After the uplifting email from Scott O’Neil went viral on the internet, everyone expected the New Mexico event to proceed smoothly without any problems. But fate seemed to have different plans as an unforeseen hurdle troubled LIV Golf, amid the rising rumors that the Saudi-backed league is shutting down.

The fans watching LIV Golf New Mexico from around the world had to watch a screen with “PLEASE STANDBY TECHNICAL ISSUES” for almost two hours. Meanwhile, Channel 7 in Australia decided to show a recap of LIV Adelaide while New Mexico battled the ‘technical issue.’

When the broadcast resumed, the announcer, Arlo White, said, “Welcome back to Club de Golf Chapultepec. We experienced a severe local power outage here in Mexico City. So, our apologies for the untimely absence. Hopefully, we’ll be back for the rest of this first round if the gremlins stay away.”

The broadcasters didn’t waste a moment to give the fans a recap of what happened during these couple of hours at the $30M event. Just before the power outage, Joaquin Niemann experienced the perfect start to his title defense. He aced the par-3 4th. Bryson DeChambeau birdied the 8th. Jon Rahm made his third shot at the 7th, setting the ball up close to the cup. Meanwhile, Victor Perez, the leader of the field, began with the sixth hole and birdied six of his opening 10 holes.

LIV Golf also shared an X post to update the fans on the unforeseen situation: “We know many of you were tuning in, and we’re sorry for the disruption. We’re experiencing technical difficulties due to local power outages, which are impacting our broadcast feed. We’re working on a resolution and hope to be back on air as soon as possible.”

The timing of this broadcast failure couldn’t be worse. Whispers have grown louder that the PIF might withdraw its support from the league. And that would mean the imminent fall of LIV Golf. Dismissing the rumors, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil sent an urgent email to his staff, claiming that the season is going to continue just as planned, without any interruptions. He did acknowledge the initial headwind the league faced during its inception.

By the end of 2025, LIV Golf suffered a loss of $1.4 billion. Despite that, Yasir Al-Rumayyan injected $266.6 million more into the league. This means PIF is still backing up the league. But the question is, for how long?

Just like O’Neil, even the play-by-play announcer isn’t really a fan of these rumors.

LIV Golf announcers dismiss the speculations around the league shutting down

After the telecast resumed at around 3 PM ET, the announcers wasted no time diving into the rumors. After all, the two-hour absence from the live broadcast certainly gave rise to new speculations, and the rumors around the fall of LIV Golf strengthened.

But Arlo White simply said, “We’re delighted to report that the reports of the imminent demise of the LIV Golf league were, in fact, greatly exaggerated.”

LIV Golf’s David Feherty soon joined White and claimed, “I’ve been in the professional game for 50 years now, and I don’t think I’ve ever had two or three days where there was more absolute nonsense spread out. There are still some writers and broadcasters who take pride in their work, but this generation has spawned fast typists who consider themselves to be experts, and evidently they’re not.”

If LIV Golf wants to silence the rumors and prove they aren’t shutting down anytime soon, they need to ensure the product is actually visible. Right now, the two-hour blackout during an event that the officials promised would be exciting has proven to be disastrous. And this only gave the rumors more fuel to burn.