(Photo credit: Reinhold Matay-Imagn Images)

LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil said the league has the financial backing to finish out the 2026 season.

'The reality is you're funded through the season and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going,' O'Neil said during Thursday's TNT Sports broadcast of the opening round in Mexico City. 'But that's not different from any other private equity-funded business in the history of man.'

The league's fourth season his eight tournaments remaining -- five in the United States -- after this week's event in Mexico. Up next is LIV Golf Virginia at Trump National Golf Club from May 7-10.

The Financial Times reported earlier this week that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which has poured more than $5 billion into the league since 2022, was on the brink of shutting off the financial pipeline.

O'Neil responded to that report by assuring staff members that the season would keep going at 'full throttle.'

O'Neil put a positive spin on the circuit's financial situation during his interview Thursday.

'Given the momentum of this business, we're really excited about where we are and the position where we are,' O'Neil said. '... This notion of bringing teams to market, I had two calls this morning. This notion of, 'Do you have to raise money?' Probably. This is business. But if we keep the trajectory going the way we are and the revenue growth going, this is going to be a really good business for a really long time.'

Spain's Jon Rahm, one of the players lured away from the PGA Tour and European tour by lucrative contracts and $30 million purses, said he is focusing on golf instead of the swirling rumors about the league's potential demise.

'For me, it didn't make sense to think about it or waste time thinking about [it],' he said Thursday, per ESPN. 'Since everything happened so suddenly and so quickly, I wasn't very worried about it because normally, before the rumors start, we already know something -- there's always someone within the league who knows something. It happened so fast that I really didn't worry about it.'

France's Victor Perez held a three-shot lead at 9 under after firing a 62 in Thursday's opening round at the Club de Golf Chapultepec in the Mexican capital.

--Field Level Media