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The post Bryson DeChambeau’s different. His PGA MC was another reminder appeared first on Golf.

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — This Bryson DeChambeau, he’s just … different. Right? We’ve known that for years now. We’ve celebrated it, we’ve stomped all over it, we’ve come back for more, which gets us all caught up and brings us to late on Friday afternoon, suppertime calling, the round crawling, and Bryson playing from 10 to the house with no chance whatsoever of making the cut. And still, there he was, Bryson in full.

Example: In your life, have you ever seen a golfer, pro or am, pick something out of his ear with an extra-long tee? Well there was Bryson, doing just that, like a Q-tip. It’s unlikely his playing partners, Rickie Fowler and Ludvig Aberg, noted this act of aural care. Golfers are in their own world. We just are.

On the par-4 15th, Bryson made what we 90-shooters call a double sandy. He drove it in the right trap. His second shot found a home in a left greenside trap. His bunker shot was indifferent. He holed a mini-bomb for a 4. Does a two-time U.S. Open winner with a billion (or whatever it is) YouTube followers even know the term? You wonder.

Note to self: Ask Bryson about 15.

It’s amazing how it can go, if you’re Arnold Palmer in his prime, if you’re Tiger Woods in his prime, if you’re Bryson DeChambeau in his prime. You show up at a major venue on Thursday morning and the main thing you’re thinking about is another notch on your belt. Another Grand Slam victory attached to your name forever. Palmer died with seven. Woods nearly died with 15, and it doesn’t seem likely that he’ll win another. DeChambeau has those two U.S. Opens. Will there be other major victories in his life? We don’t know; we can’t know. Nobody knows.

In the meantime, he’s golf’s $500 million (or something like that) free agent. It can’t be easy, being a professional golfer with a unique swing, a reinvented personality and a number that big attached to a notably broad back.

At the Masters, DeChambeau made a triple-bogey 7 on 18 and missed the cut by two. And still he signed autographs on his way to the scorer’s room. At the PGA Championship, here at the never-looked-better Aronimink links, he shot 76-71 for seven over. The cut was four over. In addition to a thousand other things, Bryson DeChambeau is a stock price and his stock is rising and falling all the time.

“I don’t think you guys understand, I really have to get to scoring,” DeChambeau told the kids as he signed and signed and signed on his way to scoring. No, they likely did not understand. But they definitely knew they had secured the most meaningful autograph in golf today. They’ve seen Bryson try to break 50. They’ve seen him hit balls over his house. They’ve seen the things that matter. On Friday, a few of them might have seen a drive on 12 that reached a crosswalk that nobody was expected to reach, 330 up a hill.

The sleeves of his sweater went up, above the elbow. They went down. They went up. They went down. Ludvig ate a sandwich. Ludvig ate a banana. Rickie Fowler ignored a thousand pleas of “RICKIE-RICKIE-RICKIE.” Bryson fived his way, green to tee, green to tee, green to tee.

His last few waggles are all his own, up and down, up and down. They’re north and south, the lat muscles in his upper back, through his shirt and through his sweater, bulging all the while.

THACKBAM!

Nobody in golf hits it that hard. Nobody makes that sound. Bryson DeChambeau is 32 years old. You can do that when you’re 32 and built like a brick house.

He was wearing his team hat. He’s a Crusher. He’s the captain of his LIV team, the Crushers, at least through the end of the 2026 season. Then all bets are off. Brooks Koepka was in the threesome behind DeChambeau. Brooks was a Smasher, but he parted LIV for more familiar pastures.

Yo, Bryson, you looking to play tomorrow?

Philadelphia fans are special. We just are. 

Bryson’s two guys were waiting for him beside the 18th green. You ask if you might get Bryson for a half-minute. You have one question in mind:

Yo, Bryson: do you know what a double sandy is?

Probably yes — he grew up playing public golf, the son of a golf pro — but maybe not.

Not gonna happen, one guy says.

Not today, says the other.

Both are shaking their heads no, just in case you don’t know that no means no.

Bryson signs for the kids, he signs his scorecard, he walks by a small gaggle of reporters waiting for crumbs from golf’s $500 million (or whatever) man.

“I appreciate you guys, I appreciate you guys,” Bryson said on his march out, trailed by his fellows. He made the symbol of the praying hands. It was like seeing a real-life emoji.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@golf.com.

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The post Bryson DeChambeau’s scene and silence told the story after nightmare PGA start appeared first on Golf.

The post Bryson DeChambeau’s scene and silence told the story after nightmare PGA start appeared first on Golf.

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Bryson DeChambeau stood with his arms crossed, staring out into the distance. His team stood around him, two phones ready to film different angles of his swing.

No one said a word.

It was late Wednesday night at Aronimink Golf Club, 15 hours before DeChambeau’s first round tee time at the PGA Championship, and the two-time U.S. Open champion was the only one left on the range as the skies darkened and rain threatened. Finally, DeChambeau took a deep breath and started to walk his team through his thoughts and what he was trying to find in the dirt outside of Philadelphia.

He gestured with his hands to mimic that they weren’t synced up with his body; they were seemingly late with irons and wedges, and he was getting too quick with them with his woods. He missed right and left. He hit a ball or two, sighed and looked at the ground. Then, he looked at the video. Then, he’d hit a few more. Then, switch clubs and do the same. No answer seemed to arrive.

That’s a bad place to be on the eve of a major championship, left to try and make your way around the championship course with smoke and mirrors until you can conjure up the feeling you have lost with no discernible timetable for its arrival.

