LIV Golf: Tyrrell Hatton hopes league will continue next year despite job cuts

Tyrrell Hatton says he expects LIV Golf to continue next year despite confirmation of job losses following the early conclusion of its season in Indianapolis last week.

The breakaway circuit that started in 2022 says it needs to find a $350 million investment to survive.

LIV’s season ended early with the cancellation of its scheduled finale, this week’s team championship in Detroit. Instead, Hatton will compete in the British Masters on Thursday.

“I would hope there would be LIV next season,” the European Ryder Cup star, 34, told reporters at the Belfry, before news of the job cuts broke.

“I know they’ve worked very hard to get the funding and move full steam ahead on that front.”

Having lost the backing of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), LIV’s future is in doubt. A term sheet has been signed with a potential new sponsor, but without confirmation of concrete funding.

A LIV spokesperson confirmed to BBC Sport that some employees are being made redundant.

“The funding commitment announced by PIF earlier this year will come to an end. As a result, we are scaling back operations as we transition to the next chapter of LIV Golf and work to make LIV 2.0 a reality,” LIV said in a statement.

“This week, we informed many of our colleagues that their employment under LIV 1.0 will end in the first week of September. We thank our employees for their hard work and dedication in building LIV Golf, and we remain committed to supporting those affected during this transition.”

Amid such uncertainty, several LIV players have been linked with leaving the tour, including Hatton. The Englishman chose Queen’s I Want to Break Free as his performance music in Indianapolis last week.

Asked by BBC Sport if anything should be read into his apparently provocative choice of song, Hatton said: “No. I still have several years left on my contract with LIV and, as I said, I still have a lot of tournaments to play this year, so there’s nothing to focus on but golf.”

Hatton will play the rest of the year on the DP World Tour, which will please European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald as the qualification period for the 2027 match begins this week.

While Hatton publicly rejects talk of abandoning ship, there is still a strong feeling that he and teammate Jon Rahm may have played their last events on the LIV tour.

If that’s the case, Donald would welcome his full-time return to the DP World Tour. It would increase your chances of automatically qualifying for your team instead of having to rely on wild card picks.

“You want to fill that six with the best,” Donald told BBC Sport. “With someone like John or Tyrrell playing more on the DP World Tour, they will have a better chance of completing that top six.

“And I think that’s a good thing. You want your strongest players to be in the top six.”

Donald also revealed that he had considered offering qualifying points for the LIV tour, but the lack of clarity over his future made that impossible.

“It was too much uncertainty to think about giving them points for the Ryder Cup,” he said.