In the new season of LIV, everyone (even Bryson!) has the same question

STERLING, Va. — Is this the beginning of the end?

Or the beginning of a new does it start?

On a hot Tuesday here at President Trump’s clubhouse in Washington DC, where a white colonial-style clubhouse stands sentinel over a ski lodge-like property clinging to a mountainside, i The question on everyone’s mind is which LIV Golf’s premier event has returned since its sponsors, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, announced they would withdraw their billions at the end of the 2026 season.

You may to hear noise about LIV’s uncertain future, from players, caddies, media, staff, volunteers driving carts up the steep incline to the clubhouse. Even the league’s biggest star, who was as stunned as golf fans when reports first emerged in mid-April that the league he helped put on the map was suddenly in trouble.

“The same day as everybody else,” Bryson DeChambeau told GOLF.com when he heard about the PIF decision. “I didn’t know. It was really fast.”

When DeChambeau received this news – through the CEO of LIV Scott O’Neil – he said that his immediate response was, “There is no way. That is impossible, considering what I had heard a few months before. I thought there was a plan in 2032. It was a change of change.

“I wish [the PIF] good luck. I wish they would have stayed a little longer, because we are very close on the team side, so that all teams can benefit.”

How close is hard to know. O’Neil said he expected 10 of LIV’s 13 teams to make a profit this season but the finer points of how those teams will get there have yet to be defined. LIV was also working to sell shares in its squads and said it had appointed Citi to find buyers. In February, O’Neil said Financial Times“There is a long-term commitment to this business, that’s without a doubt.”

If you listened to O’Neil’s lengthy press conference on Tuesday morning, there is no question that there is still a commitment, not just to PIF; now it comes down to O’Neil and the network of bankers and consultants he hired to help him find new investors for his five-year-old league. It’s a tall order but one O’Neil says he’s ready to take on.

“Guys, remember, when my phone rings, it’s never all good,” O’Neil, who ran professional sports teams and entertainment companies before joining LIV, told reporters Tuesday morning. “I’m not the manager of the status quo. I never have been. Like what I’m doing … so, it would be foolish to be surprised, and it would be reckless to think about anything other than how far we have to go to make sure that we can continue to grow this game globally.”

O’Neil declined to say whether he was surprised by PIF’s exit but said “it was very clear over the last 18 months that for this to become a growing concern, we would have to make some big and significant changes to the way we do business.”

Speaking of growing concern, one expert told me on Tuesday that there is a sense of “concern” among LIV players, especially those unstable players, who should LIV survive, find themselves without a place to play, at least in the short term. It is also possible for the league to continue but with smaller budgets and contracts. “I believe in order for the business plan to change, whatever they come up with, we’re going to have to have a compromise,” Jon Rahm said at a press conference Tuesday with three of his Legion XIII teammates, Tyrrell Hatton, Tom McKibbin and Caleb Surratt.

When Surratt, 22, was asked if he would like to be undrafted, he said, “I don’t think any of us know what those deals will be or if there will be any at all, right? I think there’s a lot of ways I can go. For me, when I say I’m looking forward to the future, I’m just thinking about myself and how I think about myself without thinking about my best career. What tournaments that includes, my goal is to make it to the majors and win the majors one day, and I know that when I get there, I’ll be very ready for that moment because I’ve spent so many years here regardless of what happens or what deals I have to make.”

Out hereon Tuesday, it looked similar to previous LIV events; there were no obvious signs of financial stress. DeChambeau, hot on the heels of a morning visit to the White House, entertained LIV colleagues with a shooting session at the range; the short-game practice area was lined with signs from the league’s sponsors (HSBC, Maaden and Trackman among them); and double-decker corporate suites line the 18th fairway that leads to a green backed by a 100-foot man-made waterfall.

As the afternoon melted into evening, DeChambeau was still on the green but most of his peers were gone. Work has been called for, in the form of a meeting of players who are not in the area on Tuesday evening.

I asked DeChambeau if the energy surrounding LIV and the tournaments felt different with so much uncertainty about the future of the league.

“You can always look at it in many ways; I look at it as an opportunity,” DeChambeau said. “Whenever a door closes, another one opens. I don’t think that when a door closes, it’s closed forever. For us, this is an opportunity that we have in this country and around the world, the freedom and the opportunity to build businesses. If it’s reorganized in the right way, and people see the value of the golf club, and want to be a part of something special, I think there.”

Time will tell, probably sooner rather than later.