Bryson DeChambeau didn’t find that feeling on Thursday at Aronimink as he scuffed and scraped his way around the Donald Ross design while the issues he was fighting on the range constantly reared their heads.

DeChambeau tried to flight his approach shot into his first hole, the par-4 10th, and came up well short en route to an opening par. Then came the 11th, a par-4 with a small green that demands players control their spin. DeChambeau flew this approach shot past the flag and couldn’t pull it back off the slope, leaving him a slippery downhill putt. He gave it a tap, and the ball raced past the hole and settled 57 feet away. He made bogey and then made another at No. 13 when he flew his approach shot over the back of the green. As he walked up to his ball, DeChambeau had a lengthy conversation with his caddie Greg Bodine, making the same hand gesture he had some 17 hours earlier on the range.

On the par-3 17th, DeChambeau flared his tee shot right near the grandstand. He slumped his shoulders and stared at the contact point while his ball sailed offline. His pitch didn’t make it to the green and he dropped another shot. The animated venting continued as he walked to the next tee. He made another bogey at 18 and turned in 4-over 39, the worst opening nine of his PGA Championship career. A string of pars came next, with DeChambeau trying to will himself back into contention. He missed makable birdie looks at five and six before a sloppy bogey at the seventh moved him to five over. After missing his par putt, DeChambeau tapped in for his five and then made a motion with his hands toward Bodine. He was mimicking the movement of the putt he had just missed, but he very well could’ve been saying, “no more.” DeChambeau didn’t tap out, but the knockout blow came on the next hole.

After a 20-minute wait on the par-3 8th tee box, DeChambeau once again hit a chunky, flare with his iron. His shot landed well short of the green in the thick rough. DeChambeau then blasted his second shot over the green. He chunked his first chip from the back collection area and sent his fourth past the flag. He made the putt coming back, but a double bogey left him at seven over through 17. He birdied the final hole to card a 76.

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Then, Bryson DeChambeau found himself in the same place that he was 21 hours before, at a mostly empty range at the back of a golden-age property.

He grabbed three buckets of balls and moved through most of the clubs in his bag several times. Players came and went, found something or gave up, and DeChambeau kept trying to dig it out of the dirt.

After another hooking fairway metal, DeChambeau let out a big sigh and rubbed his eyes. He made a motion about flipping his wrists. “That’s just so bad,” he muttered to Bodine and his manager, Connor Olson. Olson filmed DeChambeau from behind and down the line. They went over video after video. Olson asked two separate camera crews not to film as DeChambeau sent shot after shot into the cool Pennsylvania air. “That’s just not what it should be … I just …,” DeChambeau said with a soft sigh after sending another mid-iron toward nothing.

Finally, 90 minutes, three buckets and seemingly no answers later, DeChambeau grabbed a Sharpie and headed toward the rope line to sign autographs.

When asked if he wanted to talk, DeChambeau looked up and offered a strained smile.

“No thanks,” he said. “I’m good.”

But all the evidence at Aronimink said that nothing was further from the truth

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The post ‘I am so confused’: Bryson DeChambeau stumped by rules amid disastrous PGA start appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘I am so confused’: Bryson DeChambeau stumped by rules amid disastrous PGA start appeared first on Golf.

Expectations were high for Bryson DeChambeau heading into the 2026 PGA Championship. Coming off back-to-back runners-up at the last two PGAs, DeChambeau planned to bomb his way around Aronimink on the way to his first PGA Championship.

But in Thursday’s opening round, Aronimink’s challenge stumped the two-time major champion, sending his score soaring. And then, when a wayward tee shot landed on a staircase, the rules stumped DeChambeau in a moment that exemplified his disastrous opening round.

Here’s what you need to know.

DeChambeau plummets down PGA Championship leaderboard on Day 1

DeChambeau’s PGA Championship went sideways right from the start. When his approach shot went over the steep green at 11, his second hole of the day, Bryson putted it 40 feet by and made his first bogey.

He hit it long on the 13th, too, dropping another shot to quickly fall to two over for the tournament.

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It didn’t get better from there.

He closed out his first nine with back-to-back bogeys to shoot 39 on the front. After settling down to make six consecutive pars after the turn, DeChambeau got back on the bogey train at 7.

At 8, he lost his tee shot well right of the green, then chipped his second off the other side of the putting surface. A double bogey followed, sending DeChambeau plummeting down the leaderboard into a tie for 106th at seven over.

While many holes seemed to stump DeChambeau on Thursday, it was at the par-4 2nd where the Rules of Golf got the better of the star LIV Golf player.

DeChambeau debates rules official after sending shot into staircase

Aronimink’s 2nd hole presents an interesting test for pros at this week’s PGA Championship. The par-4 is only 406 yards long, but it features a sharp dogleg left. That proved too much for DeChambeau on Thursday.

He was already sitting at four over when he arrived at the 2nd, his 11th hole of the day. He chose a wood off the tee but mishit it, sending it ballooning well right of the fairway, directly toward a grandstand.

Eventually, Bryson’s ball came to rest on the first step of a staircase leading to the grandstand.

That’s where the rules confusion began. Moments later, cameras caught DeChambeau next to his ball in a deep discussion with a PGA rules official.

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At the start of the video, a frustrated DeChambeau declares, “I am so confused right now” as the official tries to explain the rule to him.

The rule in this case? The grandstand represents a temporary immovable obstruction, which is considered an abnormal course condition governed by Rule 16 of the Rules of Golf.

The USGA defines temporary immovable obstruction as “a structure that is temporarily added on or next to the course, usually for a particular competition, and is fixed or not readily movable. Examples of TIOs are temporary tents, scoreboards, grandstands, television towers and toilets.”

