It was a wild day in the golf world with speculation surrounding the future of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League running rampant.
First reports surfaced. claiming the Saudi government would be pulling their funding and that the league would be folding.
By the evening, ESPN’s Jeff Darlington posted that the LIV CEO sent an email to the staff in wake of the rumors, clarifying that the league will continue as scheduled.
The official LIV Golf account on X also tweeted, poking fun of Wednesday’s wild news.
The Saudi-backed rival of the PGA Tour is coming to Bayou Oaks at City Park for a tournament June 25-28.
The event is a signature happening for both the park and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who worked hard to lure the league to New Orleans, even using state funding to ensure their commitment to Louisiana.
LIV is a rival league to the PGA Tour, funded by the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund that has tried to reinvent the structure of professional golf with 48-man fields, no mid-tournament cuts and up to $25 million in prize money. There is also a team component. LIV Golf lured away 13 former major champions, including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith and Jon Rahm who were then suspended by the PGA Tour.
The kingdom has been investing in sports and entertainment in recent years as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s initiative called “Vision 2030” to diversify and reduce its dependence on oil. Golf was a natural fit.
It has led to accusations of “sports washing,” an attempt to use sports investments to gloss over human rights abuses, such as the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which the CIA says occurred on the orders of bin Salman.
In June 2023, the PGA Tour dropped its fight with LIV Golf and instead announced a merger aimed at creating a global operation featuring the world’s top players backed by the Saudis’ massive wealth.
Louisiana is allocating public money to upgrade the championship course at City Park and attached facilities in an effort to bring this major sporting event to New Orleans.
WDSU has learned the amount of money committed to this project is in the low seven figures, under $5 million. But LIV is also expected to fund some of the renovations needed at Bayou Oaks.
One person close to the situation says the projected economic impact from the event for the region could be between $50-75 million.
The PGA Tour will host the Zurich Classic of New Orleans next week at TPC Louisiana.
New Orleans has hosted the PGA Tour annually since 1938.
The 2024 and 2025 Zurich Classic events were the most successful in tournament history, setting records for attendance and resulting in more than $3 million being donated to various children’s charities throughout the metro area.
READ MORE:Reports: LIV Golf season to continue as planned, league coming to New Orleans in June
