NEW JERSEY — LIV Golf has accused the DP World Tour of a "clear attempt to interfere" with its court-supervised restructuring process after the European tour said it would refuse membership to anyone playing on the breakaway circuit next season. The allegation was made during a hearing on Wednesday in the New Jersey Bankruptcy Court, where LIV is undergoing Chapter 11 proceedings after filing for protection in September following Saudi Arabia's withdrawal of its multibillion-dollar funding.
"We're continuing to monitor this situation very closely and we're quite concerned by it frankly," said Rob Fitzgerald of Gibson Dunn, the attorney representing LIV. "The timing in particular strikes us as a clear attempt to interfere with our process with our players and potentially our reorganisation writ large. It also raises a lot of the same anti-competitive concerns that LIV has expressed previously regarding the way competing leagues have sought to box out and punish market participants, namely these players, from participating in LIV and really only LIV." Judge Michael B. Kaplan, overseeing proceedings, replied: "The comments I have read do raise concerns." The DP World Tour declined to comment on Fitzgerald's statement, but chief executive Guy Kinnings told BBC Sport on Monday that "players need to make a choice," toughening the organisation's policy on playing across tours.
Fitzgerald said LIV would know by the end of the month whether it could continue in a 'LIV 2.0' guise, with two critical pieces still to be resolved. He told the court the structural element relating to investment from BC Partners and having a "sufficient number of players to have a bona fide golf league signed up by 25th of this month" were central. "We are working hard around the clock both on the player front and on the structural front," Fitzgerald added. Asked when he could advise the court whether LIV was "toggling to a wind-down" or going forward, he said: "We would anticipate that decision will be made by the end of the month. Once we have full clarity on LIV 2.0, the debtors will need to very shortly begin making payments to host sites, vendors and other parties, so that we can schedule and prepare for LIV 2.0 events that we anticipate will take place shortly following the emergence."
LIV, which launched in 2021 and recruited a number of high-profile players, now owes its participants at least $45m (£33m) and hopes to conclude the restructuring process in early 2027, after which players have the option to leave the tour. In previous years conditional releases were struck with some top players — including Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton — enabling them to play on both the DP World Tour and LIV, but that flexibility is now set to end. "Player freedom is the reason LIV Golf was created, and it's the foundation of LIV Golf 2.0, a league built around its players," Fitzgerald said. "LIV has been vocal in its belief in free agency and that the best players should have greater flexibility to compete across the ecosystem. It's unfortunate that another tour is taking an opposite view and pressuring our players with false choice."
Current Race to Dubai leader Patrick Reed, who left LIV in January, said he was accepted "from day one" after rejoining the European tour. "This year fully playing on this tour only has been something I've really enjoyed and I feel like the guys have enjoyed having me come over and playing," Reed said. "I don't feel any different. I feel like the guys have accepted me from day one." Six-time major winner Rory McIlroy said LIV was in "such a state of flux" and that the DP World Tour had been "more than accommodating" to players seeking to leave. "The DP World Tour are well within their rights to change the rules and regulations," McIlroy said ahead of Thursday's DP World India Championship. "This is a way to protect their business and to make the tour as strong as possible." The dispute follows the DP World Tour's decision to refuse LIV players from 2027 membership, which LIV's counsel said it was monitoring closely.