Scott O’Neil is still confident about LIV Golf’s future. He can see that the league will survive beyond the 2026 season despite losing PIF funding. O’Neil is doing everything he can to make it happen, and his latest move is to reduce the league’s expenses massively.

“We are cutting the expense side dramatically and the revenue momentum that we’ve had—you know, my first year in 2025, we’ve doubled revenue. We’re already up $100 million over last year in 2026. So we have really good business momentum. This is about getting the costs under control, reimagining what the business could, should, and will look like, and then engaging our players as partners—like true equity partners in this business,” O’Neil told Scott Wapner during his interview on CNBC.

LIV Golf has two major expenses on the front end: players’ contracts and huge prize money worth $30M for every event. Other than this, LIV Golf also employs 201-500 employees as per LinkedIn, so that also adds to a major chunk of expense, along with the cost of conducting events. So the LIV Golf CEO’s plan to cut down on the expenses makes sense.

O’Neil has certainly brought many changes to LIV Golf. He changed the format of the events, extending them from 54 holes to 72 holes. That helped him work with the OWGR team to get the tournaments sanctioned for ranking points. However, he still hasn’t been able to turn around the profitability substantially.

LIV Golf non-US financials showed a post-tax loss of $461.8 million in 2024, which was up from the $395.9 million loss in 2023. The revenue in 2024 was up to $64.9 million. In 2025, it was almost double, estimated to be $100 million. While 2026 numbers are not publicly disclosed yet, LIV has surpassed 2025 revenue by $100 million. All of this is not nearly enough, considering PIF has invested around $6 billion.

But bankruptcy still looms over the league. The reports suggested that at the end of the 2026 season, LIV may file for bankruptcy. To not reach this point, Scott O’Neil has had 5 business meetings this week and has 18 more scheduled. Responses have been positive as he has broken up the desired $300 million investment into smaller $50 million chunks. Without the financial support, LIV won’t be able to sustain extravagant expenses.

Interestingly, one of the biggest players in LIV Golf seems to be on board with the strategy. At least that is what Scott O’Neil claims.

Bryson DeChambeau is on Scott O’Neil’s side

Lowering the expenses would certainly affect the contracts of every LIV Golf player and the prize money of the events. And everyone who jumped ship, looking at the lucrative offers, might regret it. But Scott O’Neil claims Bryson DeChambeau is not one of them.

During the interview, O’Neil revealed that DeChambeau was involved every step of the way in formulating the strategy for the future. It’s no secret that he had already been attending every board meeting to help LIV Golf take important decisions.

Interestingly, DeChambeau was not willing to take a pay cut earlier this year. With his contract running out, he was looking for a $500 million contract renewal. However, they refused the proposal. Yet DeChambeau stated that he would stay loyal to LIV because he sees value in it. Along with this, he would continue to work on his YouTube. He doesn’t care much about the revenue there.

“It’s not about the money. It’s not about any of that. I mean, look, you’re always wanting to be taken care of for your services, but … if I can help the golf ecosystem out, entertain some people, and have fun doing it, and also get better at practicing, that’s a win-win for everyone,” said the Crushers GC captain.

As LIV Golf navigates financial uncertainty, Scott O’Neil’s cost-cutting strategy is crucial, as LIV’s long-term survival now depends on sustainable growth and fresh investment.