It’s rare for a televised interview to make headlines by vanishing. On April 16, 2026, TNT Sports posted a sit-down with LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil at Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City. Within hours, the original video disappeared and was replaced by a shorter version. The missing line was already making the rounds online.

NUCLR Golf and No Laying Up were quick to point out the changes between the two versions. NUCLR Golf posted the removed segment, showing that TNT had taken out O’Neil’s comments on the league’s funding. No Laying Up summarized the sequence: the admission was made, noticed, deleted, and then the video was reposted without it.

When presenter Oliver Wilson asked O’Neil whether Sergio Garcia was right to claim players had been told LIV Golf was funded through 2030, O’Neil did not confirm that timeline.

“The reality is you’re funded through the season and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going. But that’s not different from any other private equity-funded business in the history of mankind.” Was O’Neil’s response to that.

In the same broadcast, O’Neil had also told Wilson:

“LIV Golf is in the best shape it’s ever been in its history, period, end of sentence.”

For players such as Jon Rahm, who has reportedly earned $86.5 million since joining LIV in 2023, O’Neil’s comments raise clear questions. Garcia, a team captain, had previously said that PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan assured players in early 2026 that LIV was a long-term project and that they had his support. Now, that assurance stands in contrast to a CEO confirming funding only for the current season, with no clarity on what follows.

Both statements were made in the same interview, just minutes apart. Reports from the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal had already indicated that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund was close to withdrawing its financial support for the league. The Daily Telegraph added that LIV executives were summoned to an emergency meeting in New York.

Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard reported that the league was only funded through the rest of 2026, which is much shorter than the 2032 timeline O’Neil had shared with industry sources at Augusta the week before. In response, O’Neil told staff that the 2026 season “continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle.” The PIF, which has invested over $5.3 billion in LIV since it began in 2022, has not made any public statement.

These funding questions became even more important after another development that week.

LIV Golf funding future: PIF’s new investment strategy leaves league unmentioned

The PIF’s board has approved a new investment strategy for 2026 to 2030, focusing on three portfolios aimed at domestic economic growth and what the fund calls “sustained value creation.” LIV Golf was not included in any of these portfolios. PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said that the ongoing regional conflict “places greater pressure on the need to reposition certain priorities.”

This new direction is a clear break from the PIF’s earlier push for fast international growth in sports, entertainment, and tech. The Financial Times reports that the PIF is now weighing how long it will continue backing LIV Golf, but nothing is final yet. Since 2022, the league has taken in over $5.3 billion from the PIF, with spending running at $100 million a month through 2024 and 2025.

Following the clip’s removal and the attention it generated, O’Neil issued additional statements reaffirming that the 2026 season remains fully funded and is proceeding without interruption. TNT Sports provided no official explanation for the deletion of the original interview.