LIV Golf tells 90% of staff they will lose their jobs next week

LIV Golf is set to lose around 90% of its workforce next week as the league dramatically scales back its operations.

Staff were reportedly told on Monday that the majority of employees will leave the organisation in the first week of September, despite many already receiving 30-day termination notices earlier this month.

The scale of the cuts are said to have come as a shock to some employees, with LIV employing approximately 300 people across its London and New York offices.

According to Telegraph Sport, senior executives are expected to remain, alongside a skeleton workforce with only a small number of employees retained in some departments.

The changes come after Saudi Arabia's funding commitment reached its conclusion, leaving LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil with a major challenge to secure the investment required to take the league into its proposed next phase.

LIV confirmed the restructuring in a statement, saying it was “scaling back operations” while working towards making ‘LIV 2.0’ a reality.

The league added that it had informed “many of our colleagues” that their employment under ‘LIV 1.0’ would end in the first week of September 2026. 

O'Neil has set a September deadline to secure around $350 million in funding for the proposed 2027 version of LIV Golf. 

He revealed last month that a lead investor had signed a term sheet.

That investor is understood to be London-based investment firm BC Partners, although no formal details have been announced.

The latest developments could also have implications for LIV's players and creditors. 

Telegraph Sport previously reported that there is growing uncertainty over Jon Rahm's future, with LIV executives understood to be increasingly resigned to the Spaniard's departure.

Rahm is also reportedly still waiting for a substantial portion of his signing-on fee, while some contractors are understood to have gone months without receiving reimbursements.

The new LIV model is expected to be significantly smaller, with possibly just 10 tournaments and prize funds of between $6m and $10m per event.

Despite the uncertainty, Tyrrell Hatton remains confident the league will continue.

“I would expect there to be LIV next season,” Hatton said at the British Masters. 

“I know they have worked really hard to get funding stuff in place.”

Whether Hatton is still there - along with his Legion XIII captain Rahm - remains unknown. 

For now, LIV's immediate future rests on whether O'Neil can secure the investment needed to turn LIV 2.0 from a proposal into reality.