Bryson DeChambeau has a plan if LIV Golf doesn’t survive after the 2026 season, and it doesn’t include rushing back to the PGA Tour.
DeChambeau, speaking ahead of the LIV Golf event in Virginia on Tuesday, said he’s prepared to focus more on expanding his social media presence and playing where he’s welcome if he splits with the Saudi Arabian-backed league at the end of the 2026 campaign.
“I’d love to grow my YouTube channel three times, maybe even more,” DeChambeau said, via ESPN. “I would love to. I’d love to do a bunch of dubbing in different languages, giving the world more reason to watch YouTube.
“And then I’d love to play in tournaments that want me.”
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has opted to pull its funding for LIV Golf after the 2026 campaign. While the league isn’t giving up — LIV Golf is working to find new long-term financial partners for the next stage of the tour, and is calling this period a “strategic transition” — there are undoubtedly major questions about the future of the startup venture.
“I was completely shocked,” DeChambeau said about the PIF’s decision to pull funding. “I didn’t expect it to happen. A couple of months before that, it’s like, ‘We’re here until 2032. We’ve got financing until 2032,’ and so I told everybody, and that’s what I was told.
“And then you know, I haven’t had any communication. And unfortunately, things are moving on in a different direction.”
DeChambeau was one of the biggest names to jump from the PGA Tour over to LIV Golf when it got started in 2022, and he was one of 11 golfers who filed a lawsuit against the Tour. That lawsuit, which DeChambeau withdrew from the following year, claimed the Tour unfairly suspended DeChambeau and others who joined LIV Golf.
It’s unclear how the Tour would welcome back golfers like DeChambeau should they choose to return. Patrick Reed is planning to rejoin the league this fall after one full year away from LIV Golf. DeChambeau didn’t get into specifics about any PGA Tour penalties he may face, but said it would be “quite unfortunate in my opinion, considering what I could do for them.”
Could DeChambeau survive with YouTube golf?
Realistically, yes … at least for the time being.
If DeChambeau doesn’t reconcile with the PGA Tour after a potential split with LIV Golf, he would still be eligible to compete in the four major championships in the immediate future. The two-time U.S. Open winner last claimed that major in 2024, so he’s locked in at the event through 2034. He’s finished inside the top 10 in six of his last nine major starts, too, which extends his automatic bids at the Masters, the PGA Championship and the British Open to varying degrees.
From there, he could conceivably just work to grow his YouTube channel even more between majors. As of Tuesday night, he had just shy of 2.7 million subscribers there. It’s not like he wouldn’t be practicing and playing golf while doing that, it just wouldn’t be as competitive for him as it is now.
While that’s an option, DeChambeau isn’t giving up hopes on a future for LIV Golf, whatever that looks like.
“There’s a few different models,” DeChambeau said. “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.”