Retention payments to seven executives
LIV Golf paid $15.6 million to keep seven executives in place during the stretch between the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia announcing it would stop financing the league and the tour's Chapter 11 filing, according to documents submitted late Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey. Chief executive Scott O'Neil accounted for $6.375 million of that total, paid on June 24.[S1][S2][S3][S4]
The same June date brought $3.37 million to chief financial officer David Phillipps and $2.6 million to chief legal officer John Ruzich. O'Neil separately collected a $2.7 million bonus on Feb. 13, roughly two weeks before the Iran war began and two months ahead of the PIF board's approval of a new investment strategy that ended LIV's funding after the 2026 season.[S1]
Player payouts and a former CEO's exit
The court record also lists large sums directed at players in the year before the Sept. 8 filing, among them $26 million to Jon Rahm, nearly $13.9 million to Bryson DeChambeau, $10.7 million to Dustin Johnson, and about $2.5 million each to Cameron Smith and Bubba Watson. Greg Norman, who stepped down as LIV's first chief executive in January 2025, received a $5.8 million settlement plus a $3.6 million bonus on Sept. 26, 2025.[S1]
The filing includes 129 payments to creditors made in the 90 days preceding the bankruptcy petition. Retention deals for senior staff are common for firms working through Chapter 11, the documents indicate.[S1]
Unpaid vendors and the LIV 2.0 restart
Two suppliers are suing over unpaid work. Mobbi Systems Group, based in Canada, seeks more than $1 million for providing the Any Shot, Any Time broadcast feature, while Colorado's Fresh Tape Media wants $1.2 million for producing media preview days. Both appear among the 129 unsecured creditors, a list that also reflects the league's global tournament costs, from $178,087.50 owed to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers to $18,948.00 owed to Thailand-based Fenix Apparel and Accessories.[S1]
BC Partners Credit has agreed to provide as much as $300 million in financing for the relaunch known as LIV 2.0, which hinges on players choosing to stay. Several prominent names — Rahm, Sergio Garcia, Adrian Meronk, Louis Oosthuizen and David Puig — have already exited their LIV deals or indicated they intend to leave. The reworked tour aims for individual prize funds of about $9 million, a drop from $20 million, and would stage no fewer than 10 tournaments with a stronger team-golf focus. A bankruptcy hearing is scheduled for Nov. 5, and the initial Sunday cutoff for players to opt in may be pushed back under a revised restructuring agreement.[S1]
