LIV employees on freelance contracts are resigned to their last few months of work going unpaid, with the breakaway circuit expected to go into voluntary bankruptcy next week.

The majority of LIV staff have cleared their desks this week after 90pc of the workforce were laid off, but while they have been paid, those on temporary contracts have not. 

The Daily Telegraph has contacted people who were on temporary deals and have not been remunerated for their work since May.

“We are not talking about millionaire golfers here, or highly paid execs,” one said. “We are talking about guys like me, who struggle to pay our mortgages and bills at the end of the month unless those cheques arrive – and they haven’t been. I’ve been on to accounts many times but have been ignored, despite, like the rest of my colleagues, working until the very last day.

“None of us will go on the record as we still have hope of getting something. But we don’t really anticipate anything. It’s the little guy being stuffed and when you consider all the opulence of the LIV era and the fact the golfers were still playing for $40m two weeks ago, it is hard to stomach. It doesn’t seem right.”

LIV is being sued for millions by vendors who claim not to have been reimbursed after the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced in May that it was pulling its backing, after ploughing in more than $5bn (£4bn) during the circuit’s four-year existence. Certain players are also due substantial amounts.

The Financial Times reported earlier this week that Jon Rahm, who is believed to be owed more than $100m of his $300m signing-on fee, had been offered “cents on the dollar” to settle up. Others, including England’s Tyrrell Hatton, are also due outstanding sums.

The Daily Telegraph revealed last month that LIV expects Rahm to depart and insiders claim that if the league does go into bankruptcy then his contract will be void and he will have the power to walk away, despite having three years left on the deal he accepted in 2024.

Rahm is playing in next week’s Irish Open in Doonbeg, Co Clare on the DP World Tour and the following week’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

Rahm has remained vague about his LIV future since the Saudi withdrawal. When asked after the final LIV event what he would do next, the Spaniard replied: “I’m looking forward to going home and helping my very pregnant wife with the kids. Because it’s a three versus one right now.”

All the unpaid contractors can do is wait. “Of course this is largely the fault of the PIF,” another contractor said.

“But, whatever, those at the top have responsibility as here we are with the LIV offices all but empty, hanging on and praying we’ll get our due. So much for LIV being ‘one big family’ as we have constantly been told. We have helped keep LIV going through the last few months, but it seems we were working for nothing. It stinks, to be honest.”

Scott O’Neil, the LIV chief executive, did not rule out the prospect of bankruptcy and from there LIV 2.0 emerging from the ashes with a new investor.

BC Partners, the London-based equity and credit agency, has signed a “term sheet”, but is reportedly waiting to analyse the fallout from the expected bankruptcy proceedings before agreeing to a concrete deal. If LIV does survive into 2027, O’Neil has promised that bills will be honoured.

“Look, I come from a family of entrepreneurs, a family of small business entrepreneurs and know the challenge that is,” he said at the last event in Indianapolis.

“So what I would say to them is we’re doing everything we can to make sure we can do right by them and the work they committed, and I hope we can. For the next generation, it will certainly be a different business with a different process.”