Who should get inside the ropes? What tennis can teach golf about creators

“My hope is that I can give my players what the Solheim Cup has given me - lifelong memories shared with people who make them what matters”

Anna Nordqvist

What’s on my mind this week

Walker Cup giving Medinah energy, Paul Casey donating his entire European Masters winnings to charity, Thomas Detry making a two from 232 yards, Sergio Garcia missing from 1ft 7in, Charley Hull can't get off the range, Rahmbo has left the chat, literally, Anna Nordqvist's linguistic flex, more than $5bn to bankruptcy in four years is some feat, Nelly Korda's patriotic pumps, September golf, when every good round feels like it might be the last for a while.

LIV Golf files for Chapter 11 with players set to become majority owners

Why it matters: LIV Golf filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection listing assets of $100 million to $500 million against liabilities of $500 million to $1 billion. The proposed restructuring would see LIV emerge from bankruptcy majority owned by its players, backed by $300 million of proposed BC Partners exit financing and requiring commitments from at least 50% of eligible players holding at least two-thirds of aggregate player claims by the 13th of October.

Our Take: Last week we questioned what a Chapter 11 could accomplish. We now have the beginnings of an answer. LIV is using bankruptcy protection to reset the economics on which the league was built. PIF invested around $5 billion creating the original product, much of it spent acquiring elite players through guaranteed contracts that a conventionally financed sports business could never sustain. Those contracts can now be terminated, costs reduced and a new ownership model built in their place. BC Partners' proposed exit financing is conditional on LIV surviving bankruptcy, while the restructured league plans to make players majority owners. That is a fundamental change in the proposition. Players who were originally paid extraordinary sums to join LIV may now be asked to accept less guaranteed compensation in exchange for equity in the business. It shifts them from being LIV's largest cost to having their financial interests tied directly to its enterprise value. The 13th of October deadline for player commitments puts a date on the first real test: whether enough of the players who made LIV commercially relevant believe LIV 2.0 is an asset worth owning.