LIV Golf’s second life is being built in a bankruptcy courtroom. The breakaway tour filed for Chapter 11 protection in September after the Saudi PIF ended its multi-billion-dollar backing. On 14 October, a federal judge in New Jersey approved a restructuring support agreement with private-equity firm BC Partners Credit, which has committed up to $300 million in financing to carry the league into 2027.

The deal rewrites who owns LIV. Under the plan, players would hold a 52.5% majority of the restructured business, BC Partners and other outside investors would take 45%, and management would retain 2.5%, according to Sportico. The 2027 schedule is still being negotiated, with reporting pointing to anything from a condensed 10-event calendar to a 17-event season across five continents.

In its own announcement, LIV framed the move as a reset rather than a rescue, with CEO Scott O’Neil saying the process gave the league “the structure and time to pursue a landmark transaction and begin the next chapter of LIV Golf,” in a statement on its site.

Rahm out, DeChambeau in

The player side of the ledger looks very different from LIV’s star-powered debut years. The clearest departure is Jon Rahm, the Spaniard who left the PGA Tour for a reported contract north of $300 million in late 2023 and who had won LIV’s individual title in each of his three seasons.

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Rahm’s attorney, John Beck, told a bankruptcy hearing on 7 October that his client was done.

“Mr Rahm has independently reviewed the proposed terms of LIV 2.0 and has determined that those terms are unacceptable to him, and he will not be participating going forward in LIV 2.0,” Beck said, according to Sky Sports.

Rahm is still owed more than $100 million on the deal, and his contract is the only one of LIV’s existing player agreements that has not already been rejected in the bankruptcy case.

The anchor on the other side of the ledger is Bryson DeChambeau. The two-time US Open champion is one of the few confirmed commitments to the new league, alongside Richard Bland, Victor Perez, Brendan Steele, Cameron Tringale and New Zealand’s Ben Campbell, Golf Magic reports. Big names still publicly weighing their options include Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson and Joaquin Niemann.

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The confirmed exits now stretch well beyond Rahm. Tyrrell Hatton, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Graeme McDowell, Adrian Meronk, Tom McKibbin, Ian Poulter, David Puig, Lucas Herbert, Branden Grace, Charles Howell III, Thomas Pieters and Abraham Ancer are all set to leave, according to the same tracker. The initial deadline for players to commit passed on 25 October; BC Partners wants 30 to 40 names and so far has about half that.

The DP World Tour squeeze

The decision is being sharpened by Europe’s top circuit. The DP World Tour has told its members that anyone who plays LIV Golf 2.0 in 2027 will not be granted a conditional release and will lose their place on the European circuit, as Golf.com has reported. Because membership of that tour is a prerequisite for Team Europe, that effectively ends Ryder Cup eligibility for any player who stays with the breakaway league. The next Ryder Cup takes place at Adare Manor in County Limerick in September 2027.

And the PGA Tour reunion?

The 2023 framework agreement that was supposed to merge the warring sides has not produced a deal. In August, new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp bluntly ruled out a tie-up, telling Bloomberg there was “no merger” and “no conversations” on the table. BC Partners’ arrival as the new financial backbone changes the economics but not that stand-off, and leaves LIV 2.0 to prove its own case to players, broadcasters and sponsors on a shortened 2027 calendar. The next court hearing on the remaining pieces of Rahm’s contract is scheduled for 5 November.

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