golf
Endings rarely match the grandeur of beginnings. Beginnings are filled with optimism, potential, and excitement—sometimes even champagne celebrations. But on Thursday, years after disrupting the professional golf landscape, LIV Golf's fate was sealed. The court hearing lasted a mere eight minutes—shorter than it takes to play a par-4 hole.
In essence, BC Partners pulled its $300 million investment after LIV's marquee players failed to sign on for the league's next iteration, pushing LIV 2.0 into liquidation. Alternatively, one could argue that once the money dried up, the headline names lost interest in the vision they had once endorsed.
Regardless of one's stance on LIV Golf, it's strange to think that the golf world will look so different next year. It feels like only yesterday that news broke: Dustin Johnson was gone. So were Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, and others who, like most of LIV's initial signees, were in the twilight of their careers. Phil Mickelson soon followed as the league's headline act—its kingpin. Then came Bryson DeChambeau, a polarizing figure.
Over the following years, LIV spent lavishly on players, entertainment, musicians, stages, and choreographed flash mobs—all aimed at presenting golf, but louder. For a brief moment, it seemed LIV might truly become something significant, especially when it lured away reigning Masters champion Jon Rahm. Rahm was a constant contender on LIV and was paid handsomely, but he never won a major while under the LIV banner. It's been a complex few years, though by pure dollars and cents, he's emerging as one of the era's biggest winners.
Still, the complexity remains. Rahm signed a massive contract (he may not have received all of it but can still afford several helicopters), left when the building was on fire, and will play on the DP World Tour for a year before likely rejoining the PGA Tour as if nothing happened. By some measures, that's impressive maneuvering—though many golf fans see it differently; to them, he'll always be remembered as a star who turned his back on the Tour and chose dollar signs over legacy. (Though dollars were available on both sides, as Scottie Scheffler stayed on the PGA Tour and won $53 million last season.)
Other winners can be found in LIV's demise. The DP World Tour is certainly among them. It was bullied by LIV, which sought to destroy the league, but it stood firm last month and declared that LIV players were no longer welcome. Stars bowing out of LIV 2.0 might have been the final blow, but the DP World Tour's rejection might have been the jab that made the league stumble. Now the DP World Tour becomes a landing spot for some of LIV's top players, likely giving it its strongest group of stars in years. That seems like a win.
Pro golfers, in general, probably won. Purses are now out of control. Rory McIlroy thinks they might come back down to earth, but only time will tell.
Unfortunately, the list of losers may surpass the winners. LIV, as it sputtered over recent months, laid off most of its employees. There are unpaid vendors, including small business owners, who will likely never recoup what they're owed. There are the rank-and-file LIV players who banked some financial cushion but might struggle to find a landing spot as easily as the Rahms, Hattons, and DeChambeaus. There's the middle tier of the PGA Tour—guys whose 2027s will be devoted to playing well and earning spots on the more lucrative Championship Series come 2028; they might face more competition now.
But the biggest losers over the last five years have been you, the golf fans. It doesn't matter if you preferred LIV over the Tour or never watched a second of the breakaway league; golf's fracture diluted the sport. It divided the fans. Patrick Mahomes playing in the XFL would make the NFL worse. At any point in the last five years, you could have opened Twitter (X, whatever) and gotten a feel for the general vibe—but mostly you would have found division and grandstanding. It became the PGA Tour vs. LIV, and LIV vs. the PGA Tour, and few were allowed to stand with a foot across each line.
But the end of LIV comes with good news: Most golf fans have wanted to watch the best golfers in the world play together as often as possible, so they can see who the best actually are. Now we might get that more often. That's something worth celebrating.