Last month, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund pulled the plug on the five-year-old league, announcing a strategic pivot toward domestic programs and away from global ventures that had failed to generate returns. The cost of the experiment was an estimated $5 to $8 billion injected into LIV since its 2021 launch. Yasir Al-Rumayyan—PIF governor, LIV’s architect, and chairman of its board—resigned in the wake of the withdrawal. The league has since installed Gene Davis and Jon Zinman to lead a restructured board, describing them as “seasoned experts with proven track records for navigating complex situations and unlocking value for global organisations.”

Earlier this year, LIV CEO Scott O’Neil acknowledged that breaking even could still be a decade away. In a since-deleted comment on a LIV broadcast, he said the league had funding only through the end of 2026.

On Monday, Axios reported that LIV is now seeking $250 million in fresh investment, with O’Neil projecting profitability within two years, a sharp reversal from his earlier timeline. But Bloomberg’s reporting states the league is weighing a headquarters relocation to the United States to take advantage of its more favourable bankruptcy restructuring laws. LIV currently operates across multiple jurisdictions — the U.K., the U.S., and the island of Jersey—with its ultimate controlling entity remaining in Saudi Arabia. The U.S. is a preferred destination for foreign debtors because its bankruptcy framework shields companies from creditors in other jurisdictions who might otherwise seize assets or enforce judgments.

In response to Bloomberg’s report, a LIV spokesperson told Golf Digest, “LIV Golf is firmly focused on securing a transaction that positions the organisation for the long-term. As we begin presenting our go-forward business plan to prospective capital partners, we are focused on achieving a sustainable future and there are multiple pathways under active exploration. We continue to see great momentum on the course and with support through the 2026 season and a clear plan to raise capital, leadership is focused on identifying the right long-term strategic partners who believe in our mission to grow the game of golf worldwide. These conversations are just getting underway, and as they progress, the company expects to gain further clarity around the structure and timing of a potential transaction.”

As LIV faces an unknown future, Golf Digest has reported that agents for several LIV players have begun reaching out to the PGA Tour about paths back. Few are expected to receive anything resembling the unconditional exemption extended to Brooks Koepka. Those who joined LIV’s antitrust lawsuit against the Tour face a harder road still, with additional discipline a real possibility.

On the course, LIV has already postponed one event this season. Its marquee attraction, Bryson DeChambeau, missed the cut at the PGA Championship for the second consecutive major, although Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith both contended at Aronimink.

LIV Golf’s next scheduled event is in two weeks in South Korea.

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Axios’ Dan Primack reports that as O’Neil shops LIV to outside investors, the league is seeking $250 million, projecting profitability within 20 months. A secondary option exists at $150 million, contingent on team sales and a new media rights deal bridging the gap.

The timing reflects a broader PIF retrenchment. Last month, the sovereign wealth fund announced a strategic pivot toward domestic programs, cutting expenditures on global ventures that have failed to generate returns. PIF is estimated to have injected between $5 and $8 billion into LIV since the league launched in 2021, money that has largely disappeared into a venture that never attracted large outside investors and never approached profitability. O’Neil himself said earlier this year that breakeven could still be a decade away.

The fund’s retreat predates LIV’s crisis, however. Saudi Arabia was already pulling back from promised international investments before the Iran War, squeezed by budget shortfalls and overextended commitments. The U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran accelerated the reckoning. Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has slashed Saudi oil exports by nearly half. The kingdom has shuttered most of its offshore fields and this month halted one of the world’s largest petrochemical plants, a staggering blow to a fund whose estimated worth, once pegged near $940 billion, now looks increasingly theoretical.

Against that backdrop, Yasir Al-Rumayyan — PIF governor, LIV’s architect, and chairman of its board — stepped down. The league has named Gene Davis and Jon Zinman to lead a restructured board, describing them as “seasoned experts with proven track records for navigating complex situations and unlocking value for global organisations.”

As LIV stares into an uncertain future, Golf Digest has reported that agents for several LIV players have already reached out to the PGA Tour about paths back. Few are expected to receive the kind of exemption extended to Brooks Koepka. Those who participated in LIV’s antitrust lawsuit against the Tour could face additional discipline.

