"PIF has decided to finance LIV Golf only for the rest of the season," a spokesperson for the fund said in a statement to the AFP news agency.
"The significant investment that LIV Golf requires in the long term is no longer compatible with the current phase of PIF's investment strategy."
A committee will now evaluate the tour's options for the future. A new investment model with multiple business partners is being considered, according to several media outlets.
Will the tour survive?
The question is whether the LIV Tour will survive without Saudi support, because it was not cheap to attract big stars like Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Cameron Smith and Jon Rahm. According to the AP, it cost the equivalent of up to 10 billion kronor to attract the stars to the tour that started in 2022.
CNBC reports that LIV Golf has so far cost financiers in Saudi Arabia nearly 50 billion kronor in total, as each tournament also has prize money of nearly 300 million kronor.
The LIV Tour has divided golf stars - those who were happy to accept huge amounts of money to participate, and those who didn't like that it was more of an invitational format because only three rounds were played and no one was eliminated.
The PGA Tour and DP World Tour, which lost several of their top players, protested by suspending those who joined the LIV Tour.
Back - after a hefty fine
One of them was Swede Henrik Stenson, who was said to have received the equivalent of 400 million kronor to play on the Saudi-backed tour. Stenson was also fired as Europe's Ryder Cup captain and the Swedish Golf Association severed ties with him. However, the Swede was allowed to leave the LIV Tour after last season.
In the early years, players on the LIV Tour did not receive any world ranking points, which is a route to entering the majors in golf. However, starting this year, the top ten finishers in each event will receive world ranking points.
The tour's stars have been offered the chance to return to the PGA Tour, and Brooks Koepka chose to leave the LIV Tour this year, in exchange for a penalty of the equivalent of 45 million kronor. Henrik Stenson paid a fine of around 8 million kronor to be able to return to the European Tour, the DP World Tour.