In the case of a TIO, the player normally takes relief by dropping a ball in a relief area based on the nearest point of complete relief.

That seems to be where DeChambeau and the rules official got crossed up. With his ball on the stairs, DeChambeau had no doubt he was permitted a free drop. But he initially thought the rules official had declared that the muddy area in front of staircase was not the nearest point of relief, which would have allowed DeChambeau to take a drop farther from the grandstand. But the official corrected him.

“Oh, is there relief on this?” DeChambeau asked the official, gesturing at the muddy area.

“Yes,” the official responded.

“Oh it is,” DeChambeau said back to him, finally understanding the situation. DeChambeau then looked at his caddie, gestured at the official and said, “He said it wasn’t.”

With that cleared up, DeChambeau hit a 156-yard shot to 22 feet, two-putting from there to finish with a par.

You can watch a video of the moment below.

While DeChambeau made a mess of the 7th and 8th holes, his 16th and 17th of the round, he ended the round on a high note. DeChambeau made his first birdie of the tournament at the par-5 9th, finishing with a six-over 76 in Round 1.

That means on Friday DeChambeau won’t be fighting to get into contention; he’ll just be fighting to make the cut.

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The post Gary Williams doesn’t think Bryson DeChambeau will go through with unique LIV backup plan appeared first on Golf.

The post Gary Williams doesn’t think Bryson DeChambeau will go through with unique LIV backup plan appeared first on Golf.

With the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund withdrawing financial backing from LIV Golf after the 2026 season, everyone is wondering what’s next. What’s next for the breakaway league? And what’s next for its marquee players, namely Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm.

This week at LIV Virginia, Rahm said he didn’t “see a way out” of his current contract with LIV, which goes for several more years. As for DeChambeau, whose contract ends after the 2026 season, he told several outlets, including ESPN and Sports Illustrated, that he’s prepared to focus on growing his YouTube channel while playing in the tournaments that “want him” should LIV go away. DeChambeau admitted that his team has spoken with the PGA Tour but would not divulge the nature of the talks. The two-time U.S. Open champion told Skratch it would ultimately be up to the PGA Tour members to decide if they want him to come back.

Golf Channel’s Gary Williams joined the latest episode of the Subpar podcast to discuss where LIV goes from here and whether or not he thinks DeChambeau is serious about focusing on YouTube and playing the four majors.

“No, not in full,” Williams told co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. “He’s being him. He’s also the guy who, when he was ascending, got maniacal about long drives and started participating in long drive contests. Which people were going, that is going to be debilitating to you actually putting scores in a box. No, he will not do that.”

Williams noted it would be “disappointing” if DeChambeau chose to prioritize YouTube over competitive professional golf since he is currently in the middle of his major championship window.

“It’s funny that he’s suggesting [focusing on YouTube],” Williams said. “If he does do that, it’s disappointing in this respect — I give him immense respect for this: he has figured out Augusta National to a degree, where he had almost no idea how to solve that Rubik’s Cube. He contends in almost every major. … He is always going to be a factor at a U.S. Open. He’s likely always going to be a factor at a PGA. He is as much of a sure thing to be on the first couple of pages of a leaderboard at a major championship. I give him credit for that. But he’s not going to do that, and if he does do that, he won’t continue to contend in major championships. That’ll be too bad because major championship prime windows are not as long as people think they are.”

When Brooks Koepka left LIV Golf to return to the PGA Tour last December, DeChambeau had all the leverage in contract negotiations with LIV and the PIF. Now that the PIF is out of the equation, Williams sees the PGA Tour as the only option for DeChambeau. The leverage he once had is gone.

“But what’s happened to him, my analogy in terms of what he thought he had to play with was, the Yankees and the Dodgers are both bidding for him and now the Dodgers are no longer interested,” Williams said. “That’s the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. So are the Yankees, the PGA Tour, going to bid against themselves? No, they are not.”

To hear more from Williams on LIV’s future, DeChambeau’s value to the PGA Tour and more, check out the YouTube video below.

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The post Can Scott O’Neil save LIV Golf? Here’s what he thinks is possible appeared first on Golf.

The post Can Scott O’Neil save LIV Golf? Here’s what he thinks is possible appeared first on Golf.

STERLING, Va. — When Scott O’Neil gets stressed, he eats. His snack of choice: chocolate-chip cookies baked by his wife, Lisa. At Trump National D.C. on Wednesday, O’Neil said he’d downed four of them, but you couldn’t have blamed him if he felt the urge to munch on a few more.

O’Neil, who is in his 17th month as LIV Golf’s chief executive officer, is in a pinch. His league’s financial backers — Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — announced that they are divesting from LIV at the end of the 2026 season, leaving O’Neil and his board of advisors to find a new investor or investors, and quickly.

O’Neil will tell you that the league doubled its revenue from 2024 to ’25. That LIV expects four of its events and 10 of its 13 teams to turn a profit this year. That viewership and ticket sales are up. But the fact remains that he is taking to market an organization that has burned through billions, and which O’Neil has said could be a decade away from profitability. Complicating matters further, LIV lynchpin Bryson DeChambeau is unsigned beyond this season. O’Neil is confident DeChambeau will stick around but he cannot tell potential investors with certainty that the league’s biggest star will be part of its future.

O’Neil knows time is of the essence, but his focus, he says, is singular. “If any amount of that time is spent in any other fashion other than working towards this transaction, it’s a terrible use of my time,” he told GOLF.com in an interview earlier this week.

