Why Bryson DeChambeau Is the Biggest Loser From LIV Golf’s Demise

LIV Golf’s chances of staying alive took one final hit on Wednesday when multiple reports stated that its possible new financial backer, BC Partners Credit, had decided to walk away from the league. That news was then confirmed by LIV Golf’s lawyers at a bankruptcy hearing in New Jersey on Thursday.

LIV Golf, which formed in 2021 (the first tournament was in June 2022) with unlimited funds from the Saudi Public Investment Fund, is now dead. Lots of big-name players made boatloads of money during the league’s brief history, winning tournaments that nobody will remember. And now a number of those stars are looking to find ways to continue their careers after ditching the PGA Tour for all that money that was handed out at meaningless events.

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The biggest loser from this, at least on the players’ side of things, has to be Bryson DeChambeau. The two-time major winner made the jump to LIV Golf in June 2022. He won five times on the tour, and up until a few days ago, seemed like he was all in on sticking with the league in the future.

DeChambeau basically threw away four years of his prime to play for LIV Golf. While he won a U.S. Open during that time and has remained as one of the biggest draws in the sport, he has missed out in growing his legacy by not playing on the PGA Tour, where wins are more meaningful than any of the tournaments that were put on by LIV Golf.

Now the biggest question in professional golf is an easy one to ask, but a difficult one to answer: What’s next for Bryson DeChambeau?

Bryson DeChambeau had supported the idea of LIV Golf 2.0.

Now a Tour free agent, his outlook and path in the pro landscape will be different from players like Jon Rahm.

"He's going to be the most compelling story going forward." - @rexhoggardGC pic.twitter.com/09dCKyBene
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) November 4, 2026

A number of star players left LIV Golf before its demise and are in a better place because of their decisions. Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed were the first to jump ship last winter. Koepka was able to make an immediate return to the PGA Tour thanks to a special deal that is no longer on the table. Reed, meanwhile, spent the 2026 season on the DP World Tour and is now back on the PGA Tour.

Jon Rahm left LIV Golf last month and is playing in a DP World Tour event this week. While his return to the PGA Tour is anything but clear, his decision to part ways with LIV Golf helps set up a path that should get him back, though he said this week that he hasn’t had any discussions with the PGA Tour yet. It’s likely that he’ll spend next year on the DP World Tour where he can play his way back to the PGA Tour.

"With the PGA Tour, things are a little bit different," Rahm said Tuesday at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship. "I haven't been able to speak to them yet. Until things are finalized, which should be hopefully soon, and then we'll see.

"I don't know what is in store for us. We know what they did with Brooks. This is different circumstances. I don't know what things are going to look like. But it's a pretty good safety net to have that I can play the DP World Tour next year, and if it comes to that, I'm really excited to play for a full year."

DeChambeau’s path, meanwhile, is a lot more complicated. His decision to stick with LIV Golf up until the very end will make it more difficult for him to work with both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour on a possible return to action in 2027. And while that’s a shame, DeChambeau has nobody to blame but himself.

DeChambeau could have done the smart thing and walked away from LIV Golf on his own. Instead, he continued to double down on the future of the league and his desires to stick with it.

“The business model makes a lot of sense,” DeChambeau said on the Figuring Out podcast, which was released last Saturday. “And we’re actually working through that right now for this new model where it will make full financial sense. It’s no funny business, no nothing. It’s going to be done right. And this is going to be a league, hopefully, that exists forever.”

Forever, apparently, lasted just a few days, and now DeChambeau is likely going to be without a place to play full time in 2027.

But hey, golf fans can still watch him on YouTube where he has a huge audience that apparently enjoys watching him try to break the course record at random golf courses across the country. So he has that going for him.

DeChambeau wasted key years of his professional career and now has to figure out what he wants to do next—and, perhaps more significantly, what he’ll be allowed to do next. He has exemptions to play in major championships with his U.S. Open win in 2024 and can play in some DP World Tour with other exemptions. But it never should have come to this.

You have to wonder what his career would have looked like if he stuck with the PGA Tour back in 2022. Instead, he left to try to “grow the game” while all really he did was grow his bank account and damage his legacy.

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