By Frank Pingue
Aug 17 (Reuters) – LIV Golf said on Monday it has decided to cancel the team championship that was scheduled to be played next week in Michigan so it can focus on preparing for its next chapter with new investors.
The team championship was originally scheduled as a standalone event from August 27-30 in Michigan but it will now be determined this week at The Club at Chatham Hills in Indianapolis where the season-long individual champion will be celebrated.
“By concluding the season now, we can put our full resources behind what comes next and maintain the operational rigor this transition demands,” LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil said in a press release.
LIV Golf said ticket holders for the Michigan event will receive refunds.
The Michigan event is the second LIV tournament to be canceled since Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) said in April that further investment in the rebel circuit no longer aligned with its strategy.
Less than two weeks later, LIV said it decided to postpone a June tournament scheduled to be held in Louisiana and would explore a potential rescheduling in the fall. But the season will now end on Sunday.
Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm has already clinched his third consecutive season-long Individual Championship, but the other two spots on the 2026 podium remain up for grabs with Bryson DeChambeau, Joaquin Niemann, Lucas Herbert and Tyrrell Hatton still in contention.
The team competition will count the scores of all four players on each team every day, culminating with one of the 13 teams being crowned the 2026 LIV Golf Team Champion.
LIV has been preparing for its next chapter ever since the PIF said in April that further investment in the rebel circuit no longer aligned with its strategy and that it would cut funding at the close of the 2026 season.
The PIF has invested more than $5 billion in LIV Golf since its launch in 2022 and the breakaway circuit managed to lure many leading players away from the PGA Tour.
LIV Golf has since said it has secured a new lead investor in a deal that it expects will provide a funding boost for the breakaway circuit as it prepares for a future without backing from the PIF.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
Comments