In summary

  • BC Partners has committed $4 million of its planned $300m investment to fund LIV Golf's emergence from the restructuring process.
  • The deadline for player commitments has been extended by two weeks to October 25, with stars like Joaquin Niemann and Adrian Meronk yet to sign on.
  • Ted Goldthorpe believes each LIV team could easily reach a $100 million valuation in very short order despite a negative narrative around the league.

Each team in the second incarnation of LIV Golf could “easily” become worth $100m and quickly according to the new money man propping up the bankrupt league which is yet to get full commitment from its biggest name.

On Monday BC Partners, the London-based private equity firm that has agreed to fund LIV 2.0 officially committed $4 million of its planned $300m investment to “facilitate LIV Golf’s emergence from the restructuring process”.

But as it did do Spanish star Sergio Garcia was granted a release from his LIV Golf contract by New Jersey’s bankruptcy court and BC Partners extended its deadline for player commitments, which could determine the level of ongoing funding by two weeks to October 25.

Many current LIV players have been unwilling to commit to the new format, including Jon Rahm whose signature could make or break LIV 2.0. 

Joaquin Niemann, who has won nine LIV events and Adrian Meronk, who won the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links event last weekend are also undecided. 

“Obviously I came here after the LIV season was done to keep my status, to keep my playing rights for next season,” Meronk said.

“Obviously this helps me a lot. So, I'm going to have to re-evaluate my goals, my schedule and how my future will look like.”

It’s been made clear that the next iteration of LIV would lean on players having owned 52.5% of the teams to make up for the shortfall in prizemoney and even contracts signed when LIV enjoyed $5 billion in funding from the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

Niemann though was sceptical about what that would look like. 

“Knowing that it’s something that I think could take a couple of years. I don’t know if it’s something I want to do at this stage of my career,” he told Latercera.

“So, these are questions I have to ask myself before making a decision.”

Adrian Meronk wouldn't commit to LIV after winning at St Andrews. (Photo by Kate McShane/Getty Images)

Australian stars Cam Smith and Lucas Herbert have been asking the same questions, waiting on information.

But at a Sportico panel event in London overnight Goldthorpe, appearing alongside LIV CEO Scott O’Neil, said a “negative” narrative around the league couldn’t shake his belief that “enormous opportunity” existed with LIV 2.0, and the potential value of the teams.

"I think you could easily see a path in very short order to over a $100 million valuation per team. I think that's a real number," Goldthorpe said.

“Because of some of the history and antagonism, there's a lot of what I would call misreporting on what the LIV really is.

"And the more you dig into it, the more I think there's a huge opportunity here."

“We’re all systems go.

“The next 22 days is going to be about signing up the players, but again, I feel very, very good about that.”    

O’Neil maintained his optimism and told the panel LIV was growing at a rapid rate before the “world changed”, pointing to the ongoing war in the Middle East, which contributed to the PIF pulling out of LIV, as the catalyst for the move to bankruptcy and financial restructuring. 

“Then a war happened and the funding dried up,” O’Neil said.

“We had to get creative and we had to find discipline, and we had to come together as a team and rewrite the business plan, moving from a Saudi-type business plan to a business-business plan.”

It’s also been flagged, by the PIF that BC Partners’ interest in LIV since the bankruptcy filings was more related to potential tax write-offs than running a profitable golf league, which Goldthorpe acknowledged. 

“Some of this has been misconstrued. We’re all in on the LIV, and we’re very committed to it. The tax stuff is just an added benefit,” he said.

Ahead of another bankruptcy hearing on October 14, O’Neil was adamant that the “white knight” he’d found in Goldthorpe and BC Partners would help LIV survive and thrive.

“We have a plan that’s effective and works,” he said.

“We have an opportunity to grow something really special. And we found a white knight in Ted Goldthorpe and BC Partners.”