Three-and-a-half years before Brooks Koepka cut ties with LIV Golf, he was well aware of what was taking place in an office park on the outskirts of London.
Greg Norman was on stage at RD Studios, awkwardly moving through a pre-written speech. He glanced left and right across the room — which was filled by anxious supporters of the new league — mostly because that’s where the teleprompters were. He paced himself fine but paused whenever he missed a word, leading to the fifth paragraph of the speech, where he uttered a very important phrase:
We are bringing free agency to golf, and this has always been the driving force behind what we set out to do.
In some ways, he was correct. Norman and the Saudi PIF had manufactured a new corner of the pro golf market and plenty of relevant Tour pros took them (and their money) seriously. Norman loved those two words. Free agency. They were a major part of his 2022 campaign. But now, nearly four years later, he watches from beyond the sidelines as those two words suddenly work in reverse.
Koepka’s news jolted the golf space for a few reasons. It landed around 5 p.m. on Dec. 23, just as the world cozied up to their fireplaces. It was also the first time a significant character reneged on his initial 4-year contract, ending it one season early. Days later, Bryson DeChambeau reminded the world that he has one year remaining on his deal, too, and that Koepka’s decision changes things.
DeChambeau shared his thoughts with the social media account @FlushingIt, and as abnormal as that may sound to traditionalists, they’re very real ideas he shared privately throughout 2025. He believes in team golf and wants to reach an agreement with LIV, but a lot needs to change.
DeChambeau noted he doesn’t have as much say over LIV as he’d like, but he can worry about that later. What he does have say over is where he sells his services, just as Norman argued years ago. Sitting across the table from DeChambeau is a golf league with a trillion-dollar owner and nothing that amounts to a salary cap. That combination is one of one, just as DeChambeau himself is one of one. And considering the PIF created an irrational market with mega-million-dollar “free agent” signings in 2022 and 2023, it may not be appreciated but it would not be outlandish for DeChambeau’s monetary request to begin with a B.
A player’s individual worth, from a marketing and commercialization perspective, is at the center of every LIV negotiation, as is the threat of offering that value elsewhere. What makes DeChambeau different is that he has a theoretical third avenue, which he made clear to Flushing It: there is always YouTube. He loves creating content so much that you could see him manifest exclusively into the Streaming Golfer. (Don’t forget that he spent much of the Covid lockdown streaming himself playing Fortnite or speed training on Twitch.) DeChambeau is qualified for every major tournament through the 2029 U.S. Open. Could a place like Amazon — not allergic to paying massive fees for sports content — offer him a creator deal for the weeks in between?
