Bryson DeChambeau explains slow progress of ‘start-up’ LIV Golf
The next event that combines the biggest stars in LIV Golf with the best of the best on the PGA Tour is right around the corner at The Masters. But both tours still have one tournament left to go before the season’s first major.
During the first few months of the LIV Golf season, the first cracks have started to show in the Saudi-backed league’s potential staying power.
Looming contract disputes with some of its stars, such as Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Kopeka, along with discourse around the league’s progress have overshadowed the golf itself in the 54-hole league.
Near the end of March, Koepka expressed his displeasure with the progress of the league over the last few years.
Ahead of LIV Miami, DeChambeau chimed in on the issue, via Josh Carpenter of Sports Business Journal.
“As our fourth year, look, it’s a start-up,” DeChambeau said. “It’s still four years in. And we’re working towards what we’ve always believed in this league is team golf. We’re still individuals playing stroke play events but there’s a tea component which is really cool. … There’s always gonna be improvements, just like any business, just like anything.
“There definitely needs to be some continued thought about what LIV Golf is doing for the global game of golf.”
Photo by Thananuwat Srirasant/Getty Images
DeChambeau is taking the more optimistic view between him and Koepka, two of the original faces of the rise of LIV Golf. However, there is no question that Koepka’s complaints have some merit to them.
The Saudi-backed league has struggled to find sponsors. LIV Golf television ratings have been poor, to put it mildly.
That left Koepka to hit the nail on the head Wednesday.
“We all hoped it would be a bit farther along,” Koepka said.
Meanwhile, the 2024 U.S. Open Champion hasn’t had the year he would have envisioned — he’s currently No. 16 in the LIV points standings with zero top five finishes in four events — but he has one more chance to get going before The Masters.
If he can come into Augusta National with some momentum, he absolutely has the game to contend for the Green Jacket at the place he once famously called a par-67.
More Golf: Lee Westwood Goes Scorched Earth on Jon Rahm Hypocrisy from DP World Tour
