LIV Golf cancel season's finale to focus on future

LIV Golf's season-ending Team Championship tournament in Michigan has been cancelled to allow "full resources" to be used to put plans in place for the 2027 calendar.

A statement by the breakaway league on Monday night (Tuesday AEST) confirmed the final event of this season's schedule at The Cardinal at Saint John's course had been scrapped.

This week's Indianapolis 2026 Championships at Chatham Hills will instead conclude action for this year before LIV Golf will undergo major changes following the withdrawal of Saudi Arabia Public Invest Fund as the key financial backer of the league.

The 12 tournaments this year — New Orleans was previously postponed — is the shortest schedule for the league since it was launched with massive Saudi Arabia funding in 2022.

Jon Rahm already has clinched the individual season title for the third straight year. LIV Golf Indianapolis, which starts Thursday (Friday AEST) in Indianapolis, will determine who finishes second and third among players, with Bryson DeChambeau, Joaquin Niemann, Australian Lucas Herbert and Tyrrell Hatton still in contention, and the top team.

A new "lead investor" has been found, but no further details have emerged since an announcement by LIV Golf on August 5.

Scott O'Neil, chief executive at LIV Golf, said: "By concluding the season now, we can put our full resources behind what comes next and maintain the operational rigour this transition demands.

"We are reimagining LIV Golf as a fundamentally new League owned by the players and anchored in a sustainable business model, with an evolved fan experience built for the markets where the game is growing fastest across the globe and the support of world-class partners.

"Professional golf is more unified today than at any point since we launched, creating a genuine opportunity to grow the game together. Indianapolis will be a fitting finale for the League as fans have known it and the starting point for what we believe it can become."

The cancellation of LIV Golf Michigan was not surprising. There have been reports in recent weeks that the tournament has not even started preparing with grandstands and other amenities and tickets were recently withdrawn from sale.