WESTFIELD, Ind. — Bryson DeChambeau said Friday that he’s more than willing to play in a U.S. Ryder Cup team tune-up tournament in advance of the September matches at Bethpage Black, but for one crucial, still-unresolved issue.
The LIV Golf star’s suspension from the PGA Tour.
U.S. captain Keegan Bradley is targeting the Procore Championship, a PGA Tour fall event, as a way to get his team tournament reps in the five-week gap between the end of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf seasons and the Sept. 26 start of the biennial matches.
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World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler said Wednesday at the BMW Championship that he’d likely play. Many of his prospective teammates would likely also compete, in support of Bradley’s idea.
DeChambeau, who Bradley said last month would be on the team (and appears likely to earn an automatic spot anyway), wants to compete but can’t.
“That’s up to the Tour and their decision to make,” he said to Sports Illustrated after opening with a 4-under 67 at LIV Golf Indianapolis. “It’s on them if they don’t let us become together as a team and play.”
DeChambeau would need a sponsor’s exemption to play in the tournament in Napa, Calif., which wouldn’t be an issue, but a Tour spokesman reiterated to SI that the two-time U.S. Open champion “is not eligible for PGA Tour competition.”
Bradley’s agent, Brett Falkoff, said in a text message to SI’s Bob Harig that no formal inquiry into playing the Tour event had been made and that DeChambeau “plans to participate in every team gathering that he is permitted to attend.”
But barring a shift in the PGA Tour’s four-year-long stance on players who compete on LIV Golf, DeChambeau could potentially be the one U.S. Ryder Cup member not at the Procore Championship.
“That just shows you … yeah, I’m not gonna say that,” DeChambeau said, pausing. “Yeah, it’s a scenario that’s unfortunate, and I wish it was different, but LIV’s willing to let me play.”
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