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Straits Times
06-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Report: PIF's LIV Golf investment nearing US$5 billion
Bryson DeChambeau of the United States poses for a photo with the victor's trophy after winning LIV Golf Korea on May 4. PHOTO: EPA-EFE MIAMI – LIV Golf's investors are reaching into their pockets again for funding, with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) nearing US$5 billion (S$6.5 billion) in spending on the three-year-old league. LIV Golf Investments, the parent company for worldwide LIV Golf operations, has increased its authorised share capital twice in 2025, once in mid-January and once late in April, for a total of US$674.3 million, according to the Money in Sport newsletter on May 5. This brings the total spend to US$4.58 billion, with US$1.9 billion of that coming since January 2024. Money in Sport had previously projected an increase in the PIF investment of US$5 billion by the end of 2025. With a reference to US$82 million in revenue from January to October 2024, PIF's filing included the first time a consolidated revenue figure for LIV Golf has been publicly disclosed. The filing shows the latest authorisations come with three conditions – a minimum number of events this season, a minimum revenue and a finalised TV deal with Fox Sports. LIV Golf has made significant changes in 2025, including Scott O'Neill replacing Greg Norman as CEO in addition to altering its team format to make all players' scores count in every round. Its first event in the United States of 2025 brought record viewership for the league, with 484,000 people tuning in to watch Marc Leishman's triumph in Miami on April 8. Unfortunately for the breakaway league, that was still less than a third of the amount of people who opted to watch a standard PGA Tour event the same day. 'I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that's no secret,' Brooks Koepka said ahead of the LIV Golf Miami tournament at Trump National Doral on April 2. 'No matter where you're at, you always hope everything is further along. But they're making progress, and it seems to be going in the right direction.' In other golf news, rising talent Elvis Smylie has been given a late exemption to the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow after claiming the Australasian tour order of merit in 2024-25. The Australian 23-year-old and son of former women's tennis professional Liz Smylie follows in the footsteps of the previous two order of merit winners, David Micheluzzi and Kazuma Kobori, who were each given late exemptions to the Major. The world No. 202 will join a strong Australian contingent at Quail Hollow next week, including former British Open winner Cameron Smith and fellow Major-winners Adam Scott and Jason Day, the event's 2015 winner at Whistling Straits, Wisconsin. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Reuters
05-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Report: PIF's LIV Golf investment nearing $5 billion
May 5 - LIV Golf's investors are reaching into their pockets again for funding, with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund nearing $5 billion in spending on the three-year-old league. LIV Golf Investments, the parent company for worldwide LIV Golf operations, has increased its authorized share capital twice this year, once in mid-January and once late in April, for a total of $674.3 million, according to the Money in Sport newsletter on Monday. This brings the total spend to $4.58 billion, with $1.9 billion of that coming since January 2024. Money in Sport had previously projected an increase in the PIF investment of $5 billion by the end of 2025. With a reference to $82 million in revenue from January to October 2024, PIF's filing included the first time a consolidated revenue figure for LIV Golf has been publicly disclosed. The filing shows the latest authorizations come with three conditions: a minimum number of events this season, a minimum revenue and a finalized TV deal with Fox Sports. LIV Golf has made significant changes this year, including Scott O'Neill replacing Greg Norman as CEO in addition to altering its team format to make all players' scores count in every round. LIV Golf's first event in the United States of 2025 brought record viewership for the league, with 484,000 people tuning in to watch Marc Leishman's triumph in Miami on April 8. Unfortunately for the breakaway league, that was still less than a third of the amount of people who opted to watch a standard PGA Tour event the same day. "I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that's no secret," Koepka said ahead of the LIV Golf Miami tournament at Trump National Doral on April 2. "No matter where you're at, you always hope everything is further along. But they're making progress, and it seems to be going in the right direction."
