​IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters ConnectLIV Golf is not guaranteed to exist once the 2027 season gets underway. After years of enormous contracts, high-profile defections and attempts to disrupt professional golf, the league is now fighting to secure fresh investment and facing serious questions about what comes next.The 2026 season has arguably been the most turbulent in LIV’s short history. Instability followed Brooks Koepka’s decision at the end of 2025 to pursue a return to the PGA Tour, while rumors intensified during The Masters that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund could walk away.New Orleans has since been postponed, doubts have emerged over the Team Championship, and several players have reportedly indicated privately that they intend to leave after the season, regardless of whether new funding arrives.LIV did not reach this position because of one decision. Several choices along the way arguably made survival much harder.LIV Golf picked a fight with the PGA Tour immediatelyUSA TODAY Sports via Reuters ConnectThe first came before LIV had even staged an event.Signing Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson for the inaugural tournament at Centurion, followed shortly afterward by Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, certainly got everybody’s attention. It also immediately put the PGA Tour on the defensive.Suspensions followed, and professional golf descended into a bitter fight.LIV might have bought itself more time by initially concentrating on younger players such as Eugenio Chacarra and David Puig, supplemented by established veterans, particularly from the DP World Tour. Instead, LIV went directly after some of the PGA Tour’s biggest names and made itself an immediate threat.Greg Norman’s prominence as the operation’s public face did little to lower the temperature.Then came the world ranking problem.LIV failed to secure world ranking points until the eve of the 2026 season. Its 54-player fields, 54-hole tournaments, lack of a cut, and relatively closed structure all created problems.Whatever players thought of the rankings themselves, their importance was impossible to ignore. A golfer leaving the PGA Tour or DP World Tour risked tumbling down the rankings unless he produced exceptional performances in the majors.That made joining LIV a much bigger competitive gamble.LIV’s relegation rules and team identities caused more problemsThe relegation system created another credibility problem.LIV promoted the idea that poor performance would have consequences, but those consequences were not always enforced. After the 2024 season, Bubba Watson and Branden Grace both retained their places despite being relegated.Watson at least had captain status. Grace did not.Grace went through the Promotions Event and failed to do enough to regain his position, yet Stinger GC still brought him back for 2025. Louis Oosthuizen subsequently told Golf Monthly that Grace was the only player the team considered.LIV eventually tightened its relegation rule