Rick Shiels' company withdrew a $7 million claim against LIV Golf a week after filing it

Rick Shiels Media Limited, the company behind golf's biggest YouTube channel, filed a $7,040,700 claim against LIV Golf Incorporated on Oct. 13 and withdrew it a week later, according to a withdrawal form in LIV's Chapter 11 case in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. David Rumsey and 54 Golf both posted the form on Friday morning.

The form lists court claim No. 21 against LIV Golf Incorporated (Case No. 26-20190), with the creditor care of the law firm Baker & Hostetler in New York. It is dated Oct. 20 and signed by Scott E. Prince. It asks the court's claims agent to mark the claim as withdrawn on the official register. The form doesn't say why the claim was pulled, and it doesn't say what the $7 million covered.

The $1.4 million is a separate debt

The withdrawn claim isn't the money that made headlines in September. When LIV filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 8, its list of the 30 largest unsecured creditors put Rick Shiels Media Limited 16th, owed $1,398,300 under a brand partnership agreement. That was more than LIV listed for players Caleb Surratt and Joaquin Niemann. Rumsey says that debt is separate from the claim Shiels withdrew.

Business Insider reported at the time that Shiels, a golf instructor turned YouTuber, had more than 3 million subscribers on his main channel and that the debt was unsecured.

LIV's deadline day

The withdrawal surfaced on the day LIV's future gets decided. Under the terms of the bankruptcy loan from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, LIV needs a funded deal with BC Partners, backed by enough players, by Oct. 30. Otherwise it has to start a wind-down. The players were offered 52.5% of a reorganized league, and the plan is a 10-event 2027 season.

If you follow the money side of creator golf, watch the LIV docket after today. Whether the league reorganizes or winds down will decide how much its unsecured creditors, Shiels' company among them, get back.