PGA Tour, LIV Golf divide prompts Bryson DeChambeau to call for “death to egos”

LIV Golf Crusher GC captain Bryson DeChambeau isn’t afraid to voice his opinion. Recently he joined the LIV Golf Fairway to Heaven Podcast, where they discussed a number of topics.

From the OWGR to fixing the experience for fans, DeChambeau let it roll.

But it was his take on how to end the schism in golf that provided a mic-drop moment.

“The death to egos is what needs to occur on ALL sides,” DeChambeau said. “If that can happen, I think it’s a step in the right direction for the game of golf.”

The people in charge of both sides appear from the outside to have quite healthy egos.

Multiple reports have detailed PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan’s propensity for wanting control.

Meanwhile, the Saudi Public Investment Fund headed by Yasir Al-Rumayyan, threatened to pull all funding into the Ladies European Tour if they joined with the LPGA Tour as planned.

It is widely believed this move was in response to the PGA Tour signing a $3 billion investment deal with the Strategic Sports Group.

Following the historic June 6 announcement between the PGA Tour and the PIF, there hasn’t been much movement. Discussions have been extended from the initial December deadline to early in the spring.

LIV Golf has some of the best players in the world, including DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm.

Joaquin Niemann is another name that has garnered attention with multiple DP World Tour wins, including the Australian Open, and his 59 at LIV Mayakoba, the league’s 2024 opening tournament.

Both Niemann and DeChambeau have both vocalized their belief of the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) being unfair.

DeChambeau belabored this point on the podcast.

Photo by Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images

“They say, ‘Oh, they haven’t said one thing or another.’ Not doing anything is deciding,” he said. “That’s frustrating. They said ‘you need certain requirements’, we have fulfilled all those requirements, despite what everybody thinks. If you look at their handbook, we have fulfilled every single criteria. It’s been over two years now. What’s going on, guys?”

In October, the OWGR committee explained why LIV is not receiving points.

LIV’s events feature 48-man fields, shotgun starts, no cuts and only play 54-holes. Those are all reasons for the OWGR to deny the rival league points. None of those aspects have changed on the LIV Tour.

That fact makes DeChambeau’s take either misguided or ignorant of reality.

The OWGR committee includes leaders from Augusta National, the United States Golf Association, the PGA of America and the R&A. They have stated that LIV Golf’s structure and format do not give them a fair comparison to the other professional tours.

“It’s a bit frustrating, but nothing we can do at this moment,” DeChambeau said. “If we showcase ourselves in the major championships, there’s no way they can keep us out. We just got to play well in the majors, and once we do, they have no choice.”

The former U.S. Open winner is in the field for all four majors because of his 2020 victory. That earned him an exemption into all of the majors for five years, and 10 years for the U.S. Open. That means DeChambeau has this year and next year left to play in the Masters, the PGA Championship and Open Championship.

Unless he captures another major by the end of 2025, barring a chance to OWGR rules, we may not see him and many of the other best players on LIV for much longer.

He was well aware of this when he made the jump to the rival circuit, too.

“Everyone on our side knew that going into this. We knew that was exactly what they were going to do,” DeChambeau said. “It’s the majors — those associations that have the leverage, and they want golf to be a certain way.”

Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, be sure to follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.