NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. – The ugly byproduct of golf’s civil war the last few years is the complete absence of nuance.
For example, Bryson DeChambeau was asked last week at the LIV Golf event in Virginia if – given the league’s uncertain future following Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund’s decision to pull funding at the end of this year – he would consider a return to the PGA Tour.
“I think there’s a way to solve any problem. It’s really about if the membership wants me back and if they just want me back. That’s what it’s about,” DeChambeau said. “I don’t even think it’s [PGA Tour CEO] Brian Rolapp or anybody like one of the top executives, it’s really if the players want me back and if not, then I understand that.”
The aggregated version of this quote landed predictably on, “if the players want me back,” and DeChambeau went on to explain that maybe if he moves on from LIV, he’d eschew the Tour altogether and lean into life as a YouTube sensation and occasional major championship participant.
Without the benefit of nuance, DeChambeau’s take landed like a waterlogged Pro V1 among the PGA Tour set.
“If you want to be the most competitive golfer you can be, this is the place to be. And if you don’t want to play here, I think that says something about you,” said Rory McIlroy without calling DeChambeau out by name.
Others were not as subtle.
“Some people need to just not talk,” Lucas Glover said when asked about DeChambeau’s desire to have Tour members “want [him] back.”
Adam Scott was a bit more pragmatic.
“That’s not really how it works,” the Australian said. “You decide if you want to play here and you qualify and you play. It doesn’t matter what other people think.”
Lost in DeChambeau’s desire to be welcomed back is the fine print that will likely pave the way for any of the LIV player’s return.
“This is not a negotiation,” Brian Harman said. “The players aren’t really involved in any disciplinary action. It’s not like we take a vote with what to do with certain players.
“I’m not sure any players were consulted for Brooks [Koepka’s] coming back, so I’m not sure why we would be consulted for anyone else. The disciplinary deal is up to the Tour to decide and to put that on the membership of the PGA Tour isn’t really fair.”
It remains to be seen if DeChambeau, whose current contract with LIV runs through this season, or any of the other players who joined the Saudi-backed circuit even want to return to the PGA Tour. But in the court of player opinion, DeChambeau’s comments only added to an already polarizing debate.
“He also said that the PGA Tour could use him and that everyone should leave their egos at the door,” Billy Horschel added. “Bryson is an uber-talented individual and someone who does care very much about the game of golf.
“It doesn’t sit well with a lot of players when they see the comments that he could help the PGA Tour out and that the Tour isn’t doing well and we’re losing tournaments. I think a lot of players – the majority of players – that doesn’t sit well with them. It doesn’t sit well with me.”
Some of the missing nuance in DeChambeau’s comments stem from the Tour’s decision to manufacture an expediated path back for Koepka – as well as DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cam Smith – earlier this year. The Returning Member Program was designed specifically for that foursome in a narrow window and only Koepka agreed to the terms of the deal.
The program required Koepka to “donate” $5 million to various charities and limited his status to non-signature events and the majors he is qualified to play. He also isn’t able to earn equity in the Tour for five years or receive sponsor exemptions into signature events.
It was not officially billed as a “one-time-offer,” but the Tour was clear that the deal was not precedent-setting.
Without the leverage of what Tour commissioner Jay Monahan called an “irrational threat” behind the PIF’s financial muscle, it’s difficult to imagine the Tour offering DeChambeau, or any potential returnee, a similarly sweetheart deal.
Instead, it’s more likely the circuit would be content to let any LIV player who wants to return to follow Patrick Reed’s lead. The American is playing the DP World Tour this season, essentially serving a one-year suspension since his last LIV event, and will reclaim his Tour status via his top-10 status on the European tour this fall.
“The PGA Tour is not going to bend over backward for just one player and give that one player everything to have him back, that’s not the way it’s ever been done,” Horschel said. “If you want to be a part of the PGA Tour, we want you to be part of the PGA Tour, but you have to play your role as well.”
Complicating DeChambeau’s potential return is his involvement in a 2022 lawsuit against the PGA Tour. DeChambeau and 10 other Tour players who joined LIV Golf filed an antitrust lawsuit that challenged the circuit’s decision to suspend them in U.S. District Court. The “framework agreement” between the Tour and the PIF in June 2023 ended the legal wrangling between the two sides but not before the Tour piled up more than $50 million in legal fees.
DeChambeau also questioned the Tour’s social media policy, which was recently adjusted to allow players more flexibility to produce content from tournaments while protecting the circuit’s broadcast partners.
“The guy who sued the Tour is now trying to get us to change policies for him?” Glover asked. “Good luck.”
The Tour membership have largely embraced Koepka’s return because the policy threaded the needle between exacting a toll and benefiting the business. How Rolapp and his team thread that needle with DeChambeau & Co. is the $1 billion question and since the LIV players are currently under contract with the league, the Tour is going to veer well clear of anything that even remotely could be considered tampering.
The Tour, as a business, would undoubtedly want DeChambeau back in the fold, but the members don’t appear to be as bullish and the two-time major champion may be asking a question he doesn’t want to hear the answer.