Michael La Sasso won LIV Golf's season finale in Indianapolis at 18 under par, one stroke clear of Jon Rahm, who closed with a 7-under 63, ESPN reports. Rahm still took his third consecutive season points title and a second straight team championship with Legion XIII.

The sporting result was the smaller story on the day.

The money

In April, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund said it would end its investment in LIV Golf after this season, having spent more than $5 billion over five years.

The league canceled two events this year, a New Orleans tournament and the finale originally scheduled for Michigan. Cancelations are the visible form of a budget problem, because a schedule is the one thing a tour cannot quietly trim.

What is meant to come next

Scott O'Neil, LIV's chief executive, has spoken optimistically about 2027, saying players would become equity owners with their commercial rights restored. He has said a term sheet exists with the BC Partners investor Ted Goldthorpe.

A term sheet that is expressly non-binding is a description of a deal people would like to do. It is not a deal. Until it is signed, the honest statement of LIV's position is that its funder is leaving and its replacement is a document nobody is obliged to honor.

The equity-ownership plan is worth understanding on its own terms, because it changes what the league is. LIV recruited players by paying enormous guaranteed contracts. A model in which players own equity and hold their own commercial rights pays them in upside rather than in certainty. That is a more conventional sports business, and it is a considerably worse offer to anyone who joined for the guarantee.

The players

Rahm is under contract through next season. Bryson DeChambeau's deal expires this year.

Asked about the surrounding noise, Rahm said that "when you step on the golf course, it's just golf", and that the controversies fade once play starts. It is the answer athletes reliably give when asked about the business that employs them, and it is usually sincere. It is also, this season, an answer to a question about whether his employer will exist in its present form.

What we could not establish

We could not establish the finale's purse, the terms under discussion with BC Partners, how many players are out of contract, or the state of any negotiation between LIV and the PGA Tour. We verified this account from a single publication.