The hits keep coming for LIV Golf.
The fate of the renegade tour is looking grim after Saudi Arabia pulled its funding after investing billions of dollars in trying to build a world golf circuit that could topple the PGA Tour. But after years of lots of spending and little progress in gaining any kind of traction with fans, the tour is now running out of options to continue its existence without its foreign government benefactors.
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Earlier this week, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour undercut LIV by announcing a deal with the Asian Tour, which had served as a key partner for LIV by providing additional tournaments and access.
LIV Golf has already seen one event canceled earlier this year in New Orleans and now former US Open and PGA Championship winner and current Cleeks GC captain Martin Kaymer has dropped a bombshell that the season-ending team championship in Michigan from August 27-30 is “highly unlikely” to be played.
In a talk with Today’s Golfer, Kaymer said there was only a five percent chance of the tournament happening because of a lack of infrastructure at The Cardinal at Saint John’s outside Detriot.
“I know that Indianapolis most likely is happening,” Kaymer added. “There was a conversation yesterday. Michigan, highly unlikely. So basically, what we already knew. That’s why I think it became a captains’ meeting and not a players’ meeting, because they couldn’t give us much more than we had before.”
Kaymer believes there is a “five percent” chance the tournament will take place as scheduled because infrastructure is yet to be built on the course.
“Of course, we are disappointed,” says Kaymer. “I heard yesterday, actually, on the Golf Channel that there were talks that Indianapolis could become a team event instead of Michigan. That we don’t know. I think that would be a shame that we get reduced even more individual tournaments.
“On the other hand, how do you want to have a team winning the whole season if you don’t have a team event? We need to be honest. The whole season was a bit of a… there was so much happening. Yeah. Cancelled New Orleans. Cancelled most likely the last event. So I think it’s important to just finish the season and hopefully we’ll have a plan for 2027.”
LIV Golf still has events on the schedule in New York at Trump Bedminster and Indianapolis on the calendar. And at this point, it still has the Team Championship in Michigan as well, although it seems like it’s only a matter of time before that falls by the wayside.
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Regardless of what events are played to finish 2026, the focus is now turning to whether there will even be a 2027 for LIV Golf. While LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil has tried to strike a hopeful tone in public comments about securing additional investments to keep the tour afloat, the writing on the wall is getting clearer with each passing day. On Tuesday Jon Rahm literally shrugged when he was asked where he would be playing golf in 2027, which is not exactly a vote of confidence for any kind of funding plan for the league actually existing post-Saudi.
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