First, LIV Golf ran out of money. Then it ran out of time. Bryson DeChambeau is sufficiently wealthy that his own future won’t provide an exact replica of their car crash, but his career does hinge on a race against the clock.
It’s ticking fast towards November 15, which is a deadline of some significance. To explain why that is, you’ll have to indulge a small trip into the minutiae of the DP World Tour’s membership regulations.
That’s a complicated journey. But it leads to a fascinating place and the situation is pivotal, as DeChambeau is currently homeless – he has no competitive outlet for his golf now that LIV is dead and what he does next is crucial if he is to avoid becoming an irrelevance.
It has been clear for some time that the PGA Tour are in no rush to send a lifeboat in his direction – he rejected one at the start of this year and my sources suggest it is unlikely he will be presented with another sweetheart deal to go back.
If he is to return to those American fairways, he would have to serve a 12-month suspension in exile and earn his way back on another tour, just like Patrick Reed has done. Maybe the folk Stateside are feeling less vindictive now that LIV has perished, but as of today, I’m told the boat remains docked.
That leaves DeChambeau two prime choices: honour his threat to become a full-time YouTube golfer, which would be colossally stupid if he wishes to remain competitive between majors, or join the DP World Tour.
Bryson DeChambeau has no competitive outlet for his golf now that LIV is dead…
…but his 2024 US Open win opens the door for a spot on the DP World Tour – if he acts fast
I was discussing this with prominent figures on the DP World Tour on Thursday afternoon and reported the detail that evening – they quite fancy having DeChambeau around. He is a peacock of colour, flair and contradictions and controversies; two years ago, almost to the day, he was called to the stage by Donald Trump during his victory speech at the presidential election.
In short, he is box-office, and a very good golfer. Would the DP World Tour want him? Of course they bloody well do.
And this is where the November 15 deadline comes in, because DeChambeau is eligible to take up membership but would need to act fast. That traces to an offshoot of his win at the 2024 US Open, when Rory McIlroy missed a tiddler and DeChambeau claimed his second major.
That victory meant he could have five years on the DP circuit if he fancied, but back then, as LIV Golf’s foremost evangelist and personal confidant to the Saudi moneyman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, it won’t have even registered on his radar.
Now, it is ostensibly his best option, and most sensible, but those regulations exist with a twist: as per my reporting on Thursday, every year that has passed without DeChambeau triggering the membership has seen a further 12 months deducted from the back end of his eligibility.
In other words, the two years he spent not caring has cost him four, leaving only the 2027 season available to him. And to play in 2027 on the DP World Tour, he needs to commit by the close of business on November 15. So there it is – complex but urgent and of great importance.
I dearly hope he takes up that option, because golf is vastly more interesting with DeChambeau in it.
Ask many of his rivals and the view tends to be that he can be a bit of a prat, but valuable to their ecosystem. McIlroy, for one, has been clear in his feelings – when DeChambeau was caught up in a cheating storm at the Open last summer, McIlroy was pretty scathing and added he ‘wasn’t particularly fond of him’.
DeChambeau was caught up in a cheating storm at the Open last summer when he was accused of improving his lie
Ask many of his rivals and the view tends to be that he can be a bit of a prat – but one that helps golf’s ecosystem
Perhaps, in turn, DeChambeau might have enjoyed a different story on Thursday, shortly before his money tree was fed into the wood chipper. That involved McIlroy receiving a two-stroke penalty for improving his lie at a DP World Tour event in Abu Dhabi.
Now imagine if they had been playing side-by-side. And then think over the possibilities at the microphone.
That’s a conversation about the value of villains. I’ve written about it before in this space – one of the consequences of LIV was that it stripped the traditional tours of their most colourful individuals. The prime benefit to LIV’s demise will come from having them back.
If the PGA Tour are smart, they will send out the rescue party and finesse a few rules to get DeChambeau back and quickly. If they don’t, the DP World Tour might just snag a ratings-winner when their finances badly need one. But that is contingent on DeChambeau embracing logic.
As something of a mad scientist, he could talk all day about why he floats his golf balls in an Epsom salt and water solution (he is suspicious of manufacturing flaws in the dimples and likes to measure gravitational imbalances). He could also explain why fire ants present such a health threat that he once invoked USGA Rule 16.2.a for free relief on the ‘dangerous animal’ clause.
But he is also sufficiently irrational that at the height of his tantrum at The Open, he threatened to call Trump if the rules officials refused to back down.
That was one of the most absurd stories I’ve written in the past 12 months, stranger than ‘Penis-gate’ at the Winter Olympic ski-jumping.
But that’s what DeChambeau brings and there isn’t a sporting administrator on the planet who wouldn’t want a piece. Naturally, the videos of him launching wedge shots over his home and onto a back-garden green a few years back drew more views than footage of Scottie Scheffler playing the best golf since Tiger Woods.
Whether that same mind can now be trusted to make a reasonable decision is open to debate. But it would be a hideous loss to all parties if he chooses a path committed to putting Epsom-soaked golf balls down staircases for clicks.
It would be a hideous loss to all parties if DeChambeau focuses on being a YouTube golfer doing tricks for clicks
If the PGA Tour are smart, they will send out the rescue party and finesse a few rules to get DeChambeau back and quickly
PALMER FAILING TO SHOW TUCHEL HE CARES
A video has resurfaced since Jobe Bellingham was called up to join his brother Jude in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad. It shows him performing an impressive party piece – he can name, in reverse order, every winner of the Champions League/European Cup dating back to 1955.
If trivia were in any way relevant to England selection, Angus ‘Statto’ Loughran would have more caps than Harry Kane and Peter Shilton combined, but there is something heartwarming about a player who shows the depths of his obsession.
Indirectly, that footage made me think of Cole Palmer, who swerved the last international break with a minor injury and has been ignored for the latest gathering. If he’s fussed, he hasn’t made it known, which is part of his schtick.
Of course, there’s no imperative for Palmer to prove he can name the Steaua Bucharest side of 1986, but his biggest test is to show Tuchel he cares. Currently, you’d have to say he’s failing.
Cole Palmer (right) swerved the last international break and has been ignored by Thomas Tuchel for this one. If he’s fussed, he hasn’t made it known, which is part of his schtick
POLLOCK TREADING A FINE LINE
Henry Pollock will be the cover star of Tatler’s December issue. On Sunday, he will serve as cover from the bench for England’s game against Australia at Twickenham.
Aged 21 and loaded with both talent and charisma, he has his pick of audiences, but it’s a fine line that he’s choosing to walk.
With one sporting misstep, he will make life very easy for his many critics.