LIV Golf’s chief executive avoids an important question about the league’s upcoming events

Scott O’Neil and the rest of the LIV Golf executives are well aware that they have a job to do. With the Saudi PIF pulling funding this season, LIV leaders need to secure foreign investment to keep the breakout golf league afloat by 2027.

O’Neil, the division’s chief executive, has discussed LIV’s challenges and opportunities in the past, and his most recent on-camera interview came Tuesday with Scott Wapner on CNBC’s “Halftime Report.” In the interview – you can watch the full version here, or a shorter, free version here – O’Neil touched on the future of the league and its search for investors.

“I can tell you one thing that I wouldn’t be anywhere else with any team of players, any management team or any consulting team in the world right now,” O’Neil told Wapner. “I think we have a very unique opportunity to create tremendous value. Now, it’s going to be different. It’s going to be really assured; it’s going to be disciplined and it’s going to be accepted. I think what we’ve seen in terms of the increase in value in sports teams over the last 30 years that I’ve been in this business is really amazing. It takes a lot for the league owners to come in, looking for revenue to get more money.”

O’Neil mentioned Formula 1 and MotoGP as examples, as well as the estimated prices for potential NBA expansion franchises in Seattle and Las Vegas.

“We are in the right place, we got out of here at the right time,” he continued. “I’ve got incredible star power like Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson and Cameron Young. We’re playing amazing events, we’ve had great business momentum. Look, I’ve been in the market for a week, and I can tell you it’s been a really warm, warm reception in the market. … We’re very happy with where we are.”

Wapner then asked O’Neil if he could comment on a report by Front Office Sports that LIV may not have enough money to finish the current season.

“I would say they’ve been great partners so far, and you have to take an amazing organization like PIF at their word,” he said. “They’ve been very public about funding us for the whole season, so we’re looking forward to it.”

Asked if he could confirm that the remaining four LIV tournaments in 2026 would indeed take place, O’Neil said: “What I can guarantee is the huge return if you are going to invest in this business.”

LIV Golf, which was playing in Spain last week, will end the month. Their next event is in the United Kingdom in July and they have tournaments scheduled for New Jersey, Indianapolis and Michigan, their final group event, in August. The league has already postponed the New Orleans tournament scheduled for June until later this year, although a new date has yet to be decided.

Ever since it was announced that the PIF would be withdrawing its funding, the uncertain future of LIV Golf has been a hot topic in golf talk. Bryson DeChambeau said he has attended meetings and will try to help find funding as much as possible, although other players admitted it is not that easy.

“I don’t know anything about business,” Jon Rahm said last week. “I wouldn’t say I know anything about business, and if I were in the business arena, I wouldn’t know the first thing I’d say. My job is to play golf, and I’ll say it’s hard enough. But if any player who knows what he’s doing is willing to do some things like this, I think it would help.”