David Feherty was ‘in the dark’ during the events that led to LIV Golf losing funding from Saudi Arabia.
Told in text messages to NCG, the former European Ryder Cup player-turned flamboyant pundit hadn’t been privy to conversations that led to the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) decision to stop bankrolling the breakaway league at the end of the 2026 season, which was revealed on Thursday.
Feherty’s words reflect the overall feeling from the LIV camp, in which players were also left none the wiser during the Mexico City event a fortnight ago, from which executives scrambled to an emergency crisis meeting in New York when things started happening behind the scenes.
In the week of the event at Club de Golf Chapultepec, a caddie told NCG that they’d heard nothing about the possible Saudi withdrawal. The PIF has financially propped up the rebel circuit since 2022, when it was born.
Now, it seems LIV staff have begun job-hunting, and players have started planning routes back to the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour.
Feherty, a five-time winner as a player in Europe and formerly part of the NBC broadcast before joining LIV in 2022, hadn’t thought that far ahead yet, concerning his job. The 67-year-old is a regular fixture of the LIV Golf broadcast, alongside commentator Arlo White.
Ian Poulter with broadcaster David Feherty (L) during day two of the LIV Golf Invitational – Bedminster in 2022 in Bedminster, New Jersey | Source Jonathan Ferrey/LIV Golf via Getty Images
ALSO: Saudi PIF has pulled the plug from the LIV Golf League
During the $30 million event, which was eventually won by Jon Rahm, both Feherty and White lept to the defence of LIV when reports first emerged that the PIF could pull the financial plug two weeks ago:
“Reports of the imminent demise of the LIV Golf League were, in fact, greatly exaggerated. I’ve had a good chat with LIV CEO Scott O’Neil in the last hour. He was very confident about the future, very bullish about the future of the LIV Golf League,” said White.
“Wow. It has been amazing, Arlo, for sure. I have been in the professional game for 50 years now, and I don’t think I’ve ever had two or three days where there was more absolute nonsense spread out,” Feherty added.
“There are still some writers and broadcasters that take pride in their work. But this generation has spawned a bunch of fast typists that consider themselves to be experts, and evidently, they’re not.”
“It must be exhausting trying to will the LIV Golf League existence. Take a day off everybody, enjoy the golf,” White concluded.
Scott O’Neil, the LIV CEO, has put on a brave face in public to motivate his LIV team, but even he admitted in an interview on TNT Sports that the funding was only until the end of the season. A clip of him saying this was later deleted.
While LIV Golf will look to live on without the PIF, which is nearing $1 trillion in worth, this is a significant hammer blow to a league that has so far been given around $5 billion to survive. It has attracted the likes of Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith and Phil Mickelson with big bags of cash, and held over 50 events around the world in five seasons.
One would worry how the league could keep hold of this talent if a similar level of investment wasn’t found.
The birth of LIV four years ago divided the golf world, as those who left the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, golf’s longtime established circuits, were suspended and, in the case of the DP World Tour, heavily fined.
At the start of this season, defectors Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed left LIV to plot routes back to the PGA Tour – a damning reflection of LIV, for sure. Now, the Saudis have started to realign their financial priorities.
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