On the course, LIV has already postponed one event this season, citing summer heat and World Cup scheduling conflicts. Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith both contended at the PGA Championship over the weekend. Bryson DeChambeau, LIV’s marquee attraction, missed the cut for the second consecutive major.

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Anirban Lahiri. Doug Defelice/LIV Golf

India’s Anirban Lahiri told The Times of London on Thursday he knows of “at least a dozen players who’d rather not play golf than go back to the PGA Tour.”

Belgian Thomas Pieters said recently he’d retire before going back to the American circuit. And, of course, there’s the case of Bryson DeChambeau, explained expertly today by our Joel Beall.

Rory McIlroy – Ben Jared

For all of them, Rory McIlroy had an unsubtle message after his Friday round in the Truist. The Ulsterman demurred on most questions about LIV and is heartened that some players might return to his “home” DP World Tour. But for those throwing shade on the PGA Tour, McIlroy had this: “If you want to be the most competitive golfer you can be, this is the place to be. And if you don’t want to play here, I think that says something about you.”

Mic drop. Press conference over.

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Bryson DeChambeau says he’s prepared to focus on his YouTube channel should LIV Golf fold after the season.

In an interview with ESPN’s Mark Schlabach at LIV Golf’s event outside Washington D.C., DeChambeau admitted that he was caught off guard regarding Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund pulling funding for LIV. “I was completely shocked,” DeChambeau said. “I didn’t expect it to happen. A couple months before that, it’s like, ‘We’re here until 2032. We’ve got financing until 2032,’ and so I told everybody, and that’s what I was told. And then, you know, I haven’t had any communication. And unfortunately, things are moving on in a different direction. Obviously, they wanted to move on.”

As Golf Digest reported last week, representatives for several LIV players have reached out to PGA Tour officials about rejoining the league, only to discover that former LIV members will not receive the same grace extended to Brooks Koepka. The Athletic and other outlets have reported DeChambeau is among those players. However, as noted in our piece, not only has the Koepka exemption gone, but as one of the 11 players that sued the PGA Tour, DeChambeau would face tougher discipline than others.

DeChambeau seemed to acknowledge as much with ESPN. Perhaps that’s why DeChambeau insinuated that the PGA Tour “isn’t doing great either.”

“Let’s be honest about the situation,” DeChambeau claimed. “They’ve got the media. They’ve got everybody on the side that helps pump it up. But they’re reducing field sizes, cutting employees and restructuring their business too.”

Given a reunion with the PGA Tour seems unlikely, DeChambeau asserted that in a non-LIV future, his new focus would be his own content.

“I think, from my perspective, I’d love to grow my YouTube channel three times, maybe even more,” DeChambeau said. “I would love to. I’d love to do a bunch of dubbing in different languages, giving the world more reason to watch YouTube. And then I’d love to play tournaments that want me.”

Aside from LIV’s uncertain future, DeChambeau’s LIV contract runs out after 2026. On Tuesday, LIV CEO Scott O’Neil was asked about the importance of locking DeChambeau up before trying to bring new investors in. ““Well, that’s an interesting question,” O’Neil said. “I’m not sure. We’ll sort through and work through. I appreciate the question. Bryson’s special. He’s different and special. … He’s smart, he’s driven, he’s committed, and he’s a heck of a partner.”

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Jon Rahm said Tuesday that he doesn’t “see many ways out” of his LIV Golf contract as he spoke openly for the first time about what his options will be now that the league has announced it’s no longer funded by Saudi Arabia’s PIF and is looking for investors for it to continue.

The two-time major champion was asked in Washington, D.C., ahead of LIV Golf’s event at Trump National, if he was able to get out of his contract with the league if he feels like it’s not suitable for him beyond this year.

“I have no idea, I couldn’t tell you,” he said. “I have very few talents in my life, and reading a contract or business are not two of them.

