Sources: BC Partners pulls out of financing deal in major blow to LIV Golf 2.0

BC Partners is pulling out of its deal to invest $300 million into the LIV Golf League, and barring a last-minute buyer, the breakaway circuit is likely headed toward a liquidation of its assets, sources told ESPN on Wednesday.

BC Partners had planned to replace Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund as LIV Golf's primary financier, but with not enough of the league's top golfers committed to return in 2027, the London-based international investment firm has opted to pull out, the sources said.

A source added that LIV Golf met a critical mass of players who had pledged to compete in the league next season -- about 30 were committed and another 10 still were considering it -- but BC Partners pulled the plug when negotiations with those golfers dragged.

Publicly, only a handful of golfers have said they intend to participate in LIV 2.0, but the short list did not include any of the league's marquee names. Meanwhile, top stars like Jon Rahm, Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton and Ian Poulter, among others, said they weren't coming back and will play on the DP World Tour next season instead.

A LIV Golf League spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from ESPN.

A hearing is scheduled for Thursday with U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Michael B. Kaplan, in which additional details might emerge.

The PIF announced in April that it wouldn't finance LIV Golf beyond this season after investing more than $5 billion into the circuit that lured away stars like Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and others from the PGA Tour beginning in 2022 with guaranteed contracts of more than $100 million and events with $30 million purses.

In August, at the league's final event of the season in Indianapolis, LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neill said he had "a good level of confidence" that a critical mass of players would sign up for the league's next iteration in order to move forward. At the time, O'Neill also harped on the notion that he was trying to turn LIV from a "free-spending" business into one with "commercial discipline" upon the PIF's exit.

"There are hurdles we have to jump over," O'Neill said then. "It's a very complex transaction we'll have to deliver, but man, I wouldn't bet against us."

The league then voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sept. 8, indicating it had between $100 million and $500 million in assets and $500 million to $1 billion in liabilities.

Court records showed that O'Neill was given a retention payment of close to $6.4 million less than three months before that filing. LIV Golf paid out about $15.6 million to top executives in retention payments this year, and former commissioner Greg Norman was paid more than $9.4 million when he left the breakaway circuit in September 2025.

Judge Kaplan permitted LIV Golf to enter into a restructuring plan with BC Partners, with the firm's CEO, Ted Goldthorpe, saying as recently as last month that "all systems (were) go."

But hopes that LIV 2.0 would take off were dealt a major blow due to player involvement.

Last month, DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings told BBC Sport that the circuit would refuse membership or conditional status, which it had awarded in 2026, to golfers who signed up for LIV 2.0.

"Players need to make a choice," Kinnings told BBC Sport. "We have rules and regulations, which are there to protect our tour and which our members must all abide by. Players who are not willing to comply with our rules and regulations should not be seeking to join our tour."

As one source told ESPN, that decision was "a nail in the coffin" to LIV's hopes of getting more official commitments from players given that LIV 2.0 was expected to feature only 10 events and there were several players who were looking to split their time between the DP World Tour and LIV. Golfers must apply for DP World Tour membership by Nov. 16.

The Financial Times first reported Wednesday that LIV Golf was pivoting toward a wind down of its operations.