LIV Golf is currently playing its final event of the 2026 season in Indianapolis. Once Sunday’s final round ends, the future of the tour is up in the air after losing its funding from the Saudi Arabia PIF earlier this year.
The shocking news that the PIF was pulling the plug on its LIV Golf investment came out mere days after the 2026 Masters as LIV Golf was preparing for its event in Mexico City. Apparently, that timing wasn’t a mere coincidence, but the events of the week prior in Augusta, Georgia, may have accelerated the PIF’s decision to pull the plug.
According to the Financial Times, Sergio Garcia’s meltdown on the 2nd tee on Sunday at the Masters embarrassed Yasir al-Rumayyan — the governor of the PIF who had been at the helm of LIV Golf since its inception — and played a role in his decision to pull LIV’s funding. Here’s the report:
In April, as LIV golfers floundered at the Masters, golf’s most prestigious tournament, Spanish star Sergio Garcia damaged the Augusta National course during a fit of rage in the final round.
People familiar with the matter say Rumayyan’s embarrassment at the sequence of events helped lead to his decision to pull the plug on PIF’s financing of the rival tour, as the fund focuses more on its huge domestic commitments in the kingdom.
Garcia received a warning for violating the major championships’ new code of conduct and issued an apology afterwards. Rumayyan’s desire to become a member at Augusta National has been well-reported, and Garcia’s tantrum did not reflect well on the LIV Golf boss.
As Joel Beall of Golf Digest noted in wake of the FT report, the discussions internally about the PIF pulling its funding from LIV Golf had begun prior to Garcia smashing his club, so it wasn’t the cause of the decision. That said, given how hastily things moved from that point with the PIF backing out within days of the final round of the Masters, it does seem fair to wonder if the incident accelerated the timeline.
LIV declined to comment when asked by the Financial Times about the situation and we will likely never know for certain how significant a role it played, but it’s a wild to imagine that Garcia smashing his club on Sunday morning at the Masters might’ve shifted billions of dollars in the golf industry and accelerated LIV Golf’s demise.