Open.
“We are looking to blend a version of LIV and the national opens, the great national opens around the world,” he revealed. “We think they’re the most under-appreciated, under-marketed, under-developed assets in golf.”
For O’Neil, the bigger picture is about relevance and reach.
“Is golf better without LIV Golf? Should all the best events in the world be in the continental US?” he asks. “If I am a PGA Tour player, I want LIV to survive. These prize purses are pretty good. Competition is good for business.
“If you’re a fan, you want more golf around the world. If you’re outside the US, we are outside the saturated market and we’re in markets that are dying for this kind of action. So I think there’s a lot more to gain with LIV Golf here than LIV Golf gone.”
It is a question that cuts to the core of the debate. Love it or loathe it, LIV has forced the game to think differently. As for the criticism and constant speculation, O’Neil appears more frustrated than rattled.
“I’m disappointed with some of the coverage,” he says. “I’ve never been in an industry that has more unnamed sources than this one. In fact, I was reading through some coverage this morning and I couldn’t find one source on the record in all the articles that were written (about LIV’s future). And I would just say, let’s be responsible.”