Greg Norman, the former CEO of LIV Golf, has said he would rather see the breakaway tour shut down entirely than limp on in a diminished form.

The tour's future is in serious doubt after Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund withdrew its backing earlier this year, having already spent $5bn on rivalling the PGA Tour.

PIF's exit is the latest twist in a schism that has reshaped men's professional golf since 2022, when the PGA Tour suspended players who joined the breakaway and the two sides traded lawsuits. A surprise "framework agreement" announced in June 2023 saw the litigation dropped, but it was never finalised; the PGA Tour instead secured up to $3bn from the US consortium Strategic Sports Group in January 2024, while talks with PIF dragged on.

Talks continue over a slimmed-down offering next year with investment from BC Partners, although any agreement may hinge on whether star players Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm commit to staying with LIV Golf. Both are major champions: DeChambeau won the 2024 US Open while on LIV, and Rahm, the 2023 Masters winner, defected from the PGA Tour in December 2023 in a switch reported to be worth in the region of $500m.

"I'm sad, disappointed, gutted to be honest," Norman, who launched LIV Golf amid a blaze of big-money signings and controversy in 2022, told golf outlet Skratch. "I hate to see it wither away. I would rather just see it end."

Players were briefed last week in Indianapolis on a vision for "LIV 2.0" by BC Partners' Ted Goldthorpe, at the event where the current season was brought to a premature close.

LIV CEO Scott O'Neil has insisted he remains hopeful of a way forward for the tour, which would likely mean a reduced calendar of eight to 10 events, down from 14 this season, and far smaller prize money purses.

Norman 'believed in vision' of LIV Golf

It is a far cry from the bombast with which Norman announced the arrival of LIV Golf four and a half years ago, when he promised the tour would create "generational wealth" for players.

LIV Golf did elevate prize money significantly — its 54-hole, no-cut events each carried $25m purses with $4m to the individual winner, prompting the PGA Tour to introduce $20m "signature events" of its own — though other parts of the original vision, such as making its four-man teams billion-dollar-valued franchises, have yet to be realised.

"We were a family. We were united by the feeling that we were doing something new and exciting for the game of golf," added Norman, who was replaced by O'Neil in early 2025.

"It took an unbelievable amount of effort, and there were constant headwinds, but we did it because we believed in the vision."