Welcome to Issue #36
"Golf tips are like Aspirin: One may do you good, but if you swallow the whole bottle you’ll be lucky to survive”
Harvey Penick
What’s on my mind this week
Aaron Rai once again proving he's the nicest guy in golf with his note for Larrazábal, Charlie Hull's mid-round ice cream, Tennents and Irn-Bru the essential hydration choices this week, taxi for TV Aim-Line, a YouTube golfer with a top-30 on the DP World Tour, is it just me or does every week feel like a major week in women's golf at the moment?, Carl Froch now fighting for golf courses, already picked my Open winner and probably wrong again.
In the news
Why it matters: LIV Golf informed employees in the US and UK on the 8th of July that it is filing a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice, the legal precursor to mass layoffs, as the league searches for $250-350 million in fresh capital before PIF funding ends after the 2026 season.
Our Take: The WARN filing is the clearest indication yet that management is preparing for multiple outcomes if fundraising takes longer than planned. PIF committed more than $5 billion over four years, and Ducera Partners has been running the process since April. The pitch to prospective investors is that LIV doubled revenue from 2024 to 2025, is on pace to add another $100 million this year, and can reach profitability in three years on a 10-event annual schedule. The obstacle is proving the path to profitability. A league that has burned $5 billion to reach current scale is a difficult sell as a $250 million growth equity story, and the New Orleans event cancellation earlier this year and the Premier Golf League litigation seeking $210-630 million in damages complicate the pitch further. The structural read is that LIV is now competing for capital against every other alternative-sport asset in a market where TGL, WTGL, and now YGT are all making their own commercial case. Even if LIV secures the funding, the era of disruption capital in golf appears to be ending.