O’Neil says he thrives on the pressure, that he’s wired for facing and solving hard problems, that his more than 25 years in the sports and entertainment industries — including posts with the NBA’s New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers, the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles and the NHL’s New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils — will serve him well as he works to secure a path forward for LIV.

In a 30-minute conversation, O’Neil spoke to the pressure of the moment, the DeChambeau dilemma and what kind of investors he believes might be drawn to a global golf league.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

GOLF: Let’s start with DeChambeau. There has been much speculation about the status of his contract. Can you provide any kind of update?

SCOTT O’NEIL: We have negotiations with players ongoing. His happens to get quite a bit of attention. Bryson is an extraordinary partner. He is the most popular golfer on the planet. He’s winning. He loves team golf. He believes in the vision of LIV. He’s willing to travel around the world, grow the game. And of all the athletes I’ve worked with in my career — and there’ve been a lot of them, from a lot of different sports — he’s the most pure to the mission of an athlete I’ve ever met. And Bryson has asked to sit side by side with me and Ducera [LIV’s investment bank] to raise money together.

As you’re seeking investors, how do you navigate those conversations without knowing DeChambeau’s status? Because presumably one of the first questions a potential investor will ask is, “Is Bryson part of the deal?”

Bryson is more pro-LIV than I am. We talked yesterday [Tuesday] about him joining me for the investor meetings, so I think that’ll be a pretty good indication as to what’s going to transpire. He’s really smart. He’s very intuitive. He’s as good a brand builder as I’ve ever seen. From a marketing standpoint, his creativity almost knows no bounds, surrounds himself with good people, and has a real strong opinion as to how we should go forward together. So he’s very well in the plans, and he’ll be joining me on a lot of investor pitches.

If you’re unable to come to an agreement with Bryson, can LIV survive without him?

I don’t think we’ll have to.

You’re that bullish that he’ll be a part of the future of this league?

Yes.

What makes you say that?

I spent time with him. He’s my partner in this business. He’s a great thought partner. He’s a leader. And he believes in this product. I’ve seen it, every day. … He does what he says he’s gonna do at a world-class level. When the light shines brightest, he can certainly step up, and when the lights aren’t on, it’s the same thing, which I love.

Do you have an investment figure in mind that you need to hit to make LIV viable?

I do, yeah. I won’t share it.

Any sense for what kind of investors LIV might appeal to?

I think there are three groups generally, at least that’s what we’ve heard from so far. And we haven’t done any outbound. We’ve just taken inbound calls.

Private equity is the most obvious. Most of the guys who run private-equity funds play golf. There are so many private-

equity funds that are directed to sports now, which wouldn’t have been the case 10 years ago, but it is now.

Then there are family offices. If you look at who’s buying up sports teams, particularly internationally, they’re coming from family offices.

And then there’s the high net-worth billionaires, who say, “I love golf. This would be fun.”

There are advantages and disadvantages to each of those groups. And we’ll talk to all of them, see what the best fit is. And whether it’s some combination, whether it’s one or whether it’s four, I’m not quite sure yet. We won’t know until we get to the market.

The PIF is withdrawing its funding at the end of the season, and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, has stepped down from your board. But the PIF still owns LIV Golf, correct?

Right, the ownership structure has not changed.

Does that mean as you as you’re seeking investors that the PIF still has a seat at the table? Will they have to sign off on whatever decisions you make in the coming months?

I wouldn’t comment on that. But that’s a good question.

There was a player meeting Tuesday evening here in Virginia. Were you in attendance?  

Yes. That was my meeting.

What was on the agenda?

We talked about the future of LIV, talked about some of the reports, talked about the reality, how we’re going to market, the fact that this has been and always will be a player-driven, player-led league. We do that through our competition. We do that through our marketing. We do that through ownership structure, and as we partner with them. We talked about the importance of them making sure that they’re showing up as their best selves on and off the course.

Did you see Graeme McDowell’s remarks to Sports Illustrated earlier this week?

I did not.

He said in part that LIV’s detachment from Saudi funding could benefit the league: “I don’t think we could have ever imagined how deep this would go. The hatred. It’s funny, but if we can shift the narrative away from Saudi Arabia and bring some U.S. money and get rid of that narrative … because that narrative is just nasty.” How do you respond to that?

I would have to read the whole article. I don’t want to duck the question, [but] I always like to see things in context, the way they were said and reported. I will tell you that I came into this role excited about the opportunity to grow it. Where it was, the investor base as it was, and today I stand even more excited about the opportunity and what the potential is.

The good news about a process when you’re raising money is it’s as pure a process as you can get. If you have a plan that people love and there can be a return, you will find your way. It’s as pure a form of competition as you will find. It just happens to be set up on a golf course, instead of in an office somewhere. Our jobs are to focus on a plan that we feel is sound. The players are going be partners and come along for the ride. And then finding some potential partner on the back end, which we’re pretty confident in.

What’s the go-or-no-go timeline look like for continuing past 2026?

If you think of the time of your waking hours as 100 percent, the only thing you can do to increase that [time] is to sleep less. If any amount of that time spent in any other fashion other than working towards this transaction, it’s a terrible use of my time. The good news is, when we have conversations like this, because golf is played by most of the people who make these kinds of decisions, it’s a great use time. So we’re completely aligned.

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We are working at an incredible pace. Our partners, Alix Partners and Ducera, and our two board members, Gene Davis and John Zinman, understand the urgency. They understand the decision-making process. They’ve been through this before, and I’ve been through this before. This is kind of what we’re what we’re meant to do and meant to be and that’s why we’re here. But there’s certainly pressure. I love it; it’s what I like. I’m glad we’re in this situation.

