LIV Golf CEO said to have slipped up when speaking about the tour’s Saudi Funding

The tour is bankrupt without its Saudi funding; players are leaving in droves, and it's unclear how the tour will survive next season or beyond. The DP World Tour dealt LIV its latest blow, declaring that LIV players will not be eligible for membership.

For years, LIV golfers have said they joined the tour because they're passionate about growing the game worldwide. Many insisted it had nothing to do with the eye-watering sums of money the Saudi Public Investment Fund was throwing at them.

But what LIV CEO Scott O'Neil said recently has exposed those comments for being total nonsense.

LIV Golf CEO lets slip on Saudi Public Investment Fund

The moment LIV Golf went bankrupt and the ridiculous amounts of money stopped being thrown at players, the talk about growing the game suddenly fell silent. Players have been leaving the tour in droves in recent weeks, and even CEO Scott O'Neil has reflected on how the tour used to do business.

Speaking at a Sportico Conference in London, O'Neil said, "Saudi-type business plan to, as I like to say, a business business plan."

And with these comments, analyst Trey Wingo says O'Neil put the entire "grow the game" narrative to bed.

Speaking on Trey Wingo Golf, "It bothers me immensely that of the LIV legacy, it's going to be generational players got more money and businesses, and independent contractors got shafted. That is something that's going to bother me immensely.

"The 30 for 30 on LIV is going to be fantastic in all the good and possibly bad ways it could be. Here's what I would say about that. Yes, but they never would have gotten the players to go if they didn't give them obscene amounts of money.

"And that's the problem. It was never about growing the game. That was a ruse. It was a con. You know, it was sleight of hand. It was it was look over at my left hand when my right hand is over here. The whole thing was never about building a sustainable business model.

"Scott O'Neil said that at the Sportico Conference in London. 'We went from a Saudi business model to actually having an actual business model.' I mean, that's it in a nutshell. It was never a business model to begin with. It was an attempt to be a disruptive force in one of the greatest sports in the world so they could have a seat at the table. That's all it ever was supposed to be.

"And some credit I'll give Graham McDowell and the others who finally acknowledge that when they're like, 'Yeah, I never wish I'd spouted this grow the game stuff. I just went for the obscene checks.'"

It's true that some players, like McDowell, have backtracked on their LIV Golf stance, but many have tried to sneak off silently into the night. At least we can all now recognize that it was only ever about the money.