The 2026 season of LIV Golf is wrapping up with its final tournament currently underway in Indianapolis. Following the conclusion of Sunday’s final round, the tour’s outlook remains highly uncertain, especially after losing financial backing from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund earlier this year.
The startling revelation that the PIF was withdrawing its financial support from LIV Golf emerged just days after the 2026 Masters, right as the league readied itself for its event in Mexico City. It appears this timeline was far from accidental; instead, what transpired during the previous week in Augusta, Georgia, might have hastened the PIF’s choice to terminate their backing.
As reported by the Financial Times, Sergio Garcia’s outburst on the second tee box during Sunday’s play at the Masters caused significant embarrassment to Yasir al-Rumayyan—the head of the PIF who has guided LIV Golf from its start—influencing his choice to halt the league’s financing. Below is an excerpt from the coverage:
This past April, while LIV players struggled throughout the Masters, the sport’s premier championship, Spain’s Sergio Garcia marked up the Augusta National grounds in an angry outburst during Sunday’s final round.
Sources with knowledge of the situation suggest that Rumayyan’s discomfort over the incident contributed to his choice to end the PIF’s financial backing of the alternative league, particularly as the sovereign wealth fund pivots toward major internal projects within Saudi Arabia.
Garcia was handed an official warning for breaking the newly established code of conduct for major tournaments, prompting him to offer a subsequent apology. Rumayyan’s aspirations of securing a membership at Augusta National are widely documented, and Garcia’s behavioral slip did little to help the reputation of the LIV Golf chief.
As pointed out by Golf Digest’s Joel Beall following the FT article, internal debates regarding the PIF’s withdrawal of capital from LIV Golf were already underway before Garcia’s club-smashing episode, meaning it did not trigger the move. Nevertheless, considering the rapid pace at which the PIF executed its exit just days after the Masters concluded, it is reasonable to consider whether the incident sped up their departure.
Representatives for LIV chose not to provide comments to the Financial Times regarding these developments, and the exact weight of the incident may remain a mystery. Still, it is incredible to contemplate how Garcia breaking his club on a Sunday morning at Augusta might have redirected billions of dollars across the golfing landscape and quickened the downfall of LIV Golf.