Newsweek
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Phil Mickelson Makes Stunning Equity Decision with Golf Influencer Grant Horvat
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Phil Mickelson has always been interested in YouTube golf. As a result, he has been spotted praising YouTube golfers like Bryson DeChambeau and Grant Horvat all the time. Take Horvat's 1M YouTube subscribers celebration, for instance, where Lefty joined hands by congratulating the Creator Classic winner in his iconic way—a tweet. Interestingly, when it comes to Phil Mickelson himself, he is no less. The LIV golfer jumped into the trend by releasing his first YouTube video on July 16th last year on his personal YouTube channel and never looked back. The video was done in collaboration with social media star Grant Horvat. His first video generated a total of 1.4 million views—the highest till now. DORAL, FLORIDA - APRIL 03: Captain Phil Mickelson of HyFlyers GC and Grant Horvat are seen during previews for LIV Golf Miami at Trump National Doral Miami on April 03, 2025 in Doral, Florida. (Photo... DORAL, FLORIDA - APRIL 03: Captain Phil Mickelson of HyFlyers GC and Grant Horvat are seen during previews for LIV Golf Miami at Trump National Doral Miami on April 03, 2025 in Doral, Florida. (Photo byMore Getty Images Currently, Lefty has 296K trusted subscribers through just 15 YouTube videos. Indeed, an impressive feat, which positioned Mickelson to make a large decision for his company, For Wellness. In a recent video with Grant Horvat, where he challenged Josh Allen & John Rahm to an 18-hole 2v2 match, Lefty approached the 25-year-old golf influencer. "You have been so kind in introducing me to YouTube space and all of your subscribers and teaching me kind of like what this is all about." "You have been so kind to everybody at For Wellness about using our product and promoting it and so forth. We have been great partners on the course, and I want to be partners off the course. And everybody at For Wellness agrees." "We are giving you equity in For Wellness to be a partner in the company as a thank you for what you have meant to us." Horvat could not control his smile, and his instant reply was, "Phil!" Grant paused and exhaled deeply, saying, "Thank you, oh my gosh." Next? Phil Mickelson just hugged his new partner and expressed, "You are a good, good man, and we really appreciate everything you have done, so thank you." The post was later shared by the Creator Classic Winner himself as he typed out the caption: "I'm speechless! Thank you @forwellness @philmickelson." YouTube Golf only continues to grow. LIV Golf has even begun dabbling in golf for social media consumers with the 'The Duels.' Held the week of LIV Golf Miami, the new event posted massive numbers of viewers across platforms. More Golf: Why Augusta National Kicked Masters Fans Out, Turned 'Into a Bloodbath'
Fox Sports
09-04-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
How Brooks Koepka's 2023 Masters meltdown led to a revelation about his game
MIAMI — Brooks Koepka finally got home to West Palm Beach at 12:30 a.m. It was April 10, 2023. And thank goodness, because that meant it wasn't April 9, the date Koepka blew the lead at The Masters. At least, that's what you might guess Koepka was thinking. But Koepka wasn't done with April 9. He wasn't done with The Masters. Rather than head to bed, the golfer went to the porch with his friend Dan Gambill. They stayed up all night. Not drowning their sorrows. It was actually the total opposite. Koepka and Gambill worked through every single shot from Koepka's final round at Augusta. No tablets or phones were necessary. They just worked from Koepka's memory — his mental archive of the round. It must have been brutally painful to recount his three-over-par round after starting the day with a two-shot lead. It must have been painful to figure out how Jon Rahm finished atop the leaderboard by four strokes. But Koepka isn't one to shy away from discomfort. He ripped off the band-aid. And if he hadn't, he likely wouldn't have won the PGA Championship one month later, his first victory in a major since 2019. It was a necessary "building" moment, he said. "You have to be really truthful with it and break it down into the finest points and really assess it," he told FOX Sports at the LIV Golf Miami tournament last week. "I think that's probably one of my better qualities. I can really assess it and figure it out. We realized why the outcome went that way." Out on that porch, Koepka said he recounted the following for each shot: 1) the plan and thought process, 2) where it missed, 3) what the shot felt like and 4) whether the execution was