Long-time LIV Golf critic: "No sane investor" would back league without player guarantees

Golfweek columnist and Golf Channel contributor Eamon Lynch says "no sane investor" would agree to give LIV Golf money without guarantees their top players are going to remain on the circuit. 

LIV Golf says it has secured an unnamed lead investor to keep the league running in 2027 after the withdrawal of Saudi Arabian financial backing. 

The news was announced on Wednesday ahead of LIV's stop in New York, following a tumultuous period in which the league's future had been thrown into doubt.

Chief executive Scott O'Neil told reporters in Bedminster he expects the transaction to be completed in September.

O'Neil did not disclose either the size of the investment or the identity of the investor, although Bloomberg reported that the mystery backer is BC Partners, a London-based private equity firm.

Long-time LIV critic Lynch told Golf Channel after the deal was announced that "no sane" investor would give the league money without guarantees that their star players will remain. 

"And those top players, it's not quite clear if they are going to be there, if he [O'Neil] has their loyalty right now, because those players are going to have some pretty significant questions of their own, not least of which is, are they going to get the money they are owed? 

"And Scott O'Neil in that press conference referenced LIV 2.0 as being more about equity than cash. That wouldn't leave me feeling very confident if I was owed money as a player by LIV Golf.

"But they have other questions as well. They are getting equity, but equity in what? What is the value of it? Because they don't really have any scalable revenue as such. It doesn't have any worth right now."

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Lynch added that LIV may also lose their accreditation by the sport's global rankings body after their feeder circuit, the Asian Tour, chose to turn its back on the breakaway tour in favour of a deal with the establishment. 

The pathways to returning to the PGA Tour are also narrowing, he explained. 

"Are they going to be happy to play for pennies on the dollar on a reduced schedule?" he said. 

"[There is also a] very real risk of losing world ranking points going forward. 

"And doing all of that in a situation where their pathways or options are narrowing, because we all know what's going to happen with the PGA Tour in 2028. 27 is a big year to earn status for 2028.

"And none of these guys, if they wanted to come back, are going to be gifted status into the top tier of the PGA Tour. 

"So they kind of need their freedom to earn that status somehow in 2027. All players aren't going to treat this equally.

"You know, Bryson DeChambeau, he's got his kind of creator mindset. And he thinks that YouTube is his revenue stream. I don't see Jon Rahm going down that road as well.

"And this is really coming down, I think, now to the loyalty of the players. And betting on the loyalty of these players has been a losing bet anytime anyone's made it in the past." 

Lynch explained he believes Jon Rahm's decision over whether to stay with LIV Golf or walk away will be crucial to its future.

"I think he's got Bryson," he said. "I think Bryson's the kind of guy who would think, okay, well, I'm invested in this, at least emotionally and from a career standpoint.

"And he's been part of the team going around with Scott O'Neil to meet with investors, while also pitching his own creator league among YouTube influencers as well. 

"To me, Jon Rahm is the one who would look at this from a competitive standpoint. And Jon Rahm is presumably, based on the reports out there, owed a lot more money at this stage than Bryson is.

"Bryson's contract is up this year, so he has a certain freedom. Jon Rahm is still owed a lot of money at LIV Golf.

"And if he doesn't see that coming and he sees the competitive restrictions that he's kind of under playing on LIV in terms of his broader career ambitions, he may actually say, you know what, this isn't for me.

"The question is, will LIV be in breach of his contract? 

"Between the reduction in the prize funds, the reduction in the schedule, the entire reshaping of the business, a potential bankruptcy filing to realign all of the debt, that may give Jon Rahm the opening to make a decision that was not within his gift to make a few months ago."

Lynch believes O'Neil still has "an enormous challenge". 

"Even if you do have the players on your side, even if Bryson and Rahm do stay, you're still trying to make a viable business out of something that couldn't work when the richest sovereign wealth fund on earth was putting north of $6 billion into it," he said. 

"It's got a very tainted brand because the bot farms and the online bootlickers aren't going to help you make a business out of this right now. 

"And can he make it work at this point? And that's, to me, still a big question because nothing is ever quite what LIV says it is.

"You know, a few months ago they were saying that they were fully funded for the next six years. That wasn't true. 

"They said they were going to have a complete full season. 

"That isn't true because they've already cancelled the New Orleans event and even as of this morning, Scott O'Neil was refusing to say whether or not they would play the LIV event in a couple of weeks.

"So nothing is ever quite what it seems with LIV. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors and, to me, there are a lot more questions than there are answers."