On the eve of LIV Golf's Mexico City tournament, the sixth of their fifth season, a variety of reports and rumors are swirling which cast doubt on the future of the league -- even if this week's event will happen.
Ryan French of Monday Q Info reported Tuesday night that LIV Golf is preparing to make what he dubbed a "bombshell" announcement about the league's future.
Further, on The Takesman -- a Spaces live-audio conversation on X -- French appeared to explicitly say he had been told by several sources that LIV Golf could shut down before the Mexico City event even starts.
“I have some pretty good sources and I’ve heard that some other people have sources that LIV is shutting down," French said.
LIV Golf cancelled two news conferences set to unfold on Tuesday in Mexico City, including with Jon Rahm, over what was described as "technical difficulties." The league still has not shared first-round tee times for the event that starts Thursday at Club de Golf Chapultepec. However, Tom Hobbs of Flushing It, which has sources within LIV Golf, reported this morning that players are preparing to play in the scheduled Wednesday pro-am and that nothing has changed in regard to scheduled future tournaments. He also qualified that with the reality that no one at LIV Golf knew the "framework agreement" was going to be signed between LIV Golf's Saudi owners, the PGA Tour and the European Tour Group, when it happened in 2023.
James Corrigan of the Telegraph reported Wednesday that all LIV Golf executives had been summoned to New York City for what was termed an "emergency" meeting, though it's unclear who is leading that meeting or the subject matter. Corrigan further reported that the media center for the tournament in Mexico City was not even open on Tuesday, which is unusual, though the technical issues in the space may have been to blame.
Players and staff do appear to be in the dark about what's happening, the purpose of the meeting and what's ahead, though LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil was at the Masters last week. Speculation mounted that this may have been related to the subject Bryson DeChambeau couldn't discuss after his emotional playoff win over Rahm at LIV Golf South Africa, which appeared to be a rousing success for the league, like its event in Adelaide, Australia. DeChambeau shut down further questioning on that mystery topic at the Masters, saying he couldn't discuss it, before missing the cut.
Tyrrell Hatton was the only player from the LIV Golf League to produce a top-10 showing. Rahm finished with a disppointing week, while DeChambeau missed the cut. Sergio Garcia was castigated publicly after having a temper tantrum on the course, smashing his driver into the second tee on Sunday before breaking it on a cooler on the tee box. He issued a public apology on Tuesday after he was warned by Augusta National's competition committee chair, Geoff Yang, about his behavior shortly after it happened.
LIV Golf has not explicitly commented on these reports, though the league's social accounts had a new post on Wednesday morning: a sponsored video with HSBC.