“As of right now, I have several years on my contract left, and I’m pretty sure they did a pretty good job when they drafted that. So I don’t see many ways out, and as of right now, I’m not really thinking about it since we still have a season to play and majors to compete for. So it’s not something I want to think about just yet.”

He may not be thinking about it yet, but it’s something Rahm is likely going to have to deal with soon. He’s willing to see what CEO Scott O’Neil comes up with first.

“I don’t think he would ask anybody to buy into anything without giving us a business plan first,” Rahm said. “Until we have that, I don’t think we can really answer the rest, right? It would just be speculation at that point.”

Rahm said that the league has worked with team captains, of which he is for Legion XIII, about their respective ideas. He’s given his opinion but realises it’s impossible to make everyone happy in a situation like this where there are 57 players and 13 teams.

For now, he’s trying to focus on playing this week in the nation’s capital. He leads the season’s individual standings, has won twice—including two weeks ago in Mexico City—and hasn’t finished worse than fifth place in six events.

But it’s not easy to focus on the golf course when there are so many distractions off of it. On Tuesday, he squashed one distraction by announcing that he and the DP World Tour have ended their dispute and he’s now eligible to play on Europe’s Ryder Cup team next year. The LIV Golf intrusions, however, do not appear to be going away soon.

“It’s definitely extra noise, there’s no denying it,” he said. “But I think we deal with it as athletes honestly. I think it’s part of the job a lot of times, and sometimes that extra noise is internal for something that may be happening family-wise that’s not public, which is much worse than this.

“We practice enough so once you get in competition mode, it doesn’t matter. It might be a worry before or after, but it shouldn’t be once you get to that first tee. We’ve said a few times, when it’s so uncertain and so out of our control, there’s really nothing to think about.”

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Multiple representatives for LIV Golf members have reached out to the PGA Tour about a possible return amid LIV’s uncertain future, as Golf Digest reported this week. How, exactly, that transition facilitated is a tricky proposition, and as several tour players articulated Thursday at the Cadillac Championship, one they don’t necessarily have the answers for.

“I’m not sure if it should be the same for everyone. I know olive branches were given out a couple months ago. Brooks took ’em up on it. So I’m not sure what would now change,” Jordan Spieth said. “And I don’t even know — that doesn’t necessarily mean that LIV’s not going to still move on, too. There’s just too many unknowns for me to have a good gauge on what would happen there. But if there’s a system for Brooks and a system for Patrick Reed, does that stay the same for guys in the same category as those two coming back, or does it change now? Does it change for guys who sued and dropped their membership? There’s just a lot of different things that happened over the last four years. I’m kind of glad I’m not in that room, and I trust the guys that are in that room to make the right decision.”

Added former Open champ Brian Harman: “There’s been guys that are going to come back. I can’t speak individually to each of them. Seems like they’re treating them all on a case-by-case basis. I would think that the fans want everyone to be playing together, and time heals all wounds. There’s still some sentiment out here, especially with all the lawsuit stuff — that stuff’s going to be tough to get past. We play with all those guys in the majors, so, yeah, I think there should be a path back.”

As Golf Digest noted, there will likely not be a general pathway for those fleeing the Saudi circuit. Instead, returns will be broken down into categories. As Spieth and Harman alluded, hard feelings remain toward the 11 golfers who sued the PGA Tour — most notably Bryson DeChambeau, Ian Poulter, Talor Gooch and Phil Mickelson — and they will likely face tough discipline. Moreover, the major exemption Koepka received, which had also been offered to DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cam Smith, is no more. The Athletic reported last month that DeChambeau’s agent reached out to the tour to see DeChambeau’s options, as the two-time U.S. Open winner is about to become a free agent.

Complicating the decision further: Koepka was held in relatively good standing compared to other defectors.

“I think having Brooks back has been great,” first-round leader Cameron Young said. “But honestly it’s not for me to decide. I don’t know what any of those guys are thinking about doing. I don’t know what’s going to happen with LIV.”

The decision will ultimately reside with PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp, though he’s expected to take input from the policy board. Incoming player advisory council chairman Lucas Glover seemed open to welcoming players back.

