LIV Golf paid $15.6m in executive bonuses before Chapter 11 filing

The retention payments went to seven executives between 24 June and 7 August 2026, according to disclosures filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. Chief executive Scott O'Neil took the largest single payment, $6.375 million.

O'Neil's compensation went well beyond that award. The filings show a $2.7 million bonus in February, which took his total pay above $13.6 million over roughly 12 months from September 2025 to August 2026. Former chief executive Greg Norman received about $9.4 million when he left in September 2025, split between a $5.8 million settlement and a $3.6 million bonus. Chief financial officer David Phillips collected a $3.3 million retention payment in June 2026 and about $5.1 million in total for the reporting period. The disclosures also list more than $12.8 million in further bonuses and insider transfers in the 12 months before the petition.

The timing is the point. O'Neil's $6.375 million landed on 24 June, less than three months before LIV filed for Chapter 11 on 8 September. NGSC Sports reported that players, contractors and production companies were left facing millions in unpaid obligations over the same stretch.

Salesforce asks the court to reject its sponsorship

Salesforce filed a motion in the same New Jersey bankruptcy court on 29 October, asking the judge to force LIV to decide early on their agreement and preferably to reject it. The motion came through attorney Jeremiah Vandermark.

The partnership was announced in June 2025 and runs through 2029. It was built to showcase Salesforce's Agentforce artificial-intelligence and customer-relationship-management tools through LIV's digital products, tournaments and broadcasts. Planned work included an AI-powered Fan Digital Caddie, integration with the league's "Any Shot, Any Time" viewing feature and live AI predictions during broadcasts.

Salesforce says the core of that never arrived, and its filing is specific about what broke.

During live events, the company says, the Agentforce chatbot "displayed errors instead of providing the intended fan experience". It blames the absence of a dynamic pre-reasoning action lookup needed for the agent's geolocation function, and says LIV relied instead on "manual and hardcoded workarounds, including hardcoding a tournament location". Midway through the season, the filing says, fans had to leave LIV's native mobile app and open an external browser. Salesforce also says LIV dropped the planned "Any Shot, Any Time" integration.

The company argues the failures "diminish the sponsorship's marketing value" and tie its products to defective or incomplete fan experiences.

Two cancelled tournaments add to the claim. Salesforce points to LIV's scrapping of scheduled events in New Orleans and Michigan, which it says removed or impaired signage, hospitality, media exposure and activation opportunities. Under the agreement LIV owed a $400,000 activation fund for 2026; the filing alleges about $375,000 of it was unavailable because LIV never secured approval from Saudi Arabia's PIF.

The balance sheet behind the Chapter 11

The bankruptcy follows the PIF's decision to stop funding LIV in April 2026, after backing the league since its 2022 launch. The withdrawal forced the cancellation of the August 2026 Team Championship and layoffs effective 1 September 2026.

Initial court filings put LIV's assets at $100 million to $500 million against liabilities of $500 million to $1 billion.

Set against that gap, the retention bonuses are small. They are also cash that did not reach creditors.

BC Partners has proposed acting as lead investor in a restructured "LIV 2.0". The money is conditional: the firm's package depends on LIV securing long-term playing commitments from marquee players. O'Neil has sketched the format that would carry it, expanding fields from 57 players to 75, adding standard 36-hole cuts and setting up Monday open qualification.

Player exits and DeChambeau's case

The roster has thinned since the filing. Jon Rahm's legal counsel confirmed at a September bankruptcy hearing that Rahm will not play the restructured tour, and Tyrrell Hatton, Tom McKibbin, Louis Oosthuizen and Ian Poulter have announced exits. GolfMagic reported that Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell, Lucas Herbert and Charles Howell III have also confirmed they are leaving, with nine-time LIV winner Joaquin Niemann expected to follow.

Bryson DeChambeau is staying, and making the case for the format.

On Raj Shamani's "Figuring Out" podcast he said the team concept still works: "I really care, and I still do care deeply about the team golf stuff".

He offered his own team as evidence. DeChambeau said Crushers GC generated almost $29 million in revenue last year against about $21 million in costs, leaving around $8 million in EBITDA. He also said player payments were pushed down to the teams when the league went bankrupt, because "the top co just wasn't really managed that effectively".

His pitch for the relaunch is governance and financial discipline rather than upfront cheques. The new model is "going to be done right", he said, and aims to be "100 percent additive to any golf tour".

What happens next

LIV 2.0 is expected to launch in early 2027 with backing from BC Partners Credit. DeChambeau's interview went out 24 hours after the deadline for players to commit to the next chapter.

The court still has to rule on Salesforce's motion. The BC Partners financing still depends on those player commitments.

Both decisions remain open.