Why Bryson DeChambeau Is the Biggest Loser From LIV Golf’s Demise

Bryson DeChambeau never formally signed on to LIV Golf 2.0 before the league’s financial backers pulled out.

That fact, confirmed by multiple reports, makes him the biggest loser from the collapse of the Saudi-backed breakaway tour.

LIV Golf’s chances of survival ended Wednesday when BC Partners Credit decided to walk away from a planned $300 million financing package.

LIV’s lawyers confirmed the news at a bankruptcy hearing in New Jersey on Thursday.

The league, formed in 2021 with unlimited funds from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, is now headed toward liquidation.

DeChambeau made the jump to LIV in June 2022, throwing away roughly four years of his prime on a tour that will now be remembered for meaningless events.

He won five times on LIV and captured the 2024 U.S. Open, but those wins came outside the PGA Tour system where victories carry more weight for a player’s legacy.

Up until a few days before the collapse, DeChambeau seemed all in on the league’s future.

In a podcast interview published Saturday on Figuring Out, he said the LIV 2.0 rebuild would be “done right” and that he hoped the league would “exist forever.”

But he never put his name on the dotted line.

BC Partners had made its $300 million investment contingent on securing commitments from high-profile players.

Not a single marquee name bought into the concept of LIV 2.0.

DeChambeau, Cam Smith, and Dustin Johnson all failed to formally commit, according to Josh Carpenter of Sports Business Journal, who confirmed the Financial Times’ initial report.

With no star power locked in, BC Partners walked.

The league has hemorrhaged talent in recent weeks.

Jon Rahm, Sergio Garcia, and Tyrrell Hatton led a mass departure before the final collapse.

Rahm left LIV last month and is now playing a DP World Tour event in Abu Dhabi, though his return to the PGA Tour is anything but clear.

Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed were the first to jump ship last winter.

Koepka made an immediate return to the PGA Tour through a special deal that is no longer on the table.

Reed spent the 2026 season on the DP World Tour and is now back on the PGA Tour.

DeChambeau had the same chance in January.

He was among the LIV players eligible to return through the PGA Tour’s Returning Member Program but decided to stay with LIV.

Koepka took the offer, agreeing to pay a $5 million fine and accept a five-year wait before becoming part of the PGA Tour’s equity program.

The window has now closed.

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp described the offer as a “one-time, defined window” and has since said there are no plans to bring it back.

On the November 5 episode of Dan on Golf, hosts Dan Rapaport and Alan Shipnuck laid out DeChambeau’s bleak options.

“He’s into the majors until 2029, and he could probably play Dubai or whatever, like these places that will throw him a bag to come, and he can film YouTube videos, and I just can’t see him like grinding to make the Tour Championship ever again,” Shipnuck said.

The hosts noted that DeChambeau would probably have owned a big part of LIV 2.0, calling it “the Bryson tour.”

That ownership stake is now worthless.

A bankruptcy hearing on Thursday was expected to shift toward liquidating the league’s assets.