You’re glad? Can you elaborate?

My whole life, if you look at my experience, I’ve always walked into roles where they’ve been really challenging. I choose them and they choose me. In fact, I remember one day [when I was working] at the Philadelphia 76ers — and I have four daughters — and it was a particularly spicy time in the media around the “trust the process” movement. [Ed note: The period when the 76ers intentionally maintained a weak roster to improve their draft picks.] I remember one of my daughters coming home, she was getting a hard time at school. So I sat all the girls down at the table and just had a nice conversation. I said, “The Golden State Warriors are not calling your daddy. It’s not how it works. We do hard things. We do hard things in life, we do hard things in our family, and we choose to do hard things at work.”

I think that’s where all the learning is. I think that’s where all the action is. That’s what all the fun is. When I accepted this role and recruited some of my best friends in the world to come work here with us, some really talented people out of really, really good jobs. I didn’t say to them, “Hey, this is gonna be great! I’m gonna travel the world. We’re gonna play a ton of golf, and it’s gonna be fun.” I said, “I’ve never seen a mountain this tall before.” That was my recruiting pitch. “I’ve never seen so many obstacles put up around this mountain, and yet I’ve never been more excited to scale it. Do you want to come and be part of this?”

Those are the people that are here. So everyone here opted into this. I know it’s hard for people to understand. I know uncertainty is hard for people to understand, and some people have spent their whole life in one role. And some people have taken a really safe path through life. I think those are wonderful experiences for people. I don’t have a judgmental bone in my body. I know what I choose. And I know what this team here chooses. And by the team, I don’t just mean my executive team or the staff that’s incredible that works here — but players, too, and caddies. Everybody chose this. If we wanted the carousel, we would have paid our two bucks and hopped on. We chose a roller coaster, Kingda Ka [a rollercoaster at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey].

You can’t choose Kingda Ka and then whine when it flips you upside down. You may scream, but it better be a scream of exhilaration. That’s where we find ourselves. This is a group of colleagues, friends, associates, professionals, executives, players that are banding together, locking arms, and saying, “Let’s go do this.”

So that’s what I mean [when I say “I’m glad”]. I don’t mean it to be sarcastic or funny or cynical. I mean it in the truest sense of the word. This is why we came here: to do something that’s really rewarding and challenging and stretching — and leading us or pushing us beyond what’s like a rational limit. This is as fun as it gets in this business.

Your idea of fun is little different than mine.

[Laughs] And that’s okay. If mine was the same as yours, I’d been doing what you do, right? And if yours were like mine, you’d be doing what I do.

From the outside looking in, in light of the billions in funding that’s going away, it looks like an impossible hill you’re trying to climb. I think it’s just hard for people to wrap their heads around.

I’ve been reading what the other tours are going through, and there’s quite a bit of transition, transformation, in some cases restructuring going on in golf, and I think it’s time for that. If we are going to continue to believe that golf is good, I hope you believe that resilience and consistency and humility and this notion of focusing on the flag and hard work, all the things that you learn through and around golf are good.

Then you have to ask yourself, “Well, is LIV Golf good?” That’s the series of questions, when taking this job, I asked myself: Is golf good? I think, yeah, golf is really good. The world is better with more golf in it. I believe that.

Then I asked myself, is the world of golf better with LIV in it? And I had like a 100-percent-unquestionable-not-even-close “yes.” Because we’re taking the game to markets that are starved for what we do. We’re introducing team golf, like, beyond the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup and college golf, the Olympics — this great notion of team golf. And then we’re infusing this sense of nationalism. You go to Australia and people wear Rippers hats and they’re going crazy for Cam [Smith] and Herbie [Lucas Herbert] and Liesh [Marc Lieshman] and Elvis [Smylie]. And you go to South Africa and they’re singing the national anthem on an 18, people are crying on the 1st tee, and you think, Huh, there’s something really special here.

And so that’s my series of questions: Does golf matter? Yes, golf is good. Does LIV Golf matter? Yes, it clearly does. It’s making an impact. Okay, how do we take all that stuff we done and how do we put that into a business that’s sustainable? And can make our players and other players want to be here and want to play? That part we’re very far along on. You’ll see it when the world sees it, and and I think investors are really going to like it.

You inherited a global golf league with a framework already in place. If you were starting one from scratch today, what would you do differently?

I can only speak to what I walked into [in January 2025]. It’s very hard to understand it. I read all the stuff. I looked at all the old documents. I looked at all the players who wanted to play for LIV, many of whom would surprise you quite a bit. Our biggest critics all made offers to come play, all of them, every one of them.

The media scrutiny was very intense. From what I understand, it was very difficult. You weren’t allowed to play at [certain] courses. You were restricted from working for sponsors. You were restricted from working for television networks. There’s major restrictions, OWGR restrictions. I can’t begin to imagine what that situation was like and what the team had to endure during that time. Because I can’t pretend to know; I wasn’t here.

But a lot of what was built was really special. The team concept works. The focus on attracting young people to this game with music and art and fashion and culture and food, it works. It’s worked in every other sport. This notion that there’s time for change when — I worked in the NBA when hand-checking was legal. I worked in the NHL when the two-line pass was not legal. And goalie pads were bigger. And overtime could last for a long time. I never worked in baseball, but I thought putting a run around second and having a pitch clock was, was — people would have thrown you out of the room 10 years ago. Yet Rob [Manfred, MLB commissioner] was courageous and Adam [Silver, NBA commissioner] was courageous and Gary [Bettman, NHL commissioner] is courageous, and good for them. I like the fact that there’s opportunity for change.