there. That took more than six hours. It's typical for Koepka, who's currently 10th in the LIV individual standings this season, to do this after a loss. It's a part of his process. What was atypical was the urgency with which he approached the breakdown. It had to happen that morning. "You don't ever reflect on your wins," he said. "I reflect more on the losses, trying to figure out why. Why certain events happened. Why I hit it here. Why was the execution wrong? What was the thought process? What went awry? So we just narrowed it down and we figured it out." When the sun rose at about 7 a.m., Koepka went to bed with a revelation about his game. You're probably curious about what he learned. Well, he's not telling. "I won't tell anybody," he said with a smirk. "I don't even know if my wife knows." When it comes to self-critique, the process is just as important as the outcome for Koepka. Particularly when it comes to winning major championships. "I think the majors, a lot of it's more mental than anything. You've got to figure out why. You look at all the second places that I've had. Those are the ones where you reflect more," he said. Koepka said he has four second-place finishes in majors, but he's actually had only three. Maybe the act of drawing them out in this way makes the number feel larger. But it's the life of an athlete: studying the bad performances to give way for improvement. And if we learned anything from his appearance on Netflix's "Full Swing," Koepka seems to toil as much as any golfer. "Obviously, there were mistakes, so you got to make sure that you never make that mistake again. I'm OK with making a new mistake, yeah? And then correcting it," he said. "Then you go, like, 'That's life,' right? You're gonna make mistakes, but just don't make the same mistake again." Maybe he won't tell us this particular revelation. But when he first revealed the information about this all-nighter to YouTuber Rick Shiels, there were more slivers of the secret around his 2023 Masters performance. "I got so obsessed and focused on — I wanted it so bad that that was the problem," Koepka said . "All you've got to do is finish 18 more holes. I got so far ahead. And when you get so far ahead, you lose what's going on. It just became a disaster and a snowball effect, and you're just going down and down." Then he added: "It's going to help me years down the road now." It wasn't a golden bullet. Those don't exist in golf, a sport that Koepka repeatedly told me is about "missing in the correct spot that you're trying to miss it." It's almost a double negative, and it's enough to make your club head spin. Last year, he was 45th in The Masters and didn't have a top-20 finish in any of the majors — which are typically Koepka's specialty. But it's not like he hasn't found success elsewhere. Koepka won two LIV tournaments last season. This year, he doesn't have an individual win after five tournaments, but he went to a playoff with Rahm in Singapore. And over his LIV Golf career, Koepka has a third-place finish in 2023 and a fifth-place finish in 2024 in the individual championship standings. At 10th right now, he's within striking distance of the top of the leaderboard. RELATED: Why Jon Rahm doesn't consider himself the Patrick Mahomes of golf — yet He had a forgettable outing at LIV Miami last weekend, when he finished tied for 18th at four-over par. With gusty winds and fast greens at Trump National Doral, Koepka was steady (shooting 73, 74 and 73 in his three rounds), but he didn't have any truly special days to vault himself into contention. It was good for Masters prep, with all of Augusta National's physical and mental challenges. But it's hard to say if it'll be indicative of where his game stands heading into Masters week, particularly for Koepka, who is known to rise to the occasion when major season kicks off. "I'm typically a slow starter. It takes me a few events just to kind of get comfortable and figure out where my game's at," he said. "And then from there, just kind of have a little bit of a regroup. … Kind of happening after Singapore, just to make sure that, OK, this is what we got to do. Get some stats back. Look at some things and figure out, well, why is this this way? And then really attack that. "And then you spend the last two weeks really honing in on it and making sure that any little cracks are buttoned up. You feel like you've got a good sense of feel, touch — whether it be around the greens. I think that's huge for Augusta." He seems to know a few other things about Augusta that are huge — even if he won't tell us. But no one is hoping more than Koepka that those secrets will lead him back to the top of the leaderboard at The Masters on Sunday. Prior to joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna . Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? 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USA Today
