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Rory McIlroy and Scott O’Neil (Alex Slitz/Getty Images and Montana Pritchard/LIV Golf)
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — At nearly the same time that Scott O’Neil was laying out his optimistic plan for the future of LIV Golf at a news conference in Indianapolis, Rory McIlroy was asked a question at Bellerive Country Club about the possibility of LIV players coming back to the PGA Tour and whether they bring value.
“I would argue, have they brought value to LIV? You know?” McIlroy said. “I think the PGA Tour’s in a really good spot.”
McIlroy is at Bellerive for this week’s $20 million BMW Championship, the second of three FedEx Cup playoff events. The six-time major champion has often been asked his opinion of LIV Golf and its players, and he’s had no shortage of opinions.
But that blunt assessment is a snapshot of the PGA Tour’s confidence level at this moment as LIV Golf’s future is in doubt. The Indianapolis event is the final tournament on the truncated 2026 LIV schedule after next week’s scheduled team event in Michigan was cancelled (the second U.S. event cancelled on LIV this season).
O’Neil is attempting to balance touting a promised new investor with the negativity surrounding the end of this season in the aftermath of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund pulling its funding beyond 2026 and leaving LIV with unpaid vendors and several lawsuits hovering over the league as it considers possible bankruptcy.
Although O’Neil did not say the tentative investment source by name, it is widely reported to be BC Partners.
“This is a bit of a compressed process, for those of you (who haven’t) been in and around fundraising or in and around processes to raise this kind of money, it’s typically quite long, and the fact that we’re at this point in a couple months is pretty incredible,” O’Neil said on Wednesday in Indianapolis. “We’re fortunate to have a lead with the kind of vision and confidence and relationships to make this a really fun and exciting future for all of us.”
O’Neil added that “we have a very compressed timeline to get the deal done. I’m not going to share that here. But I can tell you we’re well on our way to a transaction. Very excited about the future.”
Also in today’s DD …
More nuggets from Scott O’Neil’s press conference
A little more Rory McIlroy as well
Caddies raise big money for college scholarships
How the Presidents Cup qualifying stands in the stretch run
That future, he said, would include five international events and five U.S.-based events around the major championships to better give an LIV players who are eligible for majors the ability to prepare for them.
He also stressed his desire for the various golf entities to get along.
“I heard a real appetite to put the parochial friction of the past behind us,” he said. “I want to be crystal clear; that’s what LIV Golf wants.
“The philosophy is simple, if you’ve been around me before, you’ve heard it: It’s complete, not compete. Golf doesn’t need one tour to win and everyone else to lose. There are great tours around the world. They serve different markets, different fans and have different purposes. We believe players should have the flexibility to compete across these platforms when they are good enough and enhance the fields.
“We shouldn’t live in a world where one group of golfers is uniquely restricted from playing elsewhere. Our goal isn’t to replace or restrict any tour. Our mission is to bring something distinctive to the ecosystem that elevates it and makes the whole game better. More markets, younger, next-gen global fans, more sponsors, more opportunities for players, more great golf, and of course, a lot more fun.”
But when asked if he’d spoken with PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp, O’Neil said: “I’m not going to comment on my conversations with members of the golf stewardship, but that’s not who I was referring to.”
The PGA Tour, so far, has not shown much inclination to extend any olive branches to LIV golfers. It has maintained that LIV Golf is unauthorized competition and has barred its players from competing in PGA Tour events.
Even players in good standing with the PGA Tour have been required to sit out a year, with Brooks Koepka the lone exception. He was offered a path back this year under a limited-time offer called the “Returning Member Program” because he had remaining status on the PGA Tour as a recent major champion.
“I’m not part of these discussions, but I’m pretty sure they’re not going to be welcomed back straight away,” McIlroy said of those who might leave LIV after this year. “If they were offered this returning member program back in (January), the one that Brooks took, then, yeah, maybe. But that has sort of come and gone. And I think it was said at the time that the deal that they might get going forward, if they do decide to come back, isn’t going to be as good as the one that Brooks got. So, yeah, I would say it’s going to be a tough, tough road back.”
And that is the great debate. There is a good bit of chatter these days that Jon Rahm wants to return to the PGA Tour after this LIV season, despite still being under contract to the league.
Nobody on either side of that issue is talking and most of what is out there is conjecture. Would McIlory really be opposed to his Ryder Cup teammate returning straightaway if the Spanish golfer does decide to leave? As Sergio Garcia said this week, “we’ll see.”
There is so much still to come.
LIV CEO Scott O’Neil paints a very rosy picture of his distressed asset (Montana Pritchard/LIV Golf)
More nuggets from O’Neil
The LIV CEO was asked numerous questions on Wednesday at an Indianapolis news conference. Buckle up. There was a lot to unpack.
On his confidence about the future of LIV Golf:
“My confidence level is high because the facts are good. So when the facts are good, it usually leads to a good outcome.
“For me, the facts are, can you have a lead investor, will limited partners come behind them, will players play in this league, do we have support from the stewards of this game, do we have broadcast partners that want this content, are our sponsors running for the hills, or are they double clicking? And they’re double clicking.
“The facts are good. Our pattern of performance over the last two seasons, and that’s all I can speak to, has been really good, in the face of all this. When you see ticket numbers — we’ll have two fewer events this year and still set an all-time attendance record. That’s impossible in any other sport.
