Strained smiles and uncertainty - the strange end of LIV Golf 1.0

It's been more than four years since the launch of LIV Golf rocked the game.

A brash breakaway league, bankrolled by Saudi Arabian billions, luring top players with promises of big money.

Still it divides opinion in golf, and has split the loyalty of its champions.

But it could all come to an end soon.

After the League's Saudi backers pulled its funding - having spent more than $5bn (£3.6bn) - this week's abortive season finale could be the end.

That's unless a new deal is struck, soon.

BBC Sport visited the final event of 2026 at an exclusive golf club in Indianapolis, and found a strange atmosphere of surface-level optimism, but deep uncertainty.

Get ready for LIV 2.0... or the end?

LIV staff have learnt to put on a brave face. And that was no more necessary than this week at Chatham Hills Golf Club.

Despite endless questions about the future, they still had a tournament to host, and LIV Golf's white knight was in town - "the investor", as he was most frequently described.

The phrase "LIV 2.0" was used on countless occasions by the league's leadership - and that is the dream they are clinging to.

It stands for a new chapter, a second life for LIV.

There did appear to be genuine optimism that a deal could be struck.

LIV Golf chief executive officer Scott O'Neil believes he can pull off the near-impossible, and so do many of those closest to him.

But there was widespread acknowledgement that, if they do achieve it, the process to get there won't be easy.

One insider remarked "it's darkest before dawn". Another said "it will get worse before it gets better".

Work is said to be happening at "breakneck speed" behind the scenes, because of the pressure of players needing clarity on their futures, events needing to be organised, and sponsorships agreed.

However, there were players, caddies, staff and volunteers who shared a more pessimistic view with BBC Sport, with one describing it as the "last hurrah".

One senior figure within golf's media remarked: "We're at the hospice, not the funeral."

What would new era of LIV look like?

Much of the format is expected to stay the same in any new LIV - a shotgun start, team competition, music blaring from speakers and party holes.

But change will be felt in the boardrooms and in players' pockets.

The "free-spending" days are over.

If LIV does get a second chapter, it will need to be run in a more financially-disciplined way, given overall losses of this era of LIV are expected to have run into several billions of dollars.

BBC Sport has had it confirmed by multiple sources that the prospective investor behind plans for LIV 2.0 is Ted Goldthorpe, head of the credit division of international investment firm BC Partners.

Indeed, one insider referred to him simply as "TG", a nickname that suggests he has become a familiar face.

Goldthorpe attended LIV's most recent event in Bedminster, New York, and O'Neil said he was spending time "looking under the hood" of the league.

But in Indianapolis, Goldthorpe kept himself out of public view, even ushered out of a side door of the clubhouse to avoid media huddled by the front entrance.

He did, however, meet players as a group and set out his vision for the future - the primary aim being to make LIV sustainable, and ultimately profitable.

Selling franchises will certainly be part of the plan, and BBC Sport heard from one of the team's general managers about "significant interest" from investors.

O'Neil said the ambition was to set LIV up so it was "built to last".

There would be a reduced schedule of 10 events a year, across five continents.

The final location of those may well depend on which players stick around, with Australia's former Open champion Cameron Smith particularly popular in Adelaide, for example.

O'Neil said the schedule would be aimed at maximising LIV players' ability to be match-fit come the majors.

Players have been promised equity under a deal with a new investor, but quite what that equates to remains unknown.

They will also get key commercial rights back - called 'Name Image Likeness' rights - which means they can maximise their own endorsements.

Prize money was roughly half this week compared to previous events, and that is a sign of things to come.

Over on the American-based PGA Tour - which LIV players are banned from - prize money has increased in recent years, in large part because of LIV.

If the PGA Tour follows through on its plans to have a two-track system - with a Championship Series and a Challenger Series - it is likely that LIV prize money would sit somewhere between those, and higher than the European-based DP World Tour prize money.