On Monday evening, BC Partners announced that it had committed an initial $4 million investment on a possible $300 million in funding for LIV Golf, a move that BC leader Ted Goldthorpe hailed as the first step in relaunching the former Saudi-backed league from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. “We’re all systems go,” Goldthorpe said at a London conference Tuesday. “The next 22 days is going to be about signing up the players, but again, I feel very, very good about that.”
But—because this is LIV, you knew there would be a “but”—as part of a restructured support agreement filed with the New Jersey bankruptcy court, the deadline for LIV to re-sign a significant amount of its players was pushed back two weeks, and the language surrounding what constitutes a “requisite” contingent was altered. This comes just days after Sergio Garcia asked the bankruptcy court to allow him out of his contract—which it also did on Monday—while prominent LIV members like Jon Rahm, Joaquin Niemann, Tyrrell Hatton and Cam Smith have not committed to the league’s future. (Curiously, a motion on Rahm’s contract status won’t be heard until Nov. 5, past the deadline). Additionally, despite Goldthorpe’s remarks, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund had raised flags since LIV's initial bankruptcy filing that BC is merely using LIV for tax write-off purposes and is not interested in running a golf league that, to be fair, was really just a soft power exercise when the PIF launched it in 2022.
Which is all to say, the coming weeks will likely bring more bold statements about LIV’s future, many of them echoing the grand proclamations that came before and amounted to very little. Maybe BC Partners’ $300 million can accomplish what Saudi Arabia’s $6 billion could not, and Goldthorpe and LIV CEO Scott O’Neil can piece together a viable product. But first they need players, and Monday’s announcement that they have extended the time to get those players on board suggests the new LIV has inherited the old LIV’s habits.
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Three-time Spanish Open winner Jon Rahm has an understandable reason for withdrawing from his home open this week: his wife Kelley is expecting their fourth child any day. But the move puts the LIV golfer in a precarious position regarding his status on the DP World Tour. In May, Rahm agreed to a deal with the DP World Tour to keep his membership yet play in LIV events without being hit with fines or other penalties. To do so, Rahm agreed to compete in five DP World Tour events, of which he’s played three so far. The DP World Tour has four more events remaining in its 2026 season—stops in India, South Korea and Abu Dhabi before the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. Rahm wasn’t expected to play in either of the first two. With Rahm ranked 43rd in the Race to Dubai standings, he’s likely to get into the Abu Dhabi event (top 70 qualify), but he’ll need to be in the top 50 after that tournament to advance to the DP World Tour Championship. It’s unclear what happens if Rahm fails to play in five events.
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This Tiger Woods' anniversary will make you feel really, really old. On this day in 1996, Woods won his first PGA Tour title, defeating Davis Love III in a playoff at the Las Vegas Invitational. And later this month will mark seven years since Woods won the 2019 Zozo Championship in Japan—now the Baycurrent Classic, which will be played this week—for his 82nd career PGA Tour title to tie Sam Snead's record. Although, both of their win totals have been debated through the years. In any event, time flies.
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There are quite a few golf sickos in NBA circles. But Payton Pritchard may have taken the lead after attempting to tee off despite record-breaking South Carolina rain. There’s been historic rainfall in Charleston, where the Boston Celtics training camp is located—and yet that didn’t stop Pritchard from trying to get teammate Mike Conley onto the course. “He’s texting me in the middle of a flood warning, saying, ‘Hey, we can still get out there. It’s just sprinkling,’” Conley told CelticsBlog. “I’m like, ‘Bro, it’s not happening today.’”
Because he always has an unorthodox quote, coach Joe Mazzulla chimed in. “If you don’t play in the rain, you don’t physically love it,” he said. “And I’m about to see how many guys on this team truly love what they do.”
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