DeChambeau and Westwood backfire on LIV collapse comments

Bryson DeChambeau and Lee Westwood have done themselves serious damage after what they said before LIV's collapse.

BC Partners has withdrawn its pledge to invest in the tour.

The private equity firm was set to provide the financial backing for LIV 2.0.

LIV needed 30 to 40 players to sign up for the 2027 season.

They reportedly got close but could not get enough players on board.

Unless a last-minute savior steps in to fund LIV in 2027, the tour will likely liquidate.

LIV 2.0 would end before it even began.

DeChambeau recently declared his intention to stay on LIV for 2027.

He turned down the opportunity to walk away with Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann as the tour declared bankruptcy.

Instead, he became one of the leading figures trying to keep the rebel golf league alive.

“The business model makes a lot of sense,” DeChambeau said on the Figuring Out podcast.

“We’re actually working through that right now for this new model.”

“It will make full financial sense.”

“No funny business, no nothing.”

“It’s going to be done right and this is going to be a league that exists hopefully forever.”

Westwood, once a DP World Tour legend, has not yet committed to the DP World Tour like his LIV teammate Ian Poulter.

“I am currently unemployed,” Westwood told the Chipping Forecast podcast this week.

“I haven’t signed up to anything anywhere.”

“I haven’t made a decision on anything yet.”

Now Westwood’s hand is forced.

Because he did not return to the DP World Tour by choice, he does not have the benefit of any goodwill from the tour.

The same goes for DeChambeau.

If he ever attempts to return to the PGA Tour, the tour will know full well that he never would have if LIV Golf were still around.

This could make it much harder for DeChambeau to ever rejoin golf’s premier tour.

Nobody from LIV Golf is in the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour’s good graces.

Some players have limited the damage by jumping ship the moment they could.

Rahm and Niemann pledged allegiance to the tours this offseason by leaving LIV.

But the same cannot be said for DeChambeau or Westwood.

If they now return to the PGA or DP World Tour next season, it is because they have been forced to do so.

LIV Golf’s dream of forming a tour in 2027 is over.

BC Partners withdrew due to a lack of player commitments.

DeChambeau and Westwood now look like the biggest losers from LIV’s collapse after what they said recently.

They have both made huge blunders.

The PGA Tour and DP World Tour are the established professional golf tours in the United States and Europe respectively.

LIV Golf launched in 2022 as a rival league backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

It attracted top players with enormous signing bonuses and prize purses.

The league has faced constant criticism over its human rights record and its disruption of the traditional golf calendar.

A merger agreement between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund was announced in June 2023 but has not been finalized.

DeChambeau won the U.S. Open in 2020 and again in 2024.

He became known for his scientific approach to the game and his dramatic physical transformation.

He added enormous amounts of speed and power to his game starting in late 2019.

He quickly became the longest hitter in professional golf.

Westwood spent decades on the DP World Tour, winning multiple titles and becoming a legend on that circuit.

Both players left the traditional tours to join LIV Golf when it formed.

Rahm left the PGA Tour to join LIV in December 2023.

Niemann left the PGA Tour to join LIV earlier in 2022.

Both Rahm and Niemann have now returned to the traditional tours for the 2027 season.

DeChambeau and Westwood did not follow that path.

DeChambeau’s public statements about the LIV business model now appear to have been overly optimistic.

Westwood’s statement that he is unemployed and has not made a decision leaves him in a precarious position.