07-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Best LIV Golf players in 2025 Masters field? We ranked 'em all at Augusta National
Best LIV Golf players in 2025 Masters field? We ranked 'em all at Augusta National Of the 12 LIV Golf players competing in the 2025 Masters, seven of them have slid on the green jacket. Four of the past eight Masters champions now compete on LIV Golf, and this week marks the first time since the Olympics that the best players in the world are together again competing on the same stage. Some of those playing for LIV come into the first major of the year in good form. Others are likely hoping to simply make the weekend and play all four rounds. Let's rank the LIV Golf players coming into the Masters, from those least likely to contend to those with a great chance to win. LIV Golf power rankings at 2025 Masters 12. Bubba Watson Yes, Bubba is a two-time Masters winner. There's always a chance he finds some magic, but he was relegated from LIV Golf last year and hasn't found his form in 2025. 11. Charl Schwartzel It's hard to put Schwartzel this low, considering he finished second at LIV Golf Miami last weekend, but the 2011 Masters champ was a one-hit wonder at Augusta National. 10. Patrick Reed Reed has had a so-so year on LIV Golf, and he hasn't missed the cut at the Masters since winning in 2018. He tied for seventh at Doral last week, so perhaps he is finding his groove heading into Augusta National. 7. Dustin Johnson Another player who feels way too low on the list, but Johnson has not had a good start to 2025. He has slowly faded, tying for fifth in Hong Kong last month, but his best finish otherwise is T-27 at Doral. He has also missed the Masters cut two of the past four years. 8. Cameron Smith Smith knows how to play well at Augusta National, finishing in the top 10 in five of the last six years. But he's struggling coming into the Masters. Maybe this week is when it turns around (because it feels criminal to have him this low). 7. Tyrrell Hatton Hatton has been middle of the road on LIV Golf this year. He won in Dubai to begin the year but hasn't finished better than T-19 in his last four starts. He has the talent to contend, but he hasn't been playing well leading into the Masters. 6. Phil Mickelson Hear me out: Lefty is playing some good golf ahead of Augusta National. If he has one more run in him, it could be this weekend. A pair of top-six finishes on LIV Golf in his last two starts, and Mickelson knows how to play well at Augusta National, where he is the tournament's all-time money winner. 5. Brooks Koepka If there's almost a guarantee in recent years, it's that Koepka is going to contend in majors. It's a mixed bag of results this season, but he has a runner-up finish in Singapore, and knowing the Masters is high on his priority list, you can almost guarantee Koepka is going to be around the lead at some point. 4. Sergio Garcia The 2017 Masters champion has been playing incredible golf in recent months. He's 19th in the Data Golf rankings, which ranks both PGA Tour and LIV Golf players, and he's made a great argument that he should be on the European Ryder Cup team. Putting himself into contention this week would be another reason to do just that. 3. Bryson DeChambeau The 2024 U.S. Open champion hasn't won since his triumph at Pinehurst No. 2, but DeChambeau figured out Augusta National a little bit more last year, holding the 36-hole lead before slowly fading as the weekend progressed. He knows how to get it done in the majors, and with a little more experience at Augusta National, perhaps he's closer to sliding on the green jacket. 2. Joaquin Niemann No, he's not the top player in the world, nor is he No. 1 on this list. Niemann hasn't finished better than 16th in a major, and that could change this week. He has two wins on LIV Golf this year but tied for 33rd in Miami. There's a lot of pressure on Niemann to perform this week, which could help his case to get into the U.S. Open in June, the only major he isn't currently slated to tee it up at. 1. Jon Rahm Rahm has been incredible, even if you don't hear about it as much. He still has not finished outside of the top 10 since joining LIV Golf, and the 2023 Masters champ remains one of the best players in the world. He didn't perform well in the majors in 2024, including missing the cut at Augusta National, but if there can be one guarantee, it's that Rahm is going to be motivated to bounce back at the Masters.