“I will never begrudge anybody for making a decision for the betterment of their career, their life, whatever that may be,” Glover said. “But do I think they should abide by the pathways back and pay the same penalties that the previous people have paid? Absolutely.”

After postponing a New Orleans tournament just days ago, LIV Golf is expected to host an event outside Washington, D.C., next week. In an announcement stating that PIF has pulled its funding and chairman/LIV boss Yasir Al-Rumayyan has stepped down, LIV Golf stated it is seeking new investment for the future. LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil said the league is only funded through the rest of the season during a LIV telecast; LIV proceeded to take the interview down from social media, before putting a new video up with the remarks erased.

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Report: Head of LIV Golf Yasir Al-Rumayyan is stepping down as league’s future in doubt

This strategic evolution includes the appointment of a newly established independent board led by Gene Davis and Jon Zinman. The pair have track records working for global organisations, as they hope to guide the league through its next phase.

Mr. Davis and Mr. Zinman, working in lockstep with management, are focused on institutionalising the league and evaluating the range of strategic opportunities that have emerged with the league’s rise. 

“LIV Golf has built something truly differentiated – a global league with passionate fans, world-class talent, and demonstrated commercial momentum,” said Gene Davis, Chairman of the Independent Directors Committee. “The executive leadership team, along with Jon and I, see a clear opportunity to help the league formalise its structure, attract and secure long-term capital, and position the business for growth while continuing to promote the game across the world. We look forward to positioning LIV Golf for future success.”

LIV Golf released a statement claiming that the 2026 season has produced record-breaking engagement and a 100% increase in revenue year over year.

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After Koepka announced in January his intention to return to the PGA Tour following his LIV exit, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp unveiled the “Returning Member Program.” It was a performance-based pathway for “players who have been away from the tour for at least two years and have won the Players Championship, Masters Tournament, PGA Championship, U.S. Open or the Open Championship during the 2022-2025 seasons.” Aside from Koepka, only three LIV players qualified: Cam Smith (2022 Players and 2022 Open), Jon Rahm (2023 Masters) and Bryson DeChambeau (2024 U.S. Open). The window closed Feb. 2 with no guarantee of a second offer. All three passed.

Golf Digest has learned from a PGA Tour source that with LIV set to inform players and staff as early as Thursday that PIF is withdrawing its funding after 2026—and one of the remaining scheduled LIV events already postponed—the Returning Member Program is not expected to be renewed. “The situation is different now,” the source said. Even players hoping for the path Patrick Reed faces—a one-year ban dating to his last LIV appearance—may not get it.

The PGA Tour’s rules and regulations include different categories of membership, and some LIV players violated those regulations on their way out. Reed, for example, resigned his membership. Others never officially did. As a result, the tour will sort returning LIV players into separate categories, such as former members, and those who never played or held status on the tour at all.

The 11 players who joined the antitrust suit against the PGA Tour are expected to face additional scrutiny. That group includes DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Talor Gooch and Ian Poulter. Resentment over the litigation persists within the membership. “I don’t necessarily have scar tissue, but there are plenty of people around our tour who do,” Rolapp said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “It has to be accounted for in some shape or form.”

The two interesting cases are DeChambeau and Rahm. Rahm is in an ongoing dispute over membership reinstatement on the DP World Tour, an impasse that has added meaning given that his 2027 Ryder Cup eligibility runs through the European circuit. The DP World Tour has, notably, been working to find him a path back, although Rahm has not made that easy. At the Masters he was unapologetic and gave no indication of softening his position. The PGA Tour is a tougher audience. The view from players and from Ponte Vedra is narrow and consistent: Rahm’s exit at the end of 2023 may have prolonged the conflict by a full year. LIV was on the ropes. The framework agreement was advancing. Then Rahm crossed over, delivered the Saudi circuit the validation it was running out of time to find, and the tour was caught flat-footed. Should LIV collapse in 2027, Rahm’s only option may be a humbled return to the DP World Tour—assuming a door is still open at all.