So to answer your question directly, I would say a lot of what you’ll see in the next 10 days or so is exactly what we would have built from scratch from the beginning.

Ten days? So big announcements are coming?

No, I wouldn’t say big announcement. But that’s about when we’ll start talking to players about where we’re heading and bringing them in and getting their feedback. I like where we’re heading. I’m not answering your question directly, but there’s a lot of what we do that I like a lot. And there are lots of new elements that we’ll pull in and do differently. But I love the teams. I love global. I love players as partners. I love player-run player involvement. And I love building the next generation of stars and the next generation of youth fans. I love a super social-media presence in terms of growing fan bases. I love bringing technology into the sport. So there’s a lot of stuff that I absolutely love that we’ve done and I’ve inherited and I’m grateful for that.

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The post ‘If the players want me back’: Bryson DeChambeau lays out 2 demands for PGA Tour return appeared first on Golf.

We’ve heard a lot from Bryson DeChambeau at this week’s LIV Golf event at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia. It’s the first LIV tournament since the league confirmed reports that the Saudi Arabian PIF would pull funding after this season.

As a result, reporters and fans alike were eager to hear what DeChambeau, LIV’s biggest star, thought of the monumental news. He told GOLF’s Alan Bastable that he was caught off guard when the PIF funding news first broke.

“There’s no way. That’s frickin’ impossible, considering what I’d heard a couple months earlier. I thought there was a plan through 2032. It was a flip of the switch,” DeChambeau said on Tuesday in Virginia.

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He told other outlets that should LIV Golf end, he could even envision dedicating himself to his popular YouTube channel full time.

But what about a return to the PGA Tour for the two-time major champion?

On Wednesday, DeChambeau revealed his current thinking about a potential PGA Tour comeback. In an interview with Skratch Golf, he laid out two specific requirements he would need met to make a PGA Tour return a reality.

Bryson DeChambeau on PGA Tour comeback: ‘It’s really about if the membership wants me back’

In his latest interview with Garrett Johnston of Skratch, DeChambeau detailed two specific hurdles preventing him from rejoining the PGA Tour.

The first obstacle he identified was the current PGA Tour players. DeChambeau declared that ultimately they would need to “want him back” before he’d consider a return.

“I think there’s a way to solve any problem. It’s really about if the membership wants me back and if they just want me back. That’s what it’s about,” DeChambeau admitted. “I don’t even think it’s [PGA Tour CEO] Brian Rolapp or anybody like one of the top executives, it’s really if the players want me back and if not, then I understand that.”

Bryson’s comments speak to how acrimonious the PGA Tour-LIV Golf rift has been over the past five years. The rise of LIV divided the top players, and relationships have been strained. That’s especially true when it comes to vocal star players like DeChambeau, who is divisive among golf fans in the best of times.

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DeChambeau’s other issue has to do with his YouTube account and other social media platforms. Bryson has repeatedly said those pursuits will be a big part of his future. He told Skratch that the PGA Tour policy governing players’ creation of social media content at tournaments was one of the biggest pain points preventing his Tour comeback.

DeChambeau argued, “If you look at it, it’s affiliate marketing, so me being able to create content on that golf course that week at that event should only bring value to the tournament, and that’s what I care about most, entertaining like I’ve always said from day one.”

But he also incorrectly claimed that the PGA Tour restricts players from creating content at tournaments during practice rounds and pro-ams.

“So if I was to film a video during the week of one of their events with a content creator or a celebrity, that would be in violation to my knowledge. It’s their policy, they didn’t let me do it when I was on there. I asked various times,” DeChambeau claimed.

The PGA Tour clarified to Skratch that under current PGA Tour Social Media Policy Tour pros are allowed to create content at events prior to the tournament rounds.

There is one reality that makes a PGA Tour return more feasible for DeChambeau than some of his LIV compatriots.

DeChambeau’s current LIV deal expires at the end of the season. Therefore, he’s not required to play LIV events beyond 2026. Furthermore, the massive new contract he was originally seeking is likely off the table with LIV’s funding issues.

That stands in stark contrast to Jon Rahm, for example. Rahm is under contract with LIV for years to come, giving him less flexibility than DeChambeau moving forward.

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As LIV Golf prepares for its first tournament since the news that it will no longer be funded by the Saudi PIF following this season, questions continue to swirl about what will happen to the league and its players.

LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil spoke at length on Tuesday at Trump National D.C. about a business plan, momentum and strategic changes going forward. Although, as Jon Rahm noted, O’Neil and other LIV executives “have a lot of hard work to do” to secure funding for the future.

Rahm said Tuesday he has several years left on his contract. But as for LIV’s most prized possession, Bryson DeChambeau? He’s only signed through the end of 2026. What he does next is one major storyline, not only for the long-term health of LIV but the future of the pro golf landscape.

He already has ideas if he doesn’t return to LIV or if the pathway back to the PGA Tour doesn’t pan out.

“I think, from my perspective, I’d love to grow my YouTube channel three times, maybe even more,” DeChambeau told a few outlets, including ESPN and SI, on Tuesday. His YouTube channel has 2.7 million subscribers. “I would love to. I’d love to do a bunch of dubbing in different languages, giving the world more reason to watch YouTube. And then I’d love to play tournaments that want me.”

DeChambeau told them he had conversations with the PGA Tour but did not discuss what a return could look like.

Brooks Koepka went from LIV to the PGA Tour earlier this year via the Returning Member Program but paid a hefty price to do so. DeChambeau — along with Rahm and Cameron Smith — also had a chance to return under those same circumstances but declined. A potential path back to the PGA Tour will likely be different now, especially since DeChambeau, unlike Koepka, was once involved in a lawsuit against the Tour.

