Bryson DeChambeau certainly isn’t afraid to speak his mind, as proven by his latest comments on the PGA Tour.
DeChambeau left the PGA Tour to join LIV Golf in 2022, but Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) will end its funding of the latter at the end of the season.
That could lead to LIV Golf players seeking a return to the PGA Tour, which Brooks Koepka did at the start of the year via the Returning Member Program.
DeChambeau would likely face a stricter deal if he seeks a similar path, which he called: “quite unfortunate in my opinion, considering what I could do for them.”
Dan Rapaport has now reacted to that stance, which also involved the comments from DeChambeau: “Look, the PGA Tour isn’t doing great either. Let’s be honest about the situation. 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 DeChambeau told he is ‘off the mark’ with his PGA Tour comments
Rapaport said of the LIV Golf star on Dan on Golf: “He is basically putting a line in the sand and saying you need me more than I need you and I think he is off here.
“Would he be additive? For sure, Bryson is a massive star. Does the Tour need him? I don’t think so.
“He doesn’t need the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour doesn’t necessarily need him.
“No one player is big enough to make a real difference, other than maybe a healthy Tiger Woods, but nobody is big enough to move the needle from one end.
“That is what the last few years have proven to us. Rahm and DeChambeau going over there and it has not led to an audience.
“The Tour can continue to exist and thrive without Bryson and Bryson can continue to exist and thrive without the PGA Tour.
“When he says what I could do for them, would he bring some more eyeballs? Sure, absolutely.
“Is it worth them blowing up their whole policy to not penalise him when they are going to penalise other people? I don’t think so.
“I’m not saying he’s not a huge star, he is, but these Tours are bigger than one person. They are a whole infrastructure.
“So I think he is off the mark when he is suggesting that the Tour needs me more than I need them. I don’t think either of them need each other.”
Bryson DeChambeau should return to the PGA Tour
Rory McIlroy believes the PGA Tour is bigger than one player as well, but it’s clear that DeChambeau is very different to his fellow professionals.
Of course he isn’t bigger than the PGA Tour and the game of golf, but his popularity does present a big opportunity for CEO Brian Rolapp.
Such popularity could be taken advantage of in a major way, with DeChambeau certain to bring star power to the PGA Tour.
But with his LIV Golf contract expiring, DeChambeau could pursue content creation full-time, having just stated his ambition to grow his impressive YouTube following further.
That could represent a missed opportunity for the PGA Tour, on which two-time major champion DeChambeau claimed nine wins from 153 starts.
Read more:
Bryson DeChambeau confirms one big issue stopping him re-joining the PGA Tour, ‘that’s the truth’
Rory McIlroy pinpoints the exact moment when Bryson DeChambeau forced him into changing his game
Bryson DeChambeau’s inauthenticity laid bare after his contradictory claims about the PGA Tour
