‘Less Serious a Golfer’: DP World Tour Pro Takes Pointed Dig at Bryson DeChambeau Amid LIV 2.0 Demise

Eddie Pepperell, a veteran of the DP World Tour, has publicly questioned whether Bryson DeChambeau still deserves to be taken seriously as a top-level golfer.

Pepperell made the remark on the Sliced Golf Podcast, which was released on November 4.

He was discussing who could still carry the breakaway LIV Golf league as it collapses.

“I think in a lot of people’s minds Bryson holds the key, and I think the answer to that is yes but increasingly no,” Pepperell said.

“I think unfortunately for Bryson across the last 12 months he’s become, well in my mind anyway, I see him a little as a little less serious a golfer now than I did 12, 24 months ago certainly when of course he was winning at Pinehurst and still contending to win the major championships.”

The comment lands at a particularly vulnerable moment for DeChambeau.

LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed circuit that lured him away from the PGA Tour in 2022, is now in the process of liquidating.

The league filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2026.

Its financial backer, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), announced on April 30 that it would stop funding LIV after the 2026 season.

More than $5 billion had been poured into the league.

A last-ditch rescue plan from private equity firm BC Partners, worth $300 million, fell apart this week, according to the Financial Times.

Several of LIV’s biggest names have already left.

Jon Rahm’s separation was finalized in October.

Tyrrell Hatton, Tom McKibbin and Sergio Garcia have also moved on.

Louis Oosthuizen is heading back to the DP World Tour for 2027.

Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter reported that DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann did not sign up for the LIV 2.0 relaunch.

DeChambeau’s contract expired at the end of the 2026 season.

He has not publicly confirmed his next move.

This is striking because DeChambeau had sounded upbeat about LIV 2.0 only days before the BC Partners deal collapsed.

Pepperell’s criticism is backed by DeChambeau’s recent results.

DeChambeau missed the cut at the Masters, the PGA Championship and the US Open this year.

Reports indicate this was the first time in his career that he missed the cut in three consecutive major tournaments.

He did bounce back at The Open, finishing tied for 14th.

That performance came after a two-shot penalty, and he ended the tournament six shots behind winner Ryan Fox.

Pepperell did not pick the Pinehurst reference at random.

In 2024, DeChambeau beat Rory McIlroy at the US Open by a single shot.

He got up and down from a bunker 55 yards out on the 18th hole, then holed a four-foot par putt.

He later called that shot the best of his life.

It was his second US Open title, four years after his first at Winged Foot.

He followed that with top-10 finishes at three of the four majors in 2025.

That is why this year’s slide feels so jarring to observers.

DeChambeau did win twice on LIV in 2026.

But those wins came weeks before the league lost its Saudi funding.

Pepperell went further in his assessment of the league itself.

“I think LIV has been dead since the Saudis pulled the funding,” he said.

That decision was confirmed on April 30.

The league filed for Chapter 11 in September.

Pepperell’s sharpest line may be the broader one about the players who left the PGA Tour.

“It’s realizing these players don’t hold as much value across time as we thought they did,” he said.

“Certainly maybe they thought they did.”

That cuts at the heart of the LIV model.

The league paid for star power up front, with massive guaranteed contracts.

It leaned on a handful of big names to attract viewers and sponsors.

Those names are now walking away.

The options are not clear-cut for DeChambeau.

The DP World Tour has said LIV players will not be eligible for 2027 membership.

That also closes the Ryder Cup door for European players who defected.

DeChambeau does have a huge YouTube following.

He has also been reported to have a pathway back to the PGA Tour.

But the harder question is the one Pepperell raised.

If Bryson DeChambeau wants to be taken seriously again, no content deal can answer that.

The only thing that can is a major leaderboard.

And the 2027 Masters is a long way off.

The LIV Golf saga began in June 2022, when the league burst onto the scene with a mix of star power and veterans who signed lucrative contracts.

The PGA Tour refused to let its members compete in LIV events.

It suspended defecting golfers, who included major champions like DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson.

Those suspensions triggered a wave of bitter legal battles.

DeChambeau, Mickelson and others filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour.