LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil says league will ‘probably’ have to raise money

LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil has made several media appearances in the past 24 hours after reports that the Saudi Public Investment Fund might be done pumping money into the circuit, and he’s beginning to walk back some of his previous claims about the financial security of the league moving forward.

O’Neil reportedly told “various people” at the Masters last week that the league was fully funded through 2032, according to Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard. But during an interview with TNT Sports — which has already been scrubbed from the outlet’s X account and YouTube channel — Oliver Wilson asked O’Neil about future funding, and his answer was a far cry from what he’s previously said.

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“Sergio [Garcia] came out yesterday and alluded to the fact that they’d been told that funding was in place until 2030, can you speak to that?” Wilson asked.

“Yeah, of course, it’s just not the way the world works,” O’Neil replied. “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. But that’s not different from any other private equity-funded business in the history of mankind.”

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Without mentioning funding specifically, O’Neil sent a memorandum to LIV Golf employees on Wednesday that said its 2026 season “continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle.” A report from Reuters on Thursday cited multiple sources that LIV was funded through the end of this season, but beyond that, major questions remained. Up until his interview with Wilson on TNT Sports, O’Neil had not confirmed that to be the case.

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O’Neil says LIV Golf will ‘probably’ have to raise money

In a different interview during Thursday’s first round broadcast of LIV Golf Mexico City, O’Neil spoke with LIV Golf commentator Arlo White for nearly seven minutes about the future of the league.

“How we go forward is what I’m really excited about,” O’Neil said. “I talked about some structural changes, they are coming. You can ask about the 50 people I met in Augusta, I rolled out the plan. We have one, and it might surprise some people. … this notion of, ‘Do you have to raise money?’ Probably. This is business. 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.”

Spanish outlet Movistar Plus+ Deportes posted an interview with O’Neil to social media on Friday morning in which the LIV CEO said the league is already looking ahead to 2027, but he declined to provide specific details about the league’s future.

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“The only thing I can tell you is that it won’t be the same as ’26,” O’Neil said. “We are deep in our planning now, in terms of what ’27 looks like, but make no mistake about it, we have five events on sale right now for ’27.”

David Feherty calls reports of LIV Golf’s demise ‘nonsense’

The first round broadcast of LIV Golf Mexico City opened with commentators Arlo White and David Feherty attempting to dispel reports of the league’s demise. White called them “greatly exaggerated,” while Feherty attacked the golf media, which he said is made up of “fast typists who consider themselves experts.”

Not long after the two announcers finished their remarks, the stream went dark for more than two hours, with the screen simply displaying a message that LIV Golf was experiencing technical difficulties. It later claimed those difficulties were a result of a power outage in Mexico City.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil on future of league, funding beyond 2026