Essentials Inside The Story
- Hours ahead of LIV 2.0's deadline, LIV Golf's financial statements open eyes to everything that was really happening behind the scenes.
- Players and blue-collar vendors, who did their job for LIV, were the biggest creditors pending in its books.
- While paying executives retention fees is understandable, the timing of those transactions remains iffy.
Somewhere in LIV Golf’s bankruptcy paperwork is a debt of $13.46 owed to FedEx. Elsewhere in the same filings is a $6.375 million check to the league’s CEO, Scot O’Neil. Those two numbers are just the tip of the iceberg.
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LIV promised ‘Golf but louder.’ For now, as it awaits more names to join it before tomorrow’s deadline, all that’s loud about it is how its bankruptcy process is unfolding. Tens of thousands of pages of financial statements submitted on Thursday night show who was paid by LIV Golf, who is still waiting for money, and how much the league spent before filing for bankruptcy. But that’s not even the biggest twist!
“LIV Golf executives were making millions AFTER Saudi Arabia pulled out while the league was stiffing blue-collar companies and individuals for work they already did,” Tee Times posted on X.
It is understandable that while LIV is undergoing restructuring, it still needs to ensure that its brass is standing strong to keep the operations running. That’s where retention payments come in, to encourage key staff to stay. So, while these payments were not in the wrong, the timing of these transactions raised eyebrows.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund announced in April that it would stop funding LIV. According to the league’s own filing, the PIF had invested about $5 billion in LIV since it began. But here is how the months leading up to the bankruptcy filing actually turned out:
O’Neil received a $6.375 million retention payment on June 24, less than three months before the league filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 8. He had also received a bonus of about $2.7 million on February 13. From September 2025 to August 2026, he received more than $13.6 million in total as his salary, bonuses, benefits, retention payments, and expense reimbursements, according to the filings.
LIV paid about $15.6 million in retention payments to its other top executives. CFO David Phillips received more than $3.3 million of his total $5.1 million in compensation in June. Chief legal officer John Ruzich received about $2.6 million in the same time span. Then there is O’Neil’s predecessor.
Greg Norman received more than $9.4 million in September 2025, about eight months after he was replaced as CEO. The payment included a settlement of around $5.8 million and a separate $3.6 million bonus. Both were paid on the same day. LIV also brought in two independent directors, Eugene Davis and Jon Zinman, to oversee its restructuring. Each received $150,000 a month.
Yet, the court filings list unpaid bills from several vendors alongside payments made to LIV executives.
Not the Yins to LIV’s Yangs
The whole idea for LIV to separate itself from its competitors depended on how it could attract the big names, which in turn would get fan attention. It was supposed to be Yin and Yang, two forces complementing each other. Over four years, parts broke and fell off. As it turns out, though, there was a bigger story involved.
Remember the ‘Any Shot, Any Time’ streaming feature? Mobii Systems supplied that and is seeking about $1.1 million. Several vendors had also taken LIV Golf to court over unpaid bills. Fresh Tape Media (which produced the league’s preseason media) is owed about $1.23 million, and sports technology company Deltatre is seeking around $860,000. The company that looked into LIV’s app, Fantasy Interactive, is also seeking an invoice payment of just under a million dollars.
The filings show claims from ASCAP, a music licensing organization, for $178,087.50, Uber for $89,407, Equinox for $22,850, and ASAP Sports, a transcription service, for $9,350. LIV disputes some claims, including $25,804.26 claimed by Run Like a Deer, a company owned by comedian Andrew Santino, and $352,418.50 claimed by SportsMEDIA Technology. This is after LIV also laid off most of its staff just days before filing for bankruptcy. But the biggest creditors were the ones who literally helped advance the idea.
Jon Rahm‘s contract called for quarterly payments of $4.946 million, adding up to nearly $20 million a year. Yet LIV’s September bankruptcy filing listed him as its largest player creditor, with around $7.5 million in unpaid payments. Even one of the league’s biggest stars, Bryson DeChambeau, was waiting for money when LIV filed for bankruptcy.
The financial picture remains unclear.
What next?
Golf.com noted that the word “undetermined” appears 808 times in a 292-page filing listing LIV’s assets and debts. For instance, the amounts the league may owe Phil Mickelson and the parties suing it are undetermined. It is also unclear how much money vendors will recover. Meanwhile, the league continues to plan for a revamp.
LIV could learn by the end of October whether its plans for a relaunch, known as LIV 2.0, will move forward. The league has a restructuring plan involving BC Partners, which ESPN reported could provide up to $300 million in funding.
If LIV returns, it will still have to deal with money owed to the companies that produced its broadcasts and ran its events. How the league handles those debts could affect whether vendors are willing to work with it again.