“I don’t know — our facts are good. We have work to do. We have things we have to accomplish. There are hurdles we have to jump over. It’s a very complex transaction we’ll have to deliver. But man, I wouldn’t bet against us.”
On a meeting the players had with the new investor LIV hopes to bring on board:
“It was everything I hoped it would be. You have a visionary, charismatic, driven, well-connected leader, investor, businessman who answered questions with grace, shared his vision, and I think was able to convey a lot of the things that players and GMs and my colleagues wanted to hear. It was a fantastic meeting.”
On reports that vendors are owed money:
“Look, I come from a family of entrepreneurs, a family of small business entrepreneurs and know the challenge that that is. So what I would say to them is we’re doing everything we can to make sure we can do right by them and the work they committed, and I hope we can. For the next generation, it will certainly be a different business with a different process.”
On the possibility of declaring bankruptcy:
“I don’t think we would rule out any option. I mean, the whole focus is on transaction, transaction, transaction. We’re spending all our time thinking about how we best land this plane and have it landed so we can take off again. All our focus is in that direction.”
Rory McIlroy says he doesn’t take satisfaction in LIV’s downfall (James Gilbert/PGA Tour via Getty Images)
And a little more from Rory, too
On if he takes any personal satisfaction from having helped “win the battle” against LIV:
“It’s a hard one,” McIlroy said. “Like, I think I feel like I’ve kept my position consistent that LIV has never been a good thing for the game. So — and whatever 2.0 looks like, if it even happens, you know — they say they’re trying to be more collaborative and all that. But … (the PGA Tour) is the best platform for the top professional golfers in the world.
“Yeah, were there some things at the start of LIV that the PGA Tour could have done better? Sure. But I think that, you know, the guys that went … you think back to the start with, like, say, Phil (Mickelson) was unhappy with some stuff or whatever it was. Like, surely that just warranted a conversation instead of blowing the entire professional game up and doing something else.
“So I don’t take any personal satisfaction of people like losing jobs. Like … that doesn’t seem right. I’ve always felt like this is the best place to play professional golf. And I’m pretty sure if the PGA Tour were handed $6 billion it would have done a better job with it.”
On what makes the PGA Tour’s position in golf so great:
“People tune into the PGA Tour because they want to see elite competition. And they want to see things that are meaningful and things that matter. I think with the creation of the 2028 schedule and things that the (future competition committee) are doing, with Brian (Rolapp) and the rest of the team, I think like the weeks will be more meaningful and they will feel like they matter more.
“I think also the closer collaboration with the DP World Tour, obviously the Asian Tour is now being brought back into the fold. I think everyone’s started to work together a little more closely. Yeah, I think, I just think they’re in a really good spot.”
On whether having Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and other select players back on the PGA Tour would make it stronger heading into the next media rights negotiation:
“Eventually, yeah, maybe.”
A word from our sponsor …
This this week’s Daily Drive newsletter is being brought to you by the Western Golf Association and the Evans Scholars Foundation, which has been sending caddies to college since 1930.
The WGA, which was founded in 1899, sponsors among its events the BMW Championship, which is being played this week at Bellerive Country Club near St. Louis. The proceeds from the tournament benefit the foundation, which now supports 1,310 students attending 28 universities.
On Wednesday, current Evans Scholars and alums caddied for amateurs in the Gardner Heidrick Pro-Am and donated their fees back to the Evans Scholars Foundation in one of its biggest fundraising events of the year.
This is the 20th year of the partnership between the BMW and the WGA/ESF, a deal that began in 2007 when the event became part of the FedEx Cup playoffs. Since then, the tournament has raised $63 million for the Evans Scholars Foundation, which is the event’s sole charity, and helped put more than 4,850 caddies in college.
Presidents Cup qualifying update
Qualifying for the automatic spots for Team USA ends after this week. The subject hasn’t gotten a lot of attention but the top six American players in Presidents Cup points following the BMW Championship will make the team that will take on an International squad next month at Medinah. U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker will then make six at-large selections after the Tour Championship.
Scottie Scheffler, Cam Young, Sam Burns, Russell Henley, Ben Griffin and Collin Morikawa currently hold the top six spots, with Wyndham Clark, Chris Gotterup, Xander Schauffele and J.J. Spaun filling out the rest of the top 10. After that, Justin Thomas and Jacob Bridgemen sit 11th and 12th while just outside the top 12 are Akshay Bhatia, Harris English and Ryan Gerard. U.S. team event veteran Patrick Cantlay has ridden some recent form up to 16th.
The International team is determined via Official World Golf Ranking points with the top six decided after the Tour Championship. International captain Geoff Ogilivy will make six picks of his own to fill out the roster.
Currently, the top six in the International Team standings are Si Woo Kim, Ryan Fox, Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee, Tom Kim and Adam Scott.
The rest of the top 15 on the International points list are (in order based on OWGR points accrued): Corey Conners, Nico Echavarria, Sungjae Im, Jason Day, Casey Jarvis, Ryo Hisatsune, Nick Taylor, Aldrich Potgieter and Jayden Schaper.
Chile’s Joaquin Niemann and Australia’s Lucas Herbert — despite being ranked Nos. 43 and 50 in the current OWGR and ahead Adam Scott — are not eligible to play for the International team because they are LIV golfers.