Although despite LIV’s uncertain future, DeChambeau said the PGA Tour “isn’t doing great either.”

“Let’s be honest about the situation,” he told reporters. “They’ve got the media. They’ve got everybody on the side that helps pump it up. But they’re reducing field sizes, cutting employees and restructuring their business too.”

O’Neil was asked Tuesday how DeChambeau’s contract situation (whether he has one or not) affects funding efforts for next year.

“Well, that’s an interesting question,” he said. “I’m not sure. We’ll sort through and work through. I appreciate the question. It’s just Bryson’s special. He’s different and special. You want to talk about a business partner, we’re literally talking about the future of LIV Golf, I’m talking with him about how does he see, not just the golf, but the business. He’s smart, he’s driven, he’s committed, and he’s a heck of a partner.”

DeChambeau told GOLF.com he sees the current LIV uncertainty as an opportunity.

“Any time a door closes, another one opens,” he said. “I don’t think if a door closes, you’re just locked in forever. For us, this is the opportunity that we have in this country and also internationally, the freedom and the opportunity to build businesses. If it’s restructured in the right way, and people see the value of team golf, and want to be a part of something special, I think there’s opportunity out there.”

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The post ‘He was cussing himself’: Bryson DeChambeau melts down on 18 to miss Masters cut appeared first on Golf.

Bryson DeChambeau was hopeful that on this Masters Sunday, he would put his arms through the green jacket. Instead, DeChambeau will be watching the third and fourth rounds of the 2026 Masters from home.

The two-time major champion fought off an ugly opening round with solid play on Friday at Augusta National. Until he didn’t.

All of DeChambeau’s hard work came undone with a shocking meltdown in a greenside bunker that led to a devastating triple bogey and easily made Bryson the most surprising player to miss the Masters cut.

DeChambeau rallies from nightmare start on Masters Friday (at first)

What made DeChambeau’s 18th-hole ejection so surprising was what had happened over the previous 17 holes.

He started Friday’s round in a big hole. DeChambeau, who was among the pre-tournament betting favorites, shot a four-over 76 in Thursday’s opening round. A frustrated DeChambeau was terse with reporters following the disappointing performance.

His ultimate undoing on Thursday would turn out to be an omen for things to come. At Augusta’s difficult 11th hole in Round 1, DeChambeau twice failed to escape a greenside bunker, later explaining it by saying the sand was softer than he expected.

On Friday, it became clear early that the cut line would eventually settle at four or five over par (it ended up at four over). That meant Bryson had zero room for error.

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When he bogeyed the 1st hole right out of the gates to drop to five over, he was suddenly facing an uphill climb to make the cut.

At this point, one could imagine Bryson growing more frustrated, causing him to fall further down the leaderboard. But that’s not what happened.

Instead, DeChambeau grinded out the rest of his round, making three birdies to close out his first nine at one under on the day. At the turn, he was back on the right side of the cut line.

When a disappointing bogey came at the par-5 13th, DeChambeau buckled down and made birdie at 15 to get back to three over.

He was still at that number, and safely within the cut line, when he arrived at the par-4 18th hole.

DeChambeau’s 18th-hole bunker disaster leads to triple bogey, MC

At 18, DeChambeau only needed a bogey-5 to secure his tee times for Masters weekend.

He first hit a wayward drive into the right trees. But when he found the left greenside bunker in 2 from the pine straw, it seemed like a foregone conclusion: splash out, two-putt, shake hands and hit the range to start prepping for a historic comeback.

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It seemed like it would be that easy. Until it wasn’t.

In a callback to his 11th-hole nightmare on Thursday, DeChambeau swiped at his ball with his wedge, but it failed to escape the top lip of the bunker, rolling back down the face to remain in its sandy prison.

No matter. He could still get up-and-down to make the cut. And his second attempt was much better than the first. It even looked like it might work out. Until it didn’t.

Bryson’s ball bounced onto the green softly, but too low to survive the slick, sloping putting surface. So he could only watch in horror as it tailed right before reaching the hole and rolling off the front of the green entirely.

A patron could be heard on the Masters.com video of the shot saying, “He was cussing himself over there.”

Now DeChambeau needed a miracle chip-in to make the Masters cut, but he sent his attempt well past the hole. He missed that one before finally draining the comebacker for a devastating triple-bogey 7.

He could only grimace with the knowledge that his score went from one under to two over on the closing hole. His Friday 74 left him at six over for the tournament, and he missed the cut by two shots.

But there wouldn’t be another curt meeting with reporters Friday night. DeChambeau quickly packed up and left the property before any questions could be asked.

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On Wednesday at the Masters Par 3 Contest, Bryson DeChambeau glowed on TV screens across the country. He was all smiles, as he often is, yucking it up with movie star Kevin Hart, who caddied for the two-time major champion in the laidback event.

But just one day later, viewers were presented with a much different version of Bryson DeChambeau.

Following a nightmare start in the opening round of the 2026 Masters on Thursday, a fuming-under-the-surface DeChambeau was terse with reporters, partly blamed the wind for his struggles, praised the 3D-printed iron he made for himself and, finally, offered up a one wordless response that is sure to become a golf meme for years to come.

Frustrated DeChambeau reacts to struggles in Masters opening round

Coming into this week’s Masters, DeChambeau was riding high. He’d just won back-to-back LIV events, earning him elevated placement in the pre-tournament Masters odds. So high, in fact, that oddsmakers deemed Bryson to have a better chance of winning the green jacket than defending champion Rory McIlroy.

