OPINION: Is LIV Golf on its last legs?

Two big-name South Africans are among a group of players who've decided they won't be going back. Is this the end of LIV Golf? It would seem so considering all the big-name players who have pulled out of the tour. Also, no one knows who will back it financially if it continues in another guise from 2027. Let’s not forget the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund has withdrawn its financial backing while the league also filed for bankruptcy protection a while back. LIV, as we know it, is believed to have liabilities of between $500 million (R8.3 billion) and $1 billion (R16.6 billion), including over $45 million (R748 million) owed to at least 14 players. That’s according to some sections of the press. Though the CEO of LIV Golf, Scott O’Neil, and the board are trying to restructure a new version of the league, named LIV 2.0, it is uncertain if it will get off the ground. Players cutting ties The biggest drawback seems to be the number of high-profile players who have opted out of the league in recent weeks. Brooks Koepka left last year and most recently Jon Rahm has quit, along with the likes of South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace, as well as Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton, Patrick Reed, Adrian Meronk, Abraham Ancer, Lucas Herbert and others. It is not known if Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Dustin Johnson will remain if a new version gets underway. Also, with Oosthuizen and Grace having opted out of the Southern Guards team, which is basically a South African player-based team, one’s got to wonder about the future of their team-mates, Charl Schwartzel and Dean Burmester. And, as things stand, Steyn City is supposed to host the second South African tournament in April next year. It was a huge success earlier this year when LIV Golf came to South Africa for the first time, drawing thousands of spectators, but will it happen again? The breakaway league is only five seasons old, having held its first tournament in June 2022, won by Schwartzel in London. Many of the players who’ve pulled out of LIV will be back playing on the DP World Tour in due course. This includes Oosthuizen and Grace, which is good news for all those tournaments and local SA fans, who might not have watched them on the LIV Golf Tour.