DeChambeau’s situation is more complicated. In the weeks before the Masters, his representatives approached LIV about a new deal. He remains LIV’s most prominent figure—one of the most recognisable players in the sport and, by most measures, its most commercially valuable. Sources tell Golf Digest that DeChambeau was seeking a figure well above Rahm’s reported $300 million contract. LIV did not engage at that level. In recent months, DeChambeau has been noncommittal about his future, saying that his current deal runs through year’s end and tepidly noting “as long as LIV is here, I would figure out a way for it to make sense.” He was, at one stage, an enthusiastic supporter of the league. Sources say his view has shifted, and that he now regards LIV as having underdelivered on its initial vision. A return to the PGA Tour, the antitrust litigation aside, also presents complications. He has previously described feeling out of place there, restricted by regulations he found at odds with his approach. He is reportedly open to the changes Rolapp has introduced—and the Athletic reported earlier this month that DeChambeau’s representatives have reached out to explore his options—though that openness is conditional.

A PGA Tour that includes Rahm and DeChambeau is, on competitive merits, a stronger product. Both rank among the most accomplished players of their generation, and their presence in fields would meaningfully affect ratings, sponsor interest, and the depth of marquee events. Officials around Rolapp recognise that. They also recognise the difficulty of the position. Both players were offered a defined pathway back through the Returning Member Program and elected not to take it. Readmitting them now—not because they have reconsidered the benefits of the tour, as Koepka did, but because LIV’s collapse has eliminated their alternatives—would carry a different meaning than a routine reinstatement. It would amount to the tour absorbing players on terms set by circumstance rather than by the program Rolapp put in place earlier this year.

With significant structural changes to the PGA Tour’s schedule, governance and competitive model still being finalised, the precedent matters. Internally, there is concern that such a move would signal the tour is willing to revise its own framework under pressure. It’s an impression Rolapp can ill afford as he attempts to consolidate authority and credibility in the early stages of his tenure.

With LIV no longer having the PIF’s funding, whether the league can secure replacement capital to replace it is an open question. PIF has reportedly committed in excess of $5 billion to LIV since its 2022 launch, with limited evidence of a path to profitability and no meaningful television rights deal in a major market. Any prospective investor would be inheriting a venture that the world’s most aggressive sovereign wealth fund concluded was no longer worth sustaining. A difficult starting point for negotiations, particularly in the current sports media environment, where valuations across leagues and properties have softened. For the players and personnel still under LIV contracts, the timeline is the more immediate concern. Even in a best-case scenario involving new ownership, the process of identifying a buyer, conducting due diligence, and restructuring the league’s financial commitments would likely extend well beyond the current funding runway. LIV CEO Scott O’Neil has already signalled that, should a future exist for LIV, it may not look like the present.

In the interim, there is the potential that LIV contracts may go unfulfilled, more events may be reduced or cancelled outright, and that players weighing a return to the PGA Tour or DP World Tour will be doing so against a closing window. The path off the LIV roster, in other words, may not move as quickly as the path onto it once did.

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The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate, New Orleans-based WDSU and the Athletic reported on Monday that LIV will not play its event at Bayou Oaks at the originally scheduled dates in late June. Days after reports emerged regarding Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund no longer backing the fledgling golf league, Secretary of Louisiana Economic Development Susan Bourgeois reached out to LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil regarding the league coming to her state. According to the Athletic, LIV officials agreed to “push back the date” due to its changing business model. Additionally, the New Orleans Advocate reports that LIV has instead pitched a fall date with a different format and smaller field.

On Tuesday, Governor Jeff Landry and Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Bourgeois released a joint statement confirming the event has been postponed.

“First, we want to thank Zurich and PGA Tour leadership for another outstanding tournament this past weekend. We are proud of the continued partnership and the opportunities this event brings to our state each year.

“Secretary Bourgeois spoke with LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil on Friday and was informed that the organization seeks to postpone its June 2026 event in New Orleans to explore a potential event this fall. The state has already paid $3.2 million in accordance with the contract. LIV is expected to return all state incentive funds, with the exception of the $2 million already invested in upgrades for City Park, ensuring those improvements remain in place for the community. We appreciate LIV’s good-faith efforts and look forward to maintaining our partnership as we continue conversations around an event later this year.

