LIV players mixed after meeting proposed investor

WESTFIELD, Ind. -- At 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, every member of the LIV Golf league sauntered up to the Chatham Hills clubhouse, where CEO Scott O'Neil and the league's proposed new investor awaited. With LIV's future still murky, the team championship event slated for next week cancelled and the league facing multiple lawsuits over unpaid invoices as well as financial downsizing that has affected both prize purses and scheduled concerts, players met with O'Neil and the investor for about 50 minutes. Afterward, they claimed that progress had been made. "I think there's a lot of excitement in the room," HyFlyers member Brendan Steele said. "I think getting the players to be comfortable with how we want to meet forward, I think, is the most important thing." Two weeks ago, O'Neil met with players and later announced that LIV Golf had agreed to a term sheet with a lead investor in an effort to fund the league beyond this season. The investor remains unnamed by the league or its players, and it is still unclear what the terms of the investment are or whether high-profile players such as Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau will commit to the plan. Once LIV players emerged from Tuesday's meeting, some declined to talk to the media -- DeChambeau, for his part, was animated while speaking on the phone and did not stop for interviews. Others who did speak refused to divulge many details regarding the investor's vision or what the league might look like in the future but added that they felt like they had more answers and clarity than they did two weeks ago. "It's just a different way of looking at how we've been operating. I think there's a lot of things that we can do that haven't been optimized," Steele said. "[The investor's] just got a great vision for what we want to do and how to move this thing forward, and it's just, like, new life has kind of been breathed into it." Steele also added that while he can't speak for the rest of the players, he's committed to LIV and whatever form it takes beyond this season. Others were more noncommittal. "We'll see," former Masters champion Sergio García said when asked about his future. "There's a lot of things being talked about and we're working through it." "The investor is excited, but obviously there's a few things that need to be figured out," Martin Kaymer, captain of Cleeks GC, said. "It's still early to tell what next year will look like, but they're working very hard to get more specifics." While LIV is attempting to forge ahead and secure the funding and format to continue the league next year without the backing of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which withdrew its funding in April, it is also dealing with several financial issues. Earlier Tuesday, the Sports Business Journal reported that some LIV golfers were still awaiting payment from the league's most recent event at Trump Bedminster, which concluded Aug. 9. First Tape Media also confirmed that they are suing LIV for $1.23 million over unpaid invoices dating back to the team's preseason media days, which they produced. Last month, Mobii Systems Group Ltd., a Canadian-based technology company that supplied LIV Golf's "Any Shot, Any Time" features during its broadcasts, sued the league for more than $1 million for outstanding unpaid invoices and lost revenue. On Monday, the league announced it would officially be cancelling its team championship event in Michigan next week. It is the second cancelled event of the season since the PIF withdrew its funding (the league cancelled its June event in New Orleans) and it effectively turned LIV Indianapolis into the season finale. While that means the event is now set to disburse the $30 million team championship purse among its 13 teams this week and $10 million among its top three season-long individual finishers, the individual purse for the event was cut in half from LIV's usual $20 million purse. The winner at LIV New York made $4 million; the winner this week will take home $2.02 million. O'Neil is scheduled to speak with the media at 1 p.m. Wednesday.