LIV Golf paid $15 million to retain executives before filing for bankruptcy, court records show

LIV Golf paid $15.6 million to retain seven of its executives, including $6.375 million to CEO Scott O'Neil, in the months between Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund saying it was ending financial support and LIV filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.The payments are part of a trove of documents filed late Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey. That included 129 payments to creditors in the 90 days before LIV's bankruptcy filing and $26 million to Jon Rahm in the year before the Sept. 8 filing.Another payment in the previous year was to Greg Norman, who left as LIV's first CEO in January 2025. He was paid a $5.8 million settlement and a $3.6 million bonus on Sept. 26, 2025.LIV Golf is trying to emerge from bankruptcy without the financial muscle of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which spent upward of $5 billion since the rival league launched in June 2022 and offered nine-figure bonuses to top PGA and European tour players.BC Partners Credit has pledged up to $300 m