LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil maintains belief in the league amid financial uncertainty after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund pulled future funding earlier this year.
“We have work to do,” O’Neil said Wednesday, according to ESPN’s Paolo Uggetti. “There are hurdles we have to jump over. It’s a very complex transaction we’ll have to deliver. But man, I wouldn’t bet against us.”
LIV signed a term sheet with a lead investor earlier in August that would fund the league in 2027. The term sheet is nonbinding and hasn’t been finalized.
The LIV season finale – scheduled for Aug. 27-30 in Michigan – was canceled Monday.
O’Neil is trying to get players to commit to a reduced 10-event schedule with smaller purses, but with player equity in the league and the ability to play on other tours if eligible or invited.
“The entirety of our focus is to get to this transaction and get through it,” O’Neil said. “Without the players, that becomes very difficult. I have a good level of confidence in my conversation that we’ll have a critical mass of the right players to move this league forward.”
O’Neil acknowledged LIV has been “divisive” but hopes for more cooperation across tours going forward.
“Golf certainly doesn’t need another five years of fighting,” O’Neil said. “Golf doesn’t need one tour to win and everyone else to lose. We shouldn’t live in a world where one group of golfers is uniquely restricted from playing elsewhere. Our goal isn’t to replace or restrict any tour.”
