After five seasons, 62 tournaments and more than $5 billion in spending, LIV Golf is no longer. The upstart league changed the game in numerous ways, but perhaps most markedly, LIV’s influence normalized the idea of super-sized purses in professional golf, with the PGA Tour now regularly offering $20 million in its Signature Events, and the major championships nearly doubling their purse offerings since 2021 to keep pace.
How did it all begin — and end? Below, you can follow a timeline of 17 crucial events that shaped LIV Golf’s history.
OCTOBER 2021
Greg Norman announces that he has accepted the position of CEO for LIV Golf Investments, of which the majority stakeholder is the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
MARCH 2022
LIV Golf officially announces a slate of eight 2022 events, beginning in London on June 9 at the Centurion Club. The prize money for the total series is set at a whopping $225 million.
MAY 2022
Dustin Johnson signs with LIV for a reported $125 million. He is joined by up-and-comer Talor Gooch and European legends Sergio García, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Martin Kaymer.
JUNE 2022
Phil Mickelson signs a multiyear contract with LIV ahead of the league’s first tournament. Onsite, additional recruits are revealed: Patrick Reed, Bryson DeChambeau and Pat Perez. Weeks later, after the U.S. Open, Brooks Koepka joins too, along with Carlos Ortiz and Matthew Wolff.
AUGUST 2022
Reigning Players and Open Champion — and then No. 2 player in the world — Cameron Smith joins LIV Golf, along with a handful of others: Marc Leishman, Joaquin Niemann, Harold Varner III, Anirban Lahiri and Cameron Tringale.
MARCH 2023
Brooks Koepka wins the 2023 PGA Championship for his fifth career major title, becoming the first active LIV player to win a major championship.
JUNE 2023
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and Public Investment Fund governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan sign a five-page “framework agreement,” effectively ending litigation and announcing the intent to form a mutually beneficial new entity. (Spoiler alert: the framework agreement never officially comes to fruition.)
DECEMBER 2023
Jon Rahm signs with LIV.
MARCH 2024
Anthony Kim returns from a 12-year pro-golf hiatus to compete on LIV.
JUNE 2024
Bryson DeChambeau wins the U.S. Open to become the second active LIV player to win a major championship.
JANUARY 2025
Scott O’Neil replaces Greg Norman as LIV Golf CEO.
JANUARY 2026
Brooks Koepka leaves LIV to return to the PGA Tour as a part of the “PGA Tour Returning Member Program.” Patrick Reed also leaves LIV, but plays the DP World Tour while he waits for his PGA Tour suspension to lift at the end of August.
APRIL 2026
PIF announces it will stop funding LIV after the 2026 season. LIV postpones a Louisiana event scheduled for June.
AUGUST 2026
LIV officially cancels its team championship event in Michigan. The league stages its final two tournaments of the year in New Jersey and Indianapolis.
SEPTEMBER 2026
LIV files for bankruptcy and enters a restructuring agreement with investor BC partners.
OCTOBER 2026
DP World Tour bans players from its tournaments if they sign with “LIV 2.0.” LIV players Louis Oosthuizen, Thomas Pieters, Charles Howell III, David Puig, Abraham Ancer and Jon Rahm announce they will not play on LIV in its future iteration.
