[July 30, 2026]–The demise of Saudi-backed professional golf circuit LIV Golf appears to be coming closer to reality after news circulated today the season-ending team championship will not be held.
According to CNBC, the $40 million season-finale tournament scheduled for Aug. 27-30 at The Cardinal at Saint John’s in Plymouth, Michigan, has reportedly been canceled. However, no official announcement has come from LIV Golf.
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which has financially supported the league since its inception in October 2021, said last April it would cut all funding by the end of the season. At that time, league CEO Scott O’Neil said they would finish the schedule while LIV Golf sought new investors for a sports business that still features a cadre of major champions/golf stars such as Bryson DeChambeau, Jon, Rahm and Cameron Smith.
Now it appears the league won’t even make it to the scheduled tournament finish line. The Detroit News reported last week that no infrastructure had been built at The Cardinal, another ominous sign for LIV Michigan, which would become the second LIV tournament to be scrapped this year.
The June 25-28 LIV New Orleans event was originally postponed in April, though it’s since become clear that a targeted fall rescheduling won’t happen either. A spokesperson for Louisiana Economic Development told Front Office Sports that the state is still waiting on LIV to refund the $1.2 million it paid as part of the $5 million hosting fee.
Front Office Sports also reported that O’Neil and LIV are operating under a Sept. 1 deadline to secure funding for next year. Last week’s LIV U.K. tournament in Straffordshire, England, won by Lucas Herbert, marked the league’s first competitive action in 47 days.
Of course, the latest LIV Golf bleak business news comes on the heels of another recent setback when the Asian Tour announced July 21 it was part of a new strategic alliance with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, effectively ending its allied relationship with LIV Golf.
Meanwhile, one future LIV Golf tournament that is likely to go off without a hitch is next week’s event at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, New York. Scheduled for Aug. 6-9, the $20-million tournament is being hosted for the third time by Pres. Donald Trump’s family-owned business empire.
Just the other day The Trump Organization pushed out some marketing content highlighting Trump National Bedminster’s historic past, which used to be known as Lamington Farm, a 535-acre estate steeped in history long before the first hole was ever designed.
According to the Trump Organization, a New York insurance executive purchased the property in 1917, and it was later sold in 1981 to former General Motors executive/famed automaker John DeLorean, whose iconic gull-winged car would go on to achieve big-screen immortality in Back to the Future.
Of course, DeLorean’s dream car never became a mainstream hit and the DeLorean Motor Company eventually went out of business due to mounting financial debt and the 1982 arrest of its founder in an FBI drug sting. DeLorean was found not guilty on August 16, 1984, but by then car company had already collapsed into bankruptcy and DeLorean’s reputation as a businessman was irrevocably tarnished.
Nevertheless, DeLorean’s private residence, a 1939 Georgian Revival masterwork, according to the Trump Organization, “still stands today, serving as the Trump National Bedminster’s stately clubhouse.”
Ironically, next week’s LIV Golf tournament might be one of the last opportunities to watch the “DeLorean” of professional golf business.
Trump National Doral, Miami, Florida (photo courtesy The Trump Organization)
