What is LIV Golf’s endgame?

Will pouring more money in enhance sustainability? Stray Shots: Golf's "Happy" days

Team captains Cam Smith, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm get pay bailout? (Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

After almost three full seasons in the books, the LIV Golf product is pretty much the same as it was when it started, with the only real change being the addition of Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII team in 2024.

It’s still 54 holes. Still shotgun starts. Still individual/team hybrid. Still many of the same players that the league started with in 2022. And still no deal with the PGA Tour.

Arguably, at this point, a deal with the PGA Tour is not necessary for LIV to be successful in its own way. And vice versa.

With no real conversations talks going on anymore and with neither side even acknowledging the existence of negotiations, what seems abundantly clear is that each side has decided that its best future is going separate ways.

So, with a potential deal dead and the “framework agreement” now just an awkward memory, what is LIV’s endgame?

They have successes to point to, such as the Adelaide event which has proven to be a wildly popular LIV stop in South Australia.

The corporate deals with Salesforce and HSBC as well as broadcast carriage deal with Fox Sports in the U.S. are some of the positives.

But the negative is that LIV Golf is far from generating enough revenue to cover their substantial nut from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. Even so, now it’s reported that the purses are going to be increased from $25 million to $30 million in 2026 to bolster the pot for the team element.

Earlier this week, Cam Smith addressed the potential increase during a press conference promoting the LIV Golf 2025 finale in Michigan.

“I think there was a little bit of a talk to increase the team payout per week, kind of makes a little bit of sense, I guess, business-wise for the teams,” Smith said. “We have different managers. We’ve all got probably between five to 10 staff at the moment on most of the teams. As you can imagine, it’s probably not cheap to get everyone around and all the rest of it. So, I think that was the goal. I’m not sure if it’s approved yet or not. I really don’t know. But I think it would be a good thing for the team’s business-wise going forward.”

It’s never been made very clear how the team finances work, but the hope has been that the franchises would be self-sufficient and create value for their owners, which includes LIV and the individual players.

Clearly, the self-sufficiency part has not occurred. And that is a problem for the future.

With the contracts of prominent players including Bryson DeChambeau set to expire at the end of 2026, the hope had been that those players’ value in their teams would be enough to entice them to sign new deals for the future and LIV would not have to offer up-front financial incentives to get the players to stay onboard.

But that now seems very unlikely. If LIV wants stars like DeChambeau to stay past 2026, they are going to have to pay him.

Which opens a whole new round of writing checks at differing amounts to keep top players.

Of course, some are happy playing for the millions in guaranteed money they play for each week, with $4 million winner checks. But some stars have a value that requires LIV to put pen to paper and write a check that may need be in the nine-figure range.

LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neill has his work cut out for him, and how he navigates the next 12 months will determine LIV’s future and go a long way to a successful or failed endgame as a sustainable league.

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“Happy Gilmore 2” is a cameo-palooza including world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

Stray Shots: Golf’s comedy close-up

By Peter Kaufman

1. “Happy Gilmore 2:” It’s a great time to be a golf fan if you like movies and TV shows. The long-awaited Adam Sandler sequel was a smash ratings hit for Netflix in its first weekend.

If only Scottie Scheffler could flash in the real world the same personality he displays in this movie, golfdom would be a much better place. Ditto Xander Schauffele.

They were both terrific in the flick.

And Jack Nicklaus even delivers, to Travis Kelce, one of the great lines in movie history (no spoilers it here).

For golf fans, its “can’t miss.”

Meanwhile, the streaming series “Stick,” on Apple TV, is its own tour-de-force for Owen Wilson and also must-see viewing for golf fans.

2. Still Gott it: Chris Gotterup again? Yep. He has a pretty fair streak going. The winner of the Genesis Scottish Open and bronze co-medalist in the Open a week later, Gotterup then returned to the States where he promptly slumped at the 3M — all the way down to a T10 finish.

Notwithstanding the many pundits who keep saying he doesn’t have enough of a track record yet, it says here that captain Keegan Bradly must choose Gotterup for his Ryder Cup squad. Not should. MUST.

Gotterup is on a red-hot roll. Plus, he is a New Jersey guy, tough as nails, takes no crap and stared down Rory McIlroy on Sunday at the Scottish. Can you imagine teaming him with a hard-brand like Patrick Reed (hear me out)? What Euro partners would want a piece of that team, at Bethpage and its rabid New York crowds?