With billions in guaranteed contracts vanishing, Jon Rahm and fellow defectors must choose between pennies on the dollar or a high-stakes legal battle for their remaining millions.
LIV Golf's biggest selling point was never particularly complicated. The money was guaranteed.
Four years after the Saudi-backed league began handing out massive contracts to lure some of the biggest names in golf away from the PGA Tour, that guarantee suddenly doesn't look quite as guaranteed.
LIV Golf could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as next week, the Financial Times reported, as the league attempts to secure financing for a dramatically scaled-down version of its operation in 2027.
For the players still owed millions beyond this season, the options aren't particularly appealing.
LIV has reportedly sent settlement offers to those players for only a few cents on the dollar, potentially forcing some of the stars who helped build the league to choose between accepting a fraction of what they were promised or fighting for the rest through bankruptcy.
That's quite a change from the league that spent billions disrupting professional golf.
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has poured more than $5 billion into LIV since its 2022 launch, but said earlier this year that its funding would end following the 2026 season. LIV responded by searching for outside investment while developing plans for a 10-event 2027 circuit as part of what it has called "LIV 2.0."
That search hasn't exactly gone smoothly.
LIV informed much of its workforce last week that their employment would end in the first week of September and has spent several weeks negotiating with private capital firm BC Partners over potential financing.
According to the FT, however, securing enough commitments from top players to satisfy potential investors has proven difficult.
A bankruptcy filing could make those conversations even more complicated.
Players would reportedly have three basic choices: settle their existing claims and join the reimagined league, settle and leave LIV entirely, or reject the settlement and pursue the money they're owed as unsecured creditors in bankruptcy.
Jon Rahm could have one of the biggest decisions to make.
Rahm remains under contract beyond 2026 and is still owed tens of millions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported, potentially leaving the two-time major champion as one of LIV's largest creditors if the league enters bankruptcy.
And if LIV 2.0 needs its biggest names to buy in, Rahm isn't exactly someone the league would want walking away.
None of this necessarily means LIV Golf is disappearing.
According to the FT, BC Partners could lead an investment of as much as $300 million, while PIF is expected to provide less than $100 million in financing to help LIV navigate a potential bankruptcy. A reorganized league could still emerge in 2027.
It just wouldn't look much like the one that arrived four years ago.
LIV entered professional golf with enough Saudi money to make enormous guaranteed contracts its greatest recruiting weapon.
Now, some of the golfers who signed them may have to decide how many cents on the dollar those guarantees are actually worth.
