LIV Golf Secures Potential $300m Investment From BC Partners as Bankruptcy Restructuring Moves Forward

The most disruptive experiment in professional golf's modern history is not dead yet. LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed breakaway league that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States in September, has secured a potential $300m financing deal from BC Partners Credit — a lifeline that could bankroll its emergence from court-supervised restructuring and fund a relaunched 2027 season.

A lifeline for "LIV 2.0"

The investment was confirmed on Monday in a court filing in LIV's bankruptcy case, according to Field Level Media, and is part of a targeted $300m in cumulative financing aimed at helping the league exit Chapter 11 as a team-focused competition with players as equity owners. The financing plan must be approved by the US Bankruptcy Court in the District of New Jersey, and it arrives just two days before the first of several hearings on the bankruptcy filing.

Ted Goldthorpe, managing partner and head of BC Partners Credit, framed the deal as a rescue built around the players: "Our goal is to facilitate LIV Golf's emergence from the restructuring process on sound financial footing and with renewed momentum heading into the 2027 season," he said in a statement. "We want the players who make this league what it is to share in what they help build. Giving players real and actionable ownership in the league and the teams is a unique opportunity in professional golf."

League insiders described the committed investment as a "significant" step forward, in the BBC's wording — a description echoed by Irish golf press — and chief executive Scott O'Neil struck an optimistic note: "This investment is an important step forward for LIV Golf... We believe deeply in the future of this league and in the opportunity to build something distinctive alongside our players."

If approved, the money would allow LIV to start planning a 2027 season built around a 10-tournament schedule, half of the events staged internationally — a leaner, more global product than the sprawling circuit the Saudis bankrolled.

From the PIF's blank cheque to Chapter 11

The context is a fall from grace as spectacular as the league's rise. Since its launch in 2021, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund spent more than $5bn on LIV, bankrolling signing bonuses — nine figures in some cases — and $20m individual prize funds that lured marquee names like Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau away from the established tours. The money bought spectacle: shotgun starts, team franchises, and contracts that redrew the economics of professional golf.

But the spigot shut off. The PIF withdrew all financial support at the end of the 2026 season, Fox News reported, part of a tumultuous 2026 campaign that saw LIV cancel two tournaments, including the season-ending Team Championship. With its sole funder gone, the league filed for Chapter 11 in September. The PIF is now providing a $49.6m (£36.6m) bankruptcy loan to keep the lights on during the restructuring, which is expected to be completed in early 2027.

The numbers tell the story of a sporting venture that tried to buy its way to legitimacy and found the bill came due. For perspective on how quickly sporting fortunes can swing, the football world's own financial reckoning has followed a strikingly similar arc of extravagant spending meeting hard questions.

What players are being asked to decide

At the heart of the restructuring is a simple question for LIV's roster: do you stay? Participants are owed at least $45m (£33m) between them, and the league has extended the deadline for players to commit to its future — from October 13 to October 25 — giving the undecided two more weeks to weigh the BC Partners rescue against the exit door.

Crucially, nobody is obliged to sign on to "LIV 2.0". Players have the option to walk away, and some are already testing their legal position: Sergio Garcia asked the court last week to clarify the status of his LIV contract — whether it was terminated by the bankruptcy filing or whether he can terminate it himself. The coming weeks will be a slow-motion auction for loyalty, with the new financing giving the league something concrete to pitch.

The model being pitched is a meaningful departure from the PIF era. Rather than a sovereign wealth fund's blank cheque, the league is being rebuilt as a player-owned, team-focused competition — "a truly global league that complements the wider game," in O'Neil's phrase — with equity stakes designed to align players with the product's long-term success.

The creditors waiting in line

Bankruptcy filings have a way of making private deals public, and LIV's creditor list reads like a roll call of the league's star power. Jon Rahm tops it with a $7.5m (£5.5m) unsecured claim; Bryson DeChambeau is owed $5.7m, Dustin Johnson $5.5m, and Cameron Smith $4.8m. These are men who left the PGA Tour's structure for guaranteed money — and are now standing in the same queue as any other unsecured creditor.

!Dustin Johnson hoists the championship trophy at the LIV Golf Invitational Boston Dustin Johnson celebrating at a LIV Golf event; he is owed $5.5m as an unsecured creditor. Photo: JazzyJoeyD, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Meanwhile, the machinery of the old tours grinds on. Adrian Meronk, who joined LIV in 2024, won the Dunhill Links Championship on Sunday — a victory that paves the way for him to hold European tour status next year, as TSN reported. "It's been a very strange year on LIV, obviously finding about Saudis backing off and finding new investors," Meronk said after his win.

A very strange year — and what comes next

Meronk's understatement captures the mood. In five years, LIV Golf has gone from launch to billions in spending to bankruptcy court — and now, possibly, to resurrection with a $300m war chest and a promise of player ownership. The BC Partners investment is real money from a serious credit platform, and the court's hearings this week will test whether it is enough.

What remains uncertain is whether the golfing public — and the players themselves — still believe in the product. The 2027 plan is smaller and leaner than anything the PIF funded, and it will compete for attention in a sport already crowded with established tours and their stars. If the players commit by October 25 and the court approves the financing, LIV 2.0 gets its shot. If not, the $5bn experiment ends not with a bang, but with a bankruptcy auction. Either way, Verity's sports coverage will be following the next chapter of professional golf's strangest saga. Learn more about our newsroom.