For four years, LIV Golf had one advantage that seemed impossible for the PGA Tour to compete with: money.
An almost unfathomable amount of money.
Backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, LIV spent billions launching a rival professional golf league, staging lavish tournaments, offering enormous purses and, most importantly, convincing some of the biggest golfers in the world to defect from the PGA Tour with guaranteed contracts worth tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars.
Then the money stopped.
On September 8, LIV Golf and dozens of affiliated entities filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New Jersey. According to the filing, LIV has between $100 million and $500 million in assets against $500 million to $1 billion in liabilities. The Wall Street Journal reports that Saudi Arabia’s PIF poured more than $5 billion into LIV before abruptly deciding earlier this year that the league was no longer a priority.
And tucked inside LIV’s bankruptcy filing is an extraordinary list of people to whom the league currently owes money…
LIV’s Biggest Creditors Are Its Own Golfers
LIV’s filing includes a required bankruptcy schedule identifying its 30 largest unsecured creditors who are not insiders. Fourteen of those 30 creditors are golfers.
Collectively, those 14 golfers are listed as having roughly $45.5 million in unsecured claims against LIV. But there’s an important clarification: According to the Financial Times, the amounts appearing in the bankruptcy filing represent millions of dollars owed to players for the third quarter of 2026 alone. They are not necessarily the entire unpaid value of the long-term contracts LIV used to recruit those players. Here are the amounts owed for the third quarter to the 14 players:
- Jon Rahm – $7.47 million
- Bryson DeChambeau – $5.77 million
- Dustin Johnson – $5.49 million
- Cameron Smith – $4.84 million
- Adrian Meronk – $4.44 million
- Tyrrell Hatton – $3.37 million
- Bubba Watson – $3.32 million
- Abraham Ancer – $2.65 million
- Ben An – $1.81 million
- Brooks Koepka – $1.68 million
- Caleb Surratt – $1.33 million
- Joaquin Niemann – $1.31 million
- Lucas Herbert – $1.01 million
- Thomas McKibbin – $973,110
Jon Rahm’s $7.47 Million Claim Could Eventually Look Tiny
No golfer illustrates the problem better than Jon Rahm.
When Rahm shocked the golf world by joining LIV in December 2023, his agreement was widely reported to be worth somewhere between $300 million and $500 million. Some early reports put the potential value even higher. At the time, Rahm’s defection represented one of the largest guaranteed paydays in the history of professional sports. Reuters later reported the contract in the $300-$500 million range.
And Rahm hasn’t simply reached the end of that deal.
In May, Rahm confirmed that his contract extends multiple years beyond 2026. Then, on the very day LIV filed for bankruptcy, Reuters reported that Rahm’s contract still has more than $100 million remaining on it.
So when you see this line in LIV’s bankruptcy filing: Jon Rahm — $7,472,527.47 … it would be a mistake to interpret that as “LIV only owes Jon Rahm another $7.5 million.”
The $7.47 million is the unsecured amount presently appearing on LIV’s creditor schedule. Rahm may have contractual rights to more than $100 million of additional future payments.
What happens to that enormous remaining obligation is now one of the most important questions in the bankruptcy.
If LIV continues operating and honors Rahm’s existing deal, those payments could theoretically continue. If the contract is renegotiated or rejected through the Chapter 11 process, Rahm could potentially end up with a much larger bankruptcy claim for damages. Exactly how much would depend on the language of his contract, the restructuring plan and ultimately what the bankruptcy court allows.
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Bryson And Dustin Are Also Owed Millions
The second-largest player claim belongs to Bryson DeChambeau, who is listed as being owed $5,769,230.77.
DeChambeau joined LIV in 2022 on a deal widely reported at $125 million. He later said the $125 million figure was actually a little low. Reuters reported earlier this year that his original contract expires at the end of the 2026 season and that, before LIV’s financial problems became public, he had reportedly been seeking an astonishing $500 million extension.
That makes Bryson somewhat different from Rahm. Because his original contract is reaching its end, there’s no basis for assuming that LIV still owes him another $100 million under the existing agreement.
Still, his $5.77 million bankruptcy claim is notable for another reason: LIV marks it as “C,” or contingent.
Then there’s Dustin Johnson.
Johnson was one of LIV’s earliest blockbuster signings, receiving a deal widely reported at at least $150 million. Earlier this year, he signed a new multiyear agreement to remain with LIV. The financial terms of that extension were never disclosed.
The bankruptcy filing now lists Johnson and his company as being owed $5,489,010.99.
His claim is marked “C/U/D” – contingent, unliquidated and disputed.
So, once again, the $5.49 million number may tell us very little about the total economic value Johnson thought he was going to receive from LIV over the coming years.
This Is Exactly The Nightmare Scenario
Just a few weeks ago, the big unanswered question surrounding LIV was essentially: if LIV Golf files for bankruptcy while still owing its players enormous amounts of guaranteed money, are those players simply out of luck?
We now have the first part of the answer. They have officially become creditors.
That doesn’t mean Jon Rahm automatically loses $100+ million. Chapter 11 isn’t a liquidation, and contractual claims can become some of the most complicated issues in a corporate restructuring. LIV could negotiate new agreements with players, assume some existing contracts, reject others or offer equity in exchange for players agreeing to reduce or abandon old obligations. But the leverage has changed dramatically.
$5+ Billion In Saudi Funding… And A $49.6 Million Bankruptcy Loan
The scale of LIV’s financial collapse is even more remarkable considering where the money came from.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund spent more than $5 billion building LIV from scratch. That money funded player guarantees, massive tournament purses, international events, television production, employees and virtually everything else needed to launch a global professional sports league.
Earlier this year, PIF decided to stop providing the enormous ongoing subsidies that had kept LIV afloat.
But the Saudis aren’t disappearing completely.
LIV’s bankruptcy resolutions reveal that PIF has agreed to provide a new $49.6 million debtor-in-possession loan to finance the company while it moves through Chapter 11. The filing specifically identifies the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the “DIP Lender.”
It’s a remarkable full-circle moment: after spending more than $5 billion creating LIV Golf, Saudi Arabia is now lending the company another $49.6 million so it can afford to restructure itself in bankruptcy court.
LIV Golf Isn’t Necessarily Dead
Chapter 11 does not mean LIV Golf is shutting down.
LIV says it has reached a restructuring agreement with BC Partners and intends to emerge with a radically different business model. The proposal calls for the reorganized LIV to be majority owned by its players, effectively replacing at least some of the enormous guaranteed contracts of the original LIV model with ownership interests.
BC Partners and other investors would provide new capital, and LIV says it intends to return in 2027. The precise roster – and whether stars like Rahm and DeChambeau actually want to participate – remains unresolved.
That may ultimately be the most important negotiation in this entire bankruptcy.
LIV’s most valuable assets are its golfers.
But those same golfers are also among its biggest liabilities.
For four years, LIV Golf used guaranteed money to convince some of the best players on earth that leaving the PGA Tour was a financial no-brainer.
Today, Jon Rahm isn’t merely LIV Golf’s biggest star. He’s its largest unsecured creditor – owed $7.47 million right now, with more than $100 million potentially still sitting on the other side of his contract.