“We are grateful for the work of our local partners and the collaboration that supported this effort. Louisiana continues to move forward with strong momentum and we remain focused on opportunities that deliver value for our communities.”

As of writing, LIV Golf has not addressed the postponement.

Earlier this month, officials with the PIF unveiled a new strategic direction that amounts to a fundamental rethinking of the fund’s mission. For the better part of a decade, Saudi Arabia used the fund as an image-laundering operation, pouring money into global sports, entertainment and technology as a means of projecting a modernised, westernised face to the world. That approach is being shelved. The new priority is domestic investment, and any international ventures that survive the cut are expected to generate returns. PIF has injected more than $5 billion into LIV Golf since the league launched in fall 2021. However, the league has haemorrhaged billions and failed to gain investors for its teams. O’Neil said earlier this year that it could be another decade before LIV sees profitability.

Two weeks ago, in broadcast remarks that were promptly deleted from social media, O’Neil said that LIV was only funded through this season, pushing back on previous remarks that the league was backed until the 2030s. “It’s just not the way the world works,” O’Neil said about future funding. “We have commitments to have this … 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.”

Following reports about LIV’s future, O’Neil addressed staffers in an email saying the season would continue as planned. He seemingly addressed the reported by mentioning “the life of a startup movement is often defined by these moments of pressure.”

LIV Golf’s next event is scheduled for a Trump property next week, beginning May 7. A Trump National official confirmed to Golf Digest that, for the moment, the event is going on as planned.

This story will continue to be updated.

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As speculation rages that LIV Golf may lose its funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in 2027, questions mount as to what might be next for Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, the league’s two highest profile starts. DeChambeau said in an interview last week he’s committed to making LIV work, and Rahm seems to be supporting

But what of the league’s rank-and-file players? How are they handling the uncertainty of the league’s future? For two of its up-and-comers, the mindset echoes the British catchphrase: stay calm and move on.

Caleb Surratt of Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII team and Josele Ballester of Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs G.C. were both in Singapore over the weekend for the second time in six weeks. Having played LIV Golf Singapore in March, the duo returned for the Asian Tour’s International Series event in the Singapore Open.

“I flew 31 hours,” Surratt told Golf Digest via phone from the Singapore Open, where he finished T-9. “A lot of opportunity. I enjoy playing on the International Series. [The Serapong at Sentosa G.C.] is probably one of my favorite courses I get to play all year.”

Surratt and Ballester were also gunning for the two spots into the Open Championship on offer in Singapore, which was part of the R&A’s Open Qualifying Series. Both players missed out as South Korea’s Jeongwoo Ham won the tournament ahead of Australia’s Cameron John. The winner and runner-up grabbed the invitations to Royal Birkdale in July.

The week prior to the Singapore Open, during the LIV Golf Mexico City event, reports surfaced that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund was on the verge of withdrawing its financial support of the upstart league. It was, and remains, one of the biggest stories in sports this year.

LIV Golf’s CEO, Scott O’Neil, said his league has the PIF’s support through this season. Operations will continue in 2026 with events in Washington, D.C., South Korea, Spain, Louisiana, England, New Jersey, Indianapolis and Michigan to come.

The uncertainty surrounding LIV is something Surratt, who joined in 2024, and Ballester, recruited last summer, obviously are aware of. Yet Surratt feels enough information has been conveyed to players so far to make them comfortable—at least in the short run.

“The reassurance is you have 60 players in the league or so, and I think every single one of them is 100 percent fully invested in making it a better place to play,” Surratt, 22, said. “I think it’s out of my control, but I know that Scott O’Neil is probably the No. 1 guy that we all want in charge in … for a successful future. So there’s no doubt in my mind everything’s going to work out, but in the end, I’m not really in control and my job is just to work hard, get better, and try to play well.”

Ballester, also 22, finished third at LIV Golf Mexico City. He is also optimistic about LIV’s future.

