Welcome to Issue #26
"The ardent golfer would play Mount Everest if somebody put a flagstick on top.”
Pete Dye
What’s on my mind this week
Full Swing is back and packs a punch (remember Bethpage?), Trump embarrassing Rory like a drunk uncle at a wedding, LIV looking for some love, Oakland Hills take a bow, the PGA Tour returning to Doral for the first time in 10 years and 5 of the top 15 finding something better to do, still waiting for my free McLaren clubs, Matt Fitzpatrick helping his little bro achieve his dreams is something special.
In the news
Why it matters: Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has confirmed it will end funding of LIV Golf after the 2026 season, leaving a league that has cost an estimated $500 million to $600 million a year with no backer and no clear future.
Our Take: The numbers were always the story. More than $5 billion invested over four years, peak TV ratings that barely registered, a PGA Tour merger that never closed, and two of the league's biggest names, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, heading toward contract expiry. PIF's new domestic strategy, which explicitly prioritises Saudi-based economic development, makes LIV Golf, a global sports property with a heavy Western footprint, increasingly difficult to justify as PIF pivots its priorities inward. At roughly $5 billion invested against revenues that remain far from covering operating costs, LIV was always a strategic bet rather than a commercial business. LIV has now appointed an independent board led by restructuring specialists and is actively seeking new investors, while insisting 2026 revenue is up 100% year-on-year. That last number is true and also beside the point. Growing from a very small base while burning $500 million annually is not a business model. It is a countdown. The players who left the PGA Tour for nine-figure guarantees may now face a very different negotiating environment with a tour they left. The next six months will determine whether LIV survives as an independent entity, becomes leverage in a forced merger with PGA Tour Enterprises, or enters an orderly wind-down through asset sales across teams, media rights and infrastructure.