WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — As LIV Golf’s stars weigh the ramifications of the PGA Tour’s new Returning Member Program, Bryson DeChambeau believes he could succeed without playing on any tour—instead focusing more on YouTube.
“That’s an incredibly viable option, I’ll tell you that,” DeChambeau told Front Office Sports Wednesday at LIV’s Teams Week preseason event.
DeChambeau on Tuesday indicated he would not pursue PGA Tour reinstatement any time soon as he plays out the final year of his LIV contract. However, his status for 2027 and beyond remains up in the air.
“We are negotiating now and hopefully we can come to a solution where it makes sense for everyone long term,” he told FOS. “And if not, we will see what happens.”
DeChambeau, who has 2.6 million subscribers on YouTube, said he could stay competitive in the four major championships simply by ramping up the golf he plays now mostly for social media content.
“Doing the course record series, and playing Break 50s, it does keep me quite dialed in for tournament golf,” he said. “That is why I do it right before competition. So, it’s a possibility. The financial opportunities are there, and I’m excited to see what comes in the future.”
For this year, DeChambeau, captain of the Crushers GC team, said his priorities are to win every week on LIV, and to contend at the four majors to “hopefully complete the career Grand Slam.”
DeChambeau has won the U.S. Open twice, but not the Masters, PGA Championship, or Open Championship. He’s exempt into all of those through at least 2028, and some even longer.
Future Foundation
Cam Smith is one of the three LIV players alongside DeChambeau and Jon Rahm who are eligible to return to the PGA Tour. And the Australian is decisively more certain about his future than DeChambeau, despite not knowing the exact terms of his current contract.
“I think I have one or two years left,” Smith told FOS Wednesday. “If it had run out this year, I’d still be out here, to be honest. I’m not worried about it.”
Smith is captain of the all-Australian Rippers GC. He won the Open Championship and Players Championship in 2022, which makes him eligible for the PGA Tour’s Returning Member Program. He said he’s confident his team can get “up and running and making some money and profitable,” although he admits the Rippers have “a ways to go yet.”
