LIV Golf's Bryson DeChambeau Is Getting Back to Business and Back to Playing Well
LOS ANGELES — It’s business as usual for Bryson DeChambeau.
He’s spending inordinate amounts of time on the driving range preparing to play golf. And he’s proceeding as if nothing has changed with LIV Golf, saying Thursday that he will continue building the four-man team he captains.
The former has him frustrated, as he prefers to find quick fixes. The latter he views as a positive in light of what has occurred in the past week with the so-called peace agreement between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which funds LIV Golf.
"I’m hitting more golf balls than I would like to ever," said DeChambeau, who shot 67 to trail record-setting leaders Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele by five strokes in the first round of the U.S. Open.
And he is confident that LIV Golf will continue in its current state, despite a lack of any kind of public assurances from the PIF or LIV Golf management.
"We’re looking to hire somewhere here shortly for the GM position, very excited about that," said DeChambeau, referring to a general manager who would run his Crushers GC team as part of LIV's franchise strategy.
The 2020 U.S. Open champion, DeChambeau was mired in a prolonged slump for the better part of a year having suffered through a hand injury that required surgery as well as a labrum issue in 2022.
That prompted him to change his diet and lose some of the bulk that became such the rage for him throughout 2019 and into 2020 as he became the longest driver on the PGA Tour.
DeChambeau began to find some form in recent months and he tied for fourth at the PGA Championship after holding the first round lead.
But he said he's had a difficult time getting his swing back to the way it felt those first two days at Oak Hill Country Club. That’s why the Twitter account Toptracer noted that DeChambeau hit 321 shots on the driving range at Los Angeles Country Club on Wednesday.
“I feel like I'm very close to getting it because I had it at the PGA for the first two days and then it kind of faltered a little bit," DeChambeau said after making six birdies and three bogeys Thursday. “But I was still able to play really good solid golf, score well.
“Then I didn’t have it at D.C. (The LIV Golf D.C. event the week after the PGA Championship). I just struggled to get back to what I was doing at the PGA for some odd reason. I have no idea what. So we're trying to figure out what that is, whether that's forces—I know it's stability in the hands. Like I don't get that stability. Like on (No.) 9 I pulled it and like, whoa, didn't feel like I did that.
"So working through why when I apply a certain amount of force, a lot of force, it just sometimes feels different through impact and trying to hone that in. If I have what I had at the PGA I'll be contending for sure.
"I've been hitting more golf balls than I would like to ever. It's just, again, I'm trying to figure out what I did in 2018 (when he won two FedEx Cup playoff events on the PGA Tour) that made it so repeatable, and I'm very close to figuring it out.
"Just going to a take a little bit more time, little bit more grinding, a little more thought. Got to come up with something unique that allows me to be super stable through impact like I was."
At a time of great uncertainty in the game, DeChambeau more than almost anyone who has spoken publicly seems bullish about LIV Golf’s future. There’s been no official word on how the new arrangement will work, with the possibility of it being shut down or greatly altered in the new set up.
DeChambeau saying his team will hire someone to run its operation suggests there is approval for expenditures. Other captains such as Martin Kaymer and Dustin Johnson have suggested they’ve been told LIV Golf will continue into 2024.
But DeChambeau told reporters from Golf Digest and ESPN on Wednesday that "I don’t think (LIV Golf) will go away."
He said "it’s highly speculative" that LIV players will be allowed to return to the PGA Tour, but he admitted there are events there he’d love to play again, such as the Travelers Championship, the RBC Heritage, the Arnold Palmer Invitational (which he won in 2021), the Memorial (he won in 2018).
"Probably won’t be too many, but it’ll be good to be back out there," he said.
LIV players getting back into PGA Tour events is seemingly a ways off. It would be part of an agreement that still has numerous facets. DeChambeau admitted those aspects need to be vetted.
Meanwhile, a source said a 2024 schedule is being worked on, and DeChambeau didn’t discount it. He spoke to the governor of the PIF, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, on the day of the announcement.
“Those are private conversations and I don’t know exactly what (Al-Rumayyan’s) plans are. But he had a couple other cool ideas that I think could be interesting for the game of of golf," DeChambeau said. "We’ll see if it happens because you’ve still got to dial in the details."
For now, DeChambeau’s got more pressing concerns, such as not wearing out his driver on the range—as well as contending in the U.S. Open.