Saudi’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Calls It Quits on Golf … And Maybe More

LIV Golf is facing a liquidity event of the worst kind: a withdrawal by its only benefactor.

As the league’s planned merger with the PGA Tour remains in limbo, and amid sinking TV ratings and attention, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil confirmed reports on Friday that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is preparing to cut its financial support for the tour altogether. LIV is the first victim of the PIF’s new approach to big spending and soft power. It probably isn’t the last.

LIV Free, Die Hard

The exit came just after PIF released the five-year investment plan for its $925 billion sovereign wealth fund last week. Conspicuously absent in the entire report? Any mention of sports (though “e-sports” was cited as a strategic sector). Instead, the roadmap vowed investment in key domestic sectors, including transportation and sustainability. “Local investment should be 80%, and we aim for international investment to be ​20%,” PIF Governor Yasir ⁠Al-Rumayyan told Saudi-based Al Arabiya Business last week. International investment hit a peak of around 30% in prior years.

LIV appears to be among the early cuts, though the sovereign wealth fund has quietly been pulling back its broader sports ambitions anyhow:

• After a spate of massive deals to lure high-profile soccer stars to the Saudi Pro League in 2022 and 2023, headlined by a contract that reportedly still pays Cristiano Ronaldo $245 million annually, the rate of big-time contracts being handed out has notably slowed, according to a recent analysis by The Athletic. 
• Meanwhile, in tennis, The Athletic also reported last week that PIF appears unlikely to extend a three-year contract to sponsor the WTA Tour Finals that ended last year and, in 2025, paid Kazakhstani tennis star Elena Rybakina the largest winner’s check in the history of women’s sports.

Double Bogey: As far as LIV is concerned, O’Neil told TNT Sports he has a plan to keep the league alive “that might surprise people.” For PIF, the entire endeavor can be chalked up to a $5 billion mulligan spread across roughly five years. To be fair, spending lots of money on your golf game with little to show for it is about as relatable as it gets.