But in a mirror of last year’s final round, Thursday’s opening day of the 2026 Masters saw McIlroy rise to the top of the leaderboard, and DeChambeau fall far behind, risking irrelevance on the weekend.

By day’s end, McIlroy had shot 67 to tie for the early lead. DeChambeau had shot 76 and will have to fight to make the cut on Friday.

It’s safe to say that after the round, DeChambeau was not amused with his results.

While he often is positive, thoughtful and long-winded in media interviews, DeChambeau was none of the above on Thursday evening. Perhaps understandably so, given what had unfolded at Augusta National on Thursday.

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The first question was about Bryson’s biggest disaster of the day. At the treacherous par-4 11th, he twice failed to escape the greenside bunker, eventually walking away with a triple-bogey 7.

What happened on 11?

“Bunker was softer than I anticipated,” DeChambeau replied curtly.

How cognizant were you of not going left given what happened last year in the final round? (When DeChambeau hit his approach on 11 into the greenside pond, resulting in a devastating double bogey.)

“The ball flew 12 yards farther than I wanted it to. I had a good shot.”

How is the 5-iron treating you? (The 5-iron that DeChambeau 3D-printed himself, which he enthusiastically shared in his pre-Masters press conference, along with plans to eventually build an entire set of self-made irons.)

“Good. It was great on 7. Hit a good second shot. Wind didn’t hit it off the left. Irons are still something I have to work on.”

Are you satisfied with the 5?

“Yeah, yeah. I mean, I only hit it once today, so…”

When Bryson was then asked how long it would take for him to make one of his homemade irons, he appeared to grow increasingly impatient and eager to move on.

Still, he reeled off an explanation in monotone bullet points.

“Prints in eight hours. Machines, they’re three or four hours,” DeChambeau began. “Then you have to cut grooves in it and do a bunch of other stuff. So you can have something within a day and a half.”

But it was DeChambeau’s response to the next question that betrayed his true state-of-mind following a grueling and unsuccessful hike up and down Augusta National’s pristine hills.

When asked if he would consider printing and building a new iron for the weekend rounds, a flabbergasted DeChambeau responded with facial expression that became an instant meme, then said, “No. It has to be USGA-conforming. There’s a whole process you have to go through.”

DeChambeau did provide a small window into his gameplan for Friday considering his lowly leaderboard position, saying he had to “hit my irons better,” while also lamenting the tricky winds at Augusta.

“Just going to give what the golf course gives me. I have to try to hit my irons better. I drove it left numerous occasions,” he said. “Did a great job on 18. Wind didn’t hurt it like we thought, and that’s this game. That’s the golf course.”

He continued: “You know, everybody has an ability for weird things to happen, and today I just did not have my irons under control, which is weird. It’s been good coming into it, so…”

When one reporter then tried to return to the 5-iron line of questioning, DeChambeau had officially had enough.

“That’s a longer conversation. It’s not for here,” he replied.

And with that, the scrum was over, and DeChambeau was left trying to figure out how to figure out this bedeviling golf course on Friday.

He tees off for Round 2 at 1:20 p.m. ET.

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The post Bryson DeChambeau’s pick-me-up, after an amateur star is crushed at Augusta appeared first on Golf.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Bryson DeChambeau says he told Asterisk Talley there’s more to golf.  

He said that she could sign autographs and that she could inspire.

He said she had an opportunity to show who she was. 

And that was DeChambeau’s message to Talley on Saturday afternoon after she struggled during the Augusta National Women’s Amateur’s final round. The two-time men’s U.S. Open winner had come out to support one of the world’s best women’s amateurs, who he’d known for a while and was the ANWA leader through two days. But disaster hit. Talley bogeyed the 11th hole. She dumped two shots in the water on 12 and made a quadruple bogey. She signed for a three-over 75 and tied for fourth. 

Afterward, DeChambeau met with her. Tuesday, two days before he was to start in the Masters, he talked a bit about what he told her. 

What happened, he said, wouldn’t define Talley. 

“Yeah, again, knowing her and seeing her practice around me quite a bit when she was younger,” DeChambeau said, “I felt like it was a great opportunity to come out and support her, knowing where she was and that she was playing very well. Also, if she won, there to support her. If she lost, there to help her.

“I felt like it was an opportunity that I could show her a different side of golf. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and the losses can be really difficult. But it’s just not what defines you. That was the message I gave her. This is not going to define you. If anything, this is going to almost give you an opportunity to show who you truly are.”

DeChambeau said he tried to give Talley some perspective after he had a similar result last year. At the 2025 Masters, he led after two holes into the tournament’s final round, then played four-over golf after that and tied for fifth. 

“It’s more important to show who you truly are in the losses than the wins,” DeChambeau said Tuesday. “If you have the ability to inspire kids around you — I essentially said look at all the people out there waiting for you to sign autographs. If you can go out there and sign those autographs, it’s more impactful than even winning the tournament sometimes. I know that from experience.

“Albeit, it’s great to win and we all want to win, there’s more to the game. Don’t let this define you because you’re going to have an unbelievable career. This is the start of something special.

“Those are the words I gave her. There was more that I said that I won’t talk about obviously, but that was the gist of it. I felt it was the right time to do it. Again, it’s not like I’m — I mean, I was focused on just helping her out. I didn’t want anything from it other than to help her out.” 

During a post-round interview on Saturday, Talley said DeChambeau told her to keep her head high. 

“He said he’s been in my position before, and he knows how it feels, especially here,” he said. “He said you’re a great player. It doesn’t really matter.” 

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