Tranlate this title Rapaport stunned by LIV Golf’s $40 million decision: Hard to wrap your head around in spanish

LIV Golf seems to be sinking into a deeper crisis. 

The controversial league that arrived on the golf scene with big ambitions a few years ago is now going through the most difficult period in its history. The Saudi investment fund (PIF) decided to invest a huge amount of money in this project, having big plans to change the world of professional golf.

However, it turned out that even huge financial opportunities are not enough to compensate for what golf fans value most, namely the tradition and history of this sport. Although it was expected for years that LIV Golf could make great progress and take key steps towards dominating the scene, in the end they did not achieve nearly all the goals they had set.

The real shock for the leaders of LIV Golf came after the decision of the Saudi PIF to withdraw financial support after the end of this season, which left the league in a very difficult situation.

Scott O’Neil, executive director of LIV Golf, who arrived at the position at the beginning of the last year, says that finding new investors is key to the survival of the project in this turbulent period.

It is still unknown how many potential investors are willing to put money into the project, which, frankly, does not currently inspire much optimism when it comes to its future, even with the previous huge support of the Saudis.

Adding to the concern was the news that the Asian Tour has partnered with the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. The Asian Tour was previously affiliated with LIV Golf and was an important part of their system, so the move represents another major blow to the controversial league.

Dan Rapaport reacts

Among the important figures who reacted to the latest events is Dan Rapaport, who pointed out in his show that LIV Golf made a large number of mistakes. He singled out LIV Michigan, a tournament that is currently on the verge of cancellation.

It is important to point out that the prize fund of this event is $40 million, which is twice as much as the prize funds of the biggest PGA Tour tournaments in the season. Rapaport expressed surprise at such a move, finding it incredible that a golf tournament has such a large prize pool.

According to him, LIV Golf is in a very difficult situation, and there is a possibility that only a few remaining tournaments will be played by the end of the season. The future of the league now depends on finding new investors..

“$40 million. They have a team finale where the purse is $40 million US. This is something we’re going to look back on in five years and say, ‘They played an event, a team finale at some golf course in Michigan, and the purse was more than double the Open Championship.’ 

Sometimes things just kind of like zap you out of the moment and just like 40 million US dollars. The LIV Team finale in Michigan had a purse of $40 million. It’s hard to wrap your head around. Now, why would this event not be going on while the other ones are? Well, it’s got a higher purse and, this is all subject to whatever the PIF wants to fund.

So, maybe they said, ‘We’ll fund the regular season tournaments, but this $40 million purse in Michigan, I’m not really keen on that one.’

I think all the events are some way. We are looking at a serious reality where there are three LIV Golf events left, as we know it.» he said.

What must LIV Golf do now?

The leaders of LIV Golf, led by CEO Scott O’Neil, are currently in a race against time and must implement urgent measures to save the league from a serious financial crisis. After the decision of the Saudi PIF to stop funding, the management must find a new business model that would enable the survival of the league and the continuation of the competition in the coming years.

Scott O’Neil’s main priority is to find new investors and secure between $300 and 350 million of fresh capital so that LIV Golf has enough funds to operate in 2027. The leaders of the league have engaged the investment bank Ducera Partners and are holding a large number of meetings with potential investors in an attempt to find financial support.

The plan is to find a so-called «anchor investor», that is, a partner who would be willing to invest at least 100 million dollars, while they would try to secure the rest of the funds through private investment funds, billionaires and family investment funds.