Bryson DeChambeau was once pro golf’s undisputed alpha.
With a direct line to Donald Trump, biceps the size of most players’ thighs, physics-defying drives that turned the world’s toughest courses into pitch-and-putts and an analytical approach to the game that earned him the moniker ‘The Scientist,’ the 32-year-old was the ultimate box office golfer.
So, when DeChambeau – along with some of professional golf’s biggest names – abandoned the PGA Tour in June 2022 to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league for a reported $125 million over four-and-a-half years, he looked like a future face of the game.
Then came whispers that the breakaway tour’s gushing financial taps might finally be running dry. And on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that LIV Golf will soon inform players and staff that the league has lost the funding of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, meaning current operations will likely cease.
It’s been a difficult month for DeChambeau, whose LIV contract is set to expire at the end of this year and is reportedly seeking a new approximately $500 million deal.
In April, he fell short at the Masters Tournament and had a catastrophic meltdown at a LIV Golf tournament in Mexico City, during which he was caught on camera complaining about the conditions of the Club de Golf Chapultepec course and eventually withdrawing, citing a sore wrist.
But there are signs that he’s long been plotting his next move.
According to the man who knows him best, his former coach Mike Schy, DeChambeau isn’t planning a retreat from golf, he’s planning a takeover.
‘I’d bet that Bryson might lead a bid to take [LIV] over and turn it into his own golf business,’ Schy told the Daily Mail, prior to Wednesday’s announcement. ‘He loves a challenge and I know he’s been building up a huge investment fund. When the right opportunity comes along, DeChambeau can start something new and do it his own way.’
‘I root for Bryson all the time,’ said Schy who coached DeChambeau from 2005-2018, ‘but you get the impression his heart just isn’t in LIV anymore and maybe you saw that in Mexico.’
‘I root for Bryson all the time,’ said Schy who coached DeChambeau from 2005-2018, ‘but you get the impression his heart just isn’t in LIV anymore and maybe you saw that in Mexico’
With a direct line to Donald Trump, biceps the size of most players’ thighs, physics-defying drives, 32-year-old Bryson DeChambeau was the ultimate box office golfer
DeChambeau abandoned the PGA Tour to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league for a reported $125 million over four-and-a-half years (Pictured: DeChambeau sinks putt to win LIV Golf Invitational in West Virginia in 2023)
Schy and DeChambeau began working together when DeChambeau was a junior golfer and, with club designer Tom Bailey, helped develop and design the unique same-length irons that DeChambeau now uses. Golfers traditionally use clubs of varying lengths, but DeChambeau is anything but traditional.
When he signed on the dotted line for breakaway LIV Golf, he was one of the few players who admitted the move was purely a ‘business decision.’ And since he joined LIV, DeChambeau has won nearly $60 million in prize money, dwarfing his earnings on the PGA Tour.
But the last several weeks have been revealing. ‘I think Bryson lost a little faith [in the league] when LIV made it 72-hole tournaments this year and not 54-holes which is what they all signed up for,’ added Schy. ‘He thought the goalposts had been moved, as did a lot of the LIV players.’
Both LIV Golf and DeChambeau’s representatives, GSE Worldwide, were contacted for comment on this article and did not respond.
Golf writer Alan Shipnuck, author of LIV and Let Die – The Inside Story of the War Between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, said DeChambeau’s criticism of the golf course at Club de Golf Chapultepec was the inevitable result of embattled tour’s reputation.
‘LIV’s anti-establishment vibe has made it radioactive,’ he said. ‘No top-flight venues wanted to host their tournaments so they were kind of relegated to these B-list golf courses.’
Trump speaks during an executive order signing ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on July 31, 2025 (Pictured: DeChambeau, third from left)
At a LIV Golf tournament in Mexico City in April (above), DeChambeau was caught on camera complaining about the conditions of the Club de Golf Chapultepec
This month, when rumors swirled over LIV Golf’s future, LIV CEO Scott O’Neil said the league was ‘funded through the 2026 season,’ but offered little clarity beyond that, which signaled more trouble for DeChambeau.
He even addressed the uncertainty himself, insisting that he’s committed to the league’s success, as recently as last week.
‘We’re still working on a potential contract. I haven’t given up on that and I think there will be a solution,’ he said. ‘But as of right now, my job is to help make the league work after this year… as long as LIV is here, I would figure out a way for it to make sense.’
Whatever now happens, DeChambeau’s position as the leading golfer on social media – he has over 9 million followers across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram – means he is well-positioned to weather the storm, even if it means that he may not be welcomed back to the PGA Tour.
His one-time nemesis Brooks Koepka returned to the Tour in January, while fellow major winner Patrick Reed left LIV in January and is attempting to earn his way back on to the tour by playing on a European tour.
‘I could see a very narrow, tailored carve-out that would allow DeChambeau to come back [to the PGA] in much the way that Koepka did simply because he has value,’ added Alan Shipnuck. The issue, of course, is whether DeChambeau actually wants to return.
The issue, of course, is whether DeChambeau actually wants to return.
Schy, for one, isn’t convinced.
DeChambeau has seen his one-time nemesis Brooks Koepka (on the right with DeChambeau in Las Vegas in 2021) return to the PGA Tour
Major winner Patrick Reed has also left LIV and is aiming for a PGA homecoming
‘I’m not sure he even wants to be back on the PGA Tour – I think he just wants to do his own thing,’ he said. ‘Besides, there’s too much bad blood.’
Alan Shipnuck agrees. ‘All of the LIV golfers participated in a competitor that was trying to take down the PGA Tour,’ he said, ‘so this is now a time for vengeance and retribution… and they’re going to get the middle finger from the PGA Tour.’
Schy believes DeChambeau’s single-mindedness will serve him well wherever he lands, even if it isn’t on a pro golf tour. ‘I just don’t think Bryson is as remotely interested in becoming world number one as he was when we started out,’ he says. ‘Bryson even told me he’d quite like to be a YouTube golfer and just have some fun – and he is so good at that.’
From double US Open champion to social media sensation – is that DeChambeau’s future? For the man who once wanted to conquer the golf world with scientific rigor and analysis, it seems the only equation that matters right now is his follower count.
