LIV Golf began with a seemingly endless bankroll. Funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the rogue golf circuit lured a number of top names away from the PGA, including Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, and Sergio Garcia.
To say it didn’t work would be putting it mildly. LIV Golf made major financial commitments to its golfers, and its revenue never matched.
Now, the Saudis have pulled their funding, and efforts to bring in new money have failed. LIV Golf has begun its wind-down process, and Chad Van Horn, a double board-certified bankruptcy attorney and founder and managing partner of Van Horn Law Group in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., discussed what’s happening with TheStreet.
He talked about what happens to professional golfers still owed millions in guaranteed contracts. Van Horn also answers whether another buyer could rescue the LIV Golf brand, or if this is the end of the league as we know it.
TheStreet: What does LIV Golf’s decision to “wind down” mean?
Chad Van Horn: LIV 2.0 was the reorganization. On Nov. 5, LIV told the court there won’t be one. ‘Value-maximizing wind down’ is restructuring language for three things: sell whatever has value, pay creditors in the order the Bankruptcy Code sets, and close the doors.
The players still holding guarantees against LIV are now unsecured creditors of a company that is liquidating, and that line gets paid last, if at all.
The brand isn’t necessarily dead. A buyer can still pick up the name, the team IP, and the media rights out of bankruptcy, free of the old contracts. What’s gone is LIV as the company that signed those checks.
TheStreet: What happens next in bankruptcy court?
Van Horn: Big Chapter 11 cases are often built with a switch: reorganize if the new money closes, sell and wind down if it doesn’t. When BC Partners walked, LIV flipped the switch.
The most likely path is staying in Chapter 11, selling the assets under § 363 of the Bankruptcy Code, then a liquidating plan to distribute what’s left. Conversion to Chapter 7, where a trustee takes over, is still possible if the case can’t pay for that process.
TheStreet: What happens to players owed millions in guaranteed contracts?
Van Horn: A rejected contract becomes a general unsecured claim (11 U.S.C. § 365(g)), behind the lender, the professionals, and priority claims like wages and taxes. The players’ real leverage is anyone other than LIV who signed or guaranteed their deal, because a non-debtor doesn’t get bankruptcy protection.
On the golf side, a rejected contract frees the player to sign elsewhere, which puts the DP World Tour’s mid-November membership deadline and the PGA Tour’s one-year suspension rule front and center.
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TheStreet: Who else stands to lose money?
Van Horn: Employees get priority for unpaid wages, but only up to $17,150 each. Vendors, venues, and sponsors owed money stand in the same unsecured line as the players. Expect the creditors’ committee to look hard at any payments to executives and other insiders in the year before the filing, because those can be clawed back for creditors.
TheStreet: Could another investor or buyer save LIV Golf?
Van Horn: LIV’s lawyers chose their words carefully: ‘not currently proceeding’ with LIV 2.0, and LIV said the deal ‘is not expected to move forward at this time.’
That leaves a crack open, but a small one. The realistic rescue is a buyer of the assets, not an investor in the company.
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A quick look at LIV Golf’s shutdown
- What happened: On Nov. 5, LIV’s lawyers told a New Jersey bankruptcy court that the league would drop its proposed LIV 2.0 restructuring and begin winding down, Yahoo Sports reported.
- The trigger: The day before, BC Partners pulled its planned $300 million investment in the relaunch because LIV failed to sign up enough players, according to CBS Sports.
- Court quote: LIV’s lawyer told the court the league is “toggling to a value-maximizing wind-down of their business,” Sky Sports reported.
- Timeline: The Saudi Public Investment Fund pulled its funding in April 2026, and LIV filed for bankruptcy in September 2026, according to court documents on PacerMonitor.
- 2027 season: LIV had set a 10-event schedule for 2027, and there will be no LIV Golf that year, Sports Media Watch reported.
- Total spent: More than $5 billion over five years, reported Yahoo Sports.
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