[Photo: Michael Miller/ISI Photos]
It’s beginning to feel like the future of LIV Golf hinges on the future of Bryson DeChambeau.
DeChambeau, along with Jon Rahm, is one of two remaining superstars on the Saudi-funded tour and is now entering the final year of his contract. In the wake of Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed’s surprise departures already this year, DeChambeau has been pressed about his future by various outlets. So far, he has been non-committal, but in a revealing interview with Today’s Golfer this week, the two-time US Open champion admitted that he isn’t entirely sold on the league’s impending shift to a 72-hole format.
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“It’s definitely changed away from what we had initially been told it was going to be,” DeChambeau told Today’s Golfer. “So there is some movement that we’ve all been, I would say, interested in, and going, ‘Why that movement?’ Because we were told it was going to be this. So that’s definitely made us have some different thoughts about it.
“I’ve got a contract for this year, and we’ll go through it there and see what happens after that. Look, it’s 72 holes, it’s changed, but we’re still excited to play professionally and play for what we’re doing and go across the world. I think it’s going to be great for our [Crushers GC] team. Is it what we ultimately signed up for? No. So I think we’re supposed to be different, so I’m a little indifferent to it right now.
“Hopefully it weighs positively on me over the course of time, but you never know. I’m not sure. We didn’t sign up to play for 72.”
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DeChambeau repeats the refrain of, “I’m under contract this year. After that, come what may,” which he has had on repeat during the past six weeks. His comments on the format change, however, are more straightforward than we’ve heard from the Crushers captain in the past. It should be noted that DeChambeau helms a wildly popular YouTube channel with nearly 2.6 million followers. In the past few years, DeChambeau has starred in 246 different videos on his channel alongside guests ranging from John Daly to Steph Curry to US president Donald Trump. A few weeks ago, DeChambeau remarked that doing YouTube full-time and playing the majors via exemptions is “an incredibly viable option”.
Clearly, DeChambeau is not convinced that playing 33 percent more golf on a tournament-by-tournament basis – especially considering the travel requirements of LIV Golf – is in his best interests, at least not at the original 54-hole salary he agreed to.
Interestingly, Jon Rahm is perhaps LIV’s biggest proponent of the new format change as he continues to seek OWGR points, and broader golf legitimacy, for the struggling league. It’s not hard to imagine an influence tug-of-war developing behind the scenes between the two as the season, and DeChambeau’s contract negotiations, progress. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see, but fans across the world will agree that an indifferent DeChambeau is not what’s best for golf.