Bryson DeChambeau’s path back to the PGA Tour likely won’t be a smooth one — if it ever happens at all.
DeChambeau, talking to select reporters Tuesday ahead of this week’s LIV Golf event at Trump National Golf Club in Washington D.C., expressed comfort in not returning to the PGA Tour if the LIV circuit cannot find funding to play beyond this year.
The two-time major winner spoke about goals of tripling his 2.69 million YouTube channel audience if not tied to LIV in 2027.
“I’d love to do a bunch of dubbing in different languages, giving the world more reason to watch YouTube, and then I’d love to play tournaments that want me,” said DeChambeau, who evaded detailing possible penalties that would come with a PGA Tour reunion.
“If we can’t help and the [LIV] players can’t help find the funding and we don’t find a solution, for me I think it’s really enticing, depending on what everybody says on the [PGA] Tour and what they’re going to strike me with as a penalty, which is quite unfortunate in my opinion, considering what I could do for them,” he explained.
DeChambeau stressed he was optimistic that private equity money would see the asset accretion value in LIV, and voiced support for CEO Scott O’Neil’s business plan.
“What I mean by that is just value in the team, franchises, and then cleaning up the top company,” he said. “Then I think there’s a pathway forward.”
“Scott’s doing a great job at helping the sustainability live for this year,” he added. “Getting all the economics lined up for this year. Letting them finish out this and kind of winding it down on their own terms, whatever way they want to wind it down. And then we’re coming in with a new business plan that hopefully is enticing to everybody in the golf world.”
DeChambeau was asked about the LIV event in Mexico last month that was besieged by rumors of the tour’s financial turmoil. He said he heard nothing in advance about news that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund was pulling out, recalling a conversation he had with Yasir Al-Rumayyan from 2022 where the vision for league included building academies and golf courses around the world.
Al-Rumayyan was LIV Golf’s chairman until last week when reports about pulled funding became official and LIV announced it had formed a new leadership board.
“I was completely shocked,” DeChambeau said. “I didn’t expect it to happen. A couple months before that, it’s like, we’re here until 2032. We’ve got financing until 2032. And so I told everybody, and that’s what I was told.”
Al-Rumayyan and DeChambeau’s productive relationship has fallen apart by all indication.
“I haven’t had any communication. And unfortunately, things are moving on in a different direction. Obviously, they wanted to move on,” DeChambeau said. “I have nothing bad to say. They’ve provided me with an incredible opportunity to play golf around the globe and win a bunch of tournaments and influence the world in hopefully a good way.”
A return to the PGA Tour?
DeChambeau, who signed with LIV in 2022 and has not renewed his contact that is up at the end of the year, said he plans to show up “every day and do the right thing” despite the financial unrest surrounding LIV and payment of its players.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” he replied to a question about getting paid through his remaining contract.
DeChambeau, who was offered an opportunity to return to the PGA Tour under its Returning Member Program that Brooks Koepka capitalized on in January, used the makeshift press conference as an opportunity to suggest that the onus was on PGA Tour to work with LIV for the betterment of the game.
“Look, the Tour isn’t doing great either. Let’s be honest about the situation,” DeChambeau said. “They’ve got the media. They’ve got everybody on the side that helps pump it up. But they’re reducing field sizes, cutting employees, and restructuring their business, too.”
"Bryson is daring the PGA Tour to go on without him. This is a high stakes game of chicken ... the Tour can go on without him."
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) May 6, 2026
Agree with Ryan Lavner here? Fascinating discussion on Bryson, Brooks and the future of stars on the tour. pic.twitter.com/NlxZHD2K9j
The Returning Member Program offer was pulled on Feb. 2, with the Tour emphasizing it was not setting a precedent with the move.
DeChambeau pointed to 2030, when the Tour’s current media rights deal ends, as an important moment for the game’s future.
“We can all come up with something. We can really do something special for the game. And I hope everybody sees that potential,” he said.
“That would require cooperation from both sides. On both sides. And the egos need to get dropped. Everybody needs to come in with a level-headed playing field, with an opportunistic mindset to grow the game of golf. That’s why I came over here.”
New rules every day
The DP World Tour is an option for DeChambeau to entertain if the LIV funding doesn’t come through and his stance toward the PGA Tour’s assumed penalties does not waver by the end of the year.
After winning the U.S. Open at Pinehurst in 2024, he is exempt in 2027 to play on the European tour.
“I don’t have any control over the policies they make,” DeChambeau said after being told of the exemption. “I don’t know. I mean, they make up rules every day. ... I would love to entertain the world globally and play professional golf globally and give everyone around the globe a show.”
He pointed to his YouTube following having a younger demographic, and the importance of reaching them.
“And I want to continue to inspire them and give them as much entertainment as possible because I’m just being myself,” he said. “I’m trying to be myself as much as I can. I think there’s value to that and I want to give the world of golf as much as I can.”
