A leaked email from LIV Golf’s CEO insisting it is business as normal at the crisis-plagued breakaway league has been ripped apart by fans on social media.
The Saudi-backed rebel tour was thrown into chaos on Wednesday amid speculation over a potential collapse, leaving terrified golfers and staff desperately scrambling for information.
Multiple agents told Daily Mail Sport that they were in the dark over whether the controversial four-year venture, which Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has pumped almost $6billion into since 2022, was on the brink of being abandoned amid the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Tour executives were summoned for an emergency meeting in New York this week as fears continued to grow, but in an email sent to league staffers, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil has stressed that staff plough on with their daily responsibilities.
‘I want to be crystal clear,’ he wrote. ‘Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle.’
O’Neil added that LIV remain determined to ‘disrupt the status quo’ with the tour heading to Mexico City today.
An email from LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil has been torn apart by golf fans
The CEO’s message to staff included several inconsistencies amid uncertainty over the tour’s future
However, fans spotted that the email may possibly have been a first draft, with O’Neil signing the note off with ‘It matters. You mattered. Now, let’s go win.’
‘”You mattered” as the signoff here is either a bad typo or left uncorrected from a prior version of this email that was about the league ending?’ Daniel Roberts wrote on X.
Another fan said: ‘Not a word of this disputes reports that the PIF is pulling out.’
Others claimed that the email was AI-written and described it as ‘laughably bad’ and ‘a joke’.
‘Dude can’t even proofread his own letter… “you mattered” in the past tense.’
‘This is one of the most unhinged things I have ever seen,’ said another fan.
Thursday’s event in Mexico City is set to go ahead, with LIV Golf’s official X account sharing a preview graphic and writing in light of the speculation: ‘Slow news day? We are ON. #LongLIVGolf’.
The Mexico City showpiece is scheduled to begin at 1:15pm local time on Thursday.
LIV Golf launched back in 2021 and sent shockwaves through the sport, positioning itself as a rival to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.
The breakaway league attracted some of golf’s biggest names, including Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, before leading European players such as Jon Rahm and Tyrell Hatton also joined.
LIV’s emergence sparked a fierce divide in the game. European Ryder Cup stalwarts Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood effectively ended their participation in the biennial event by joining the Saudi-backed league as the PGA and DP World Tour imposed sanctions on players who defected.
However, five-time major winner Brooks Koepka quit earlier this year to return to the PGA Tour, while former Masters champion Patrick Reed also walked away and is competing on the DP World Tour as he bids to return to the PGA Tour.
Rumors over LIV’s future began to swirl this week, with the Financial Times reporting that Saudi’s PIF was close to cutting its backing and the Telegraph also suggesting executives had been called to an ’emergency meeting’ in New York.
A LIV source later revealed to the Daily Mail that ‘executives and senior leadership’ are currently in Mexico ahead of this week’s tournament, although it remains unclear when the delegation arrived in Mexico.