“So far we know that we’re excited to finish the season in fashion and looking forward to continue next year,” Ballester said from Singapore, where he finished T-3. “As you said, it was a little turbulent at the beginning of last week [in Mexico], but pretty excited for what’s forward.”

Ballester said it means a lot that Bryson DeChambeau came out and said he’s trying to look out for LIV’s young players as the league tries to figure out its future. Hector Vivas

It would be understandable if the league’s younger players—a group that includes 20-somethings Tom McKibbin of Northern Ireland, Spain’s David Puig and last year’s NCAA champion, Michael La Sasso—were nervous about the 2027 season and beyond. It helps though to hear DeChambeau express his belief that “there will be a solution” to his impending contract renewal with reports suggested DeChambeau and his team met with LIV organisations at the Masters to explore all options.

“As of right now, my job is to help make the league work after this year,” DeChambeau told the social media account Flushing It. “I’m going to do everything in my power to make it work and I really see the value in franchise golf. And, you know, another reason why I’m doing this is not just for myself and the team aspect that I really believe in on the Crushers side. It’s for Michael La Sasso. It’s for Caleb Surratt. It’s for Josele Ballester. It’s for David Puig.”

Suffice it to say Ballester and Surratt appreciated the two-time U.S. Open winner’s mention of them.

“Yeah, for sure, it definitely means a lot and not just for myself but for the other young guys on LIV and the league overall,” Ballester said. “Bryson, Rahm are the top two guys on the league. Having those two guys looking over, not [only] for themselves but also for the rest, it’s pretty cool to see. As a young player, there’s not so much that I can control, so I’m just focusing on my golf and hopefully they will continue for many years.”

Surratt added: “Bryson, he’s a great guy to have around. He is certainly an amazing player, and I know for a fact that I think what he said is true. He is going to fight for what’s right.”

Prior to joining LIV, Surratt and Ballester enjoyed highly promising amateur careers. Surratt, from the University of Tennessee, was named SEC Freshman of the Year in 2023, when he also helped the U.S. to a Walker Cup victory at St. Andrews in 2024. Ballester won the 2024 U.S. Amateur and finished third in the PGA Tour University in 2025, but was recruited by Garcia’s team on LIV Golf.

Surratt (second from left) poses with his Legion XIII teammates after their team win at LIV Golf Mexico City earlier this month. Hector Vivas

Despite the now hazy future for LIV, Ballester says he does not regret his path he’s taken.

“No matter what happens, and again, I’m pretty confident that this is going to continue, but I still look at it as a good decision because when I made the choice, what came down as the biggest thing and the balance was the fact of believing that being surrounded by these kind of players was going to make me a better golfer,” Ballester said. “And it has proved my point since the very beginning, so my golf is way better than what it was when I turned professional thanks to being on this league and playing with these players.”

That said, prior to LIV Golf’s 2026 season, the Spaniard was also trying to secure status on the DP World Tour following a T-10 and a T-6, respectively, at the Australian PGA and Australian Open. It’s a path that a number of LIV golfers have followed, and Ballester plans to continue the pursuit.

Surratt contends that he is at least three full seasons ahead of the developmental trajectory he was on, had he not left school two years early.

“Right now I’d be graduating college and coming up here this month, and instead I’ve gotten three years playing with a lot of the best players in the world and traveling the world doing it,” Surratt said. “So I think when I look at the long career that I plan on having, I’m off to a great headstart.

“College taught me a lot, but I’ve learned a lot over the last three years. I’ve learned how to be a pro, and I can’t say that that would be the case if I didn’t make the move. So there’s not been one second that I’ve regretted it.

“What’s going on doesn’t change anything in my mind from a business perspective. It’s rare that you’re going to have a startup that doesn’t get some winds and rain here and there, but I think looking back in the future, I think we’ll look and see that this is a great time for growth. If I had the same decision and opportunity to go right now, I would still take it. It’s been amazing for my family. It’s been amazing for my golf game.”

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The post What do some of LIV Golf’s young hopefuls make of the league’s uncertain future? A pair speak up appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.