Ex-Ryder Cup captain issues ‘bankruptcy’ warning to golf bosses as PGA Tour-LIV fallout continues

With prize funds continuing to increase in men’s professional golf, former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley has issued a warning to the likes of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour

Former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley has warned golf’s leading tours that they run the risk of becoming bankrupt if the financial arms race within the sport continues.

Following the inception of LIV Golf two years ago, prize money in men’s professional golf has skyrocketed, with the breakaway league backed by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF). In a bid to thwart of the threat of the LIV circuit, both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour have increased their payouts in a bid to keep players on side.

And whilst this has been a huge benefit for those competing, McGinley believes the current model is unsustainable. “The world’s two main tours have always been member organizations,” he told Irish Golfer Magazine.

That has worked well for over 50 years, but in this modern world of top-level sport, that dynamic is turning into a double edged sword, as there seems to be too much focus on the present and not enough on the future of the Tours and their financial sustainability.

“Granted, they have had to react to the emergence of a serious rival, but if things continue as they currently are, then the established Tours are on the road to being unsustainable and maybe even bankruptcy.” Amid the eye-watering funds being poured into the LIV circuit, the PGA Tour has acquired a backer of their own after the Strategic Sports Group signed a deal to pump a whopping $3bn into PGA Tour Enterprises.

The business model is being stretched to its maximum, and with viewing figures declining, how much longer will sponsors and partners be willing to pay the increasing amounts they are now while there is no clarity on what the future holds?” As alluded to by McGinley, viewing figures in men’s professional golf are in free fall.

In 2024, the PGA Tour averaged 2.2 million viewers on tournament Sundays (outside the major championships), a 19 percent decrease from the year prior. The fall in numbers has come amid the recent fallout between the Tour and their Saudi rivals, and Rory McIlroy believes this has turned fans off.

“If you look at the TV ratings of the PGA Tour this year, they’re down 20 percent across the board,” he said earlier this year. “That’s a fifth. That’s big. I would say the numbers on LIV aren’t great either in terms of the people tuning in. I just think with the fighting and everything that’s gone on over the past couple of years, people are just getting fatigued, and it’s turning people off men’s professional golf, and that’s not a good thing for anyone.”