LIV Golf winner blames boring offer for star player exodus

LIV Golf winner Adrian Meronk has revealed why no star players committed to the breakaway league before its collapse.

Speaking to Today's Golfer, Meronk laid out four specific reasons the league's proposal failed to attract any of the game's biggest names.

The Polish golfer, who won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last month and secured his DP World Tour future, said the offer from LIV's new leadership simply lacked appeal.

"It's not really exciting to stay there," Meronk said.

"It's nothing really to look forward to."

The league had been on the brink of liquidation after BC Partners pulled out of a $300 million rescue deal.

Private equity and credit firm BC Partners had agreed to refinance LIV, but only if the league secured enough commitments from star players.

LIV failed to do that.

BC Partners backed out of the deal ahead of a pivotal hearing at a New Jersey bankruptcy court on Thursday.

Judge Michael Kaplan is now expected to order liquidation of the league's assets.

The failure to secure commitments from its own biggest advocates was a telling indictment.

Bryson DeChambeau, Cam Smith and Dustin Johnson — all longtime faces of LIV — did not sign new deals.

Meronk, a one-time winner on LIV who joined in 2024 and won in Riyadh in January 2025, walked away after securing his DP World Tour future.

He explained the four major factors that made him quit.

First, there would be no world ranking points.

Second, the schedule was reduced to only 10 tournaments.

Third, the DP World Tour had decided to forbid its members from playing any LIV events next year.

Fourth, without access to DP World Tour events, Meronk said it would be tough to qualify for majors and impossible to make the Ryder Cup.

"And then if I was banned [on the DP World Tour] as well, it would be tough to get into majors," he said.

"And also no Ryder Cup."

Meronk joined LIV as the 2023 DP World Tour Player of the Year, ranked 39th in the world.

He banked north of $15 million in prize money across three seasons with the breakaway league.

But the competitive consequences were vast.

Meronk slipped outside the top 500 in the world rankings before his win at St Andrews revived his career.

He has not played a single major championship since 2024.

Meronk lamented the league's demise, even as he acknowledged why players had to leave.

"I think the first two years were amazing," he said.

"The best place to play golf, to be honest."

But everything changed in April, when Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund confirmed it would stop bankrolling the league.

"The last season was a bit strange, obviously, with the news that we had about Saudis backing out," Meronk said.

"Then everyone didn't know what to expect. It was a lot of unknowns."

"The energy was a little bit strange, I would say, and that didn't help my performance as well."

"This year has been weird."

LIV's leadership had hoped to rebuild after losing Saudi support and filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

CEO Scott O'Neil and his executives were tasked with producing an attractive proposition for players.

They proposed a 10-event schedule, but players were left in the dark on key details.

Meronk told Ben Parsons of Today's Golfer that the proposal simply did not work.

LIV Golf's collapse marks a dramatic end to a league that launched with enormous ambition and Saudi backing.

The league spent hundreds of millions signing players like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau.

It fractured professional golf and triggered a bitter rivalry with the PGA Tour.

But without Saudi funding and without a rescue deal, the league could not sustain itself.

The bankruptcy hearing in New Jersey will determine how the league's remaining assets are distributed.

For Meronk, the decision to leave was painful but necessary.