LIV Golf may be collapsing, but here are 5 things it meant to the sport

Rumors in sports are fun, and this one is a biggie. LIV Golf, the tour that started in 2022 and tried to take on the PGA Tour by handing out millions and millions of dollars from the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, may be perched on the verge of collapse.

The rumors hit big this week, the week after the Masters. With reports that the PIF has invested in excess of $5 billion on the tour, a shutdown might make sense. In addition, some of the stars LIV was counting on to be the high-profile leaders on the tour have left the tour, names like Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed.

If LIV does disappear, whether it is next week or at the end of the season, the overall golf world won’t mourn much and the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour will actually celebrate, though they will try to keep the celebration low-key in keeping with the sport’s image. But LIV will have had a big impact on the sport. No, the television ratings were never there and LIV never really made the whole team concept a fixture in the game.

But money certainly increased for top players on LIV and the PGA Tour. And there were other impacts as well.

For instance:

1. It made some golfers rich

We may never truly know how much money players like Jon Rahm, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and others made from LIV golf by signing contracts. But it was a lot of money, at least from the rumors. And it was definitely more than those golfers would make on the PGA Tour, especially with first-place checks of $4 million in each event. Some of those players will have to pay hefty fines if they return to the PGA Tour, as Koepka has, but they can probably afford it given the money LIV doled out.

Brooks Koepka high-fives Mary Bracken Green, 10, of Augusta, as he walks to the fifth tee box during the final round of the 2026 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club.

2. It gave the sport heroes and villains

Golf has had few villains throughout its history, and those villains haven’t lasted very long in the sport. But LIV gave the sport people to root against, because they made the jump to the rival tour from the PGA Tour, or to root for, because they were striking out and away from the PGA Tour. Greg Norman, for years essentially the commissioner of the LIV Tour, was perhaps the biggest villain, but Mickelson, Koepka and even Bryson DeChambeau have taken their lumps from long-time fans because they decided to join LIV. Conversely, Rory McIlroy and others who held firm against LIV became heroes for their loyalty.

3. It made the majors bigger

Suddenly, the four men’s majors were the only places in the world where major-championship winners like Koepka, Rahm and DeChambeau could square off against McIlroy or Scottie Scheffler. The majors were big enough already, but the lead-up to each of the majors now included stories like which LIV golfers will be playing, and how a LIV player winning would be a plus for their league and a minus for the PGA Tour. It made the majors even more major.

4. It changed the PGA Tour

Make no mistake. The PGA Tour was shaken by the existence of LIV like it was an 8.0 earthquake. In response, the PGA Tour increased purses, put together signature events with limited fields and mega-purses of $20 million and gave equity to players who had long questioned where all the money the PGA Tour makes was going. The PGA Tour and Commissioner Jay Monahan (perhaps another victim of LIV’s rise) had to make changes, even if in the end LIV might just go away.

5. It denied fans some great players

For all the greatness of a few LIV players, fans turned away. LIV has never found a viewership in the United States, though it does a little better in some places like Saudi Arabia and Australia. That means few people have bothered to watch LIV and the innovations it tried to bring to golf. And few people have watched Rahm and DeChambeau play other than in the major championships. In addition, players like Rahm, a two-time winner of The American Express in La Quinta, couldn’t play in the desert event because of his LIV connections, denying local fans a chance to watch him go for a third desert win.

Larry Bohannan is the golf writer for The Desert Sun. You can contact him at (760) 778-4633 or at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on X at @larry_bohannan.