With rumours swirling around a reported withdrawal of PIF financial backing from the LIV golf circuit, the league’s chief executive, Scott O’Neil and president of business operations, Chris Heck, have all spoken out in hopes of steadying the ship.
“I want to be crystal clear: Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle,” O’Neil said in an email to staff and players, while Heck has also publicly stated the league remains fully funded and operating as usual during a press conference for Smash GC’s rebranding as OKGC on Tuesday (Apr 21) afternoon.
Joining them in rubbishing the speculation of the breakaway circuit’s potentially imminent collapse was Rahul Singh, head of the International Series – an elevated series of Asian Tour competitions sanctioned by LIV.
Speaking to the media at a roundtable session ahead of the Apr 23 to 26 Singapore Open presented by The Business Times, Singh categorically dismissed all negative rumours surrounding the circuit’s future.
“I’m not sure where the speculation is stemming from. Internally, we are all
systems go. You heard Scott talk about it. You’ve heard everyone, every player, talk about it. There’s no reason for us to feel anything but buoyant.”
Josele Ballester, who is set to tee off at the Serapong course for the Singapore Open, was also indifferent to the barrage of speculation.
“Honestly, I can only control what I can control, and in this case, it is to play golf,” he said. “It looked bad at the beginning of last week with all the things you see in the media, but at the same time, you don’t really know how much you can trust, and the only thing I can focus on is my goal. We’re excited to finish this 2026 season and keep it going.”
The LIV player was speaking at the pre-tournament press conference after a long-haul flight from Mexico, where he recorded a season-best solo third.
The uncertainty has also done little to derail Singh’s ambitions for the International Series, insisting his team is “planning for the future in every single country we’re going to”.
“We’ve spoken to every single one of our stakeholders, partners, governments, and said that we’re here to stay. So there should be no belief except complete positivity in terms of where the series is headed, where LIV plans to be and what our plans are.”
“Our stakeholders and partners are all here. If there was any fear of the future, do you think they would all attend? Every single one of them is coming out and being part of the Singapore Open this week. There’s a bunch of them coming to Morocco in a few weeks. It’s very far for stakeholders and partners to fly out to if they didn’t have confidence in the product,” Singh added, with the series set to head to Morocco from June 11 to 14.
Singh also took the opportunity to outline plans of adding new destinations to the series and pushing ahead with the “national open strategy”.
“We continue to remain in conversation for multiple years in the countries where we already are. We’re having very, very exciting conversations about new destinations.”
“You heard Scott talk actively about what he calls the national open strategy. And this is central to what LIV is trying to achieve, and the International Series is going to drive that. So that means absorbing and bringing more of the national opens into the International Series.”
“We’ve seen what having Hong Kong Open, Singapore Open, and bringing the Philippines Open into the fold of the series does for it,” he said, adding that national bodies have been in contact with the tour in a bid to secure a slice of the International Series pie.
All this to say that, in stark contrast to recent media reports, Singh remains bullish about the series’ ambitions and long-term plans in place.
“Our players continue to remain excited. I don’t want to feed the frenzy by telling you something that is not true. The only truth that we have is that we’re planning for the future. We’re committed to where we’re going.”
