The playing futures of Australian superstar Cameron Smith and his Team Ripper GC are in doubt amid reports the multi-billion-dollar LIV Golf league could be on the verge of collapse.The Financial Times reported that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) was close to cutting its backing for LIV Golf while the Telegraph suggested executives had been called to an “emergency meeting” in New York.
However, Reuters sources with knowledge of PIF’s operations said funding would continue, with the remaining nine tournaments of the 14-event 2026 schedule to go ahead as planned.
Former Masters winner Sergio Garcia, one of the captains of the LIV teams, was asked about the speculation ahead of this week’s event in Mexico City.
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“Honestly, we haven’t heard anything other than what Yasir (Al-Rumayyan, LIV Golf chairman) told us at the beginning of the year,” Garcia said.
“That he’s behind us, that they have a long-term project. And well, honestly, you know how these rumours are. There are always a lot of them. And I can’t tell you anything more than what we already know.”
Five-time major winner Brooks Koepka quit LIV earlier this year to return to the PGA Tour, while former Masters champion Patrick Reed also walked away and is competing on the DP World Tour as he bids to return to the PGA Tour.
If the rumours are true and LIV does end up folding, it will leave Smith and Ripper teammates Marc Leishman, Lucas Herbert and Elvis Smylie in golfing limbo.
Smith, the 2022 British Open champion, who has missed the cut at the past six majors, including last week’s Masters, is a stakeholder in Ripper GC.
Smylie only joined the team this year, holding off former Masters champion Jon Rahm down the stretch to win in just his second start at LIV Riyadh in February.
The PGA Tour had initially threatened defectors to LIV with life bans but cut a deal with Koepka, allowing him back to the tour after paying fines.
“If LIV does cease to exist, the biggest question is what happens with the players,” said Golf Insider’s Dan Rapaport.
“But I think there’s already a clear precedent with Reed. Sit out a year from your last LIV event and then you’re free to return with whatever status you earn. Rahm, Bryson would still have status from their recent major wins. Not sure the tour really cares all that much about anyone else.”
Reports that the Saudi-backed league is under threat come one week after LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil was at Augusta National for the Masters along with several members of the circuit’s communications team.
LIV Golf, which launched in 2022, has been decried it as a vehicle for the country to attempt to improve its reputation in the face of criticism of its human rights record.
Through big-money contracts and lucrative purses, LIV managed to lure several of golf’s biggest names, including Koepka, Rahm, Smith and fellow major champions Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau.
After a year of acrimony, the PGA Tour, PIF and Europe-based DP World Tour announced a framework agreement in June 2023 to house their commercial operations in a new entity and set December 31 of that year as a deadline to reach a definitive agreement.
That announcement brought an end to legal battles between the parties but raised concerns in Washington.
The divide has even captured the attention of US President Donald Trump, who was part of two meetings on the matter at the White House in February 2025 when there was optimism that the schism between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour would be resolved.
Earlier this year, LIV Golf Adelaide set a record as the highest-attended golf tournament in Australian history with more than 115,000 fans, while last month’s tournament in South Africa attracted more than 100,000, another national record.
AAP has contacted O’Neil for comment.
– with Reuters
