Bryson DeChambeau is in the hunt at LIV Golf’s final tournament of the season following a strong first round. But the leaderboard may not have been the first thing on the two-time major champion’s mind on Thursday, nor anyone else’s.
While this week’s event, LIV Golf Indianapolis, wasn’t even supposed to be the last tournament of the year, it could end up being the final LIV Golf tournament ever played.
The perilous situation LIV finds itself in was not lost on DeChambeau, the league’s biggest star, following his opening round in Indianapolis. Though he struck a few hopeful notes, DeChambeau also betrayed concerns about LIV’s uncertain future, and his own, in his comments.
Bryson DeChambeau on possible post-LIV future: ‘Time will move on… time heals things’
The news heading into LIV Golf Indianapolis was not good for supporters, players and employees of the league.
LIV Golf Michigan, the originally scheduled season finale and Team Championship, was officially cancelled, transforming the Indianapolis event into both the Individual and Team Championship.
As a result, prize money was sharply reduced, following earlier purse reductions announced before the season began.
This all comes as the league desperately tries to find new investors to finance its future. DeChambeau has been deeply involved in the league’s fight for survival. With all that going on, DeChambeau still had to play golf on Thursday.
And fresh off an opening-round 65 that has him in 12th early at LIV’s season finale, DeChambeau stood for a few one-on-one questions on camera.
When asked how he was able to compartmentalize his off-course efforts to keep LIV alive with his play on-course, Bryson admitted it wasn’t easy.
“Yeah, I think, look, it’s tough. It’s not easy,” DeChambeau began. “We definitely have a lot against us.”
He also acknowledged the many people working behind the scenes to keep LIV going, and touted the league’s economic impact on the cities its tournaments have visited.
“But I think behind the scenes we’ve got a lot of people that are working hard to make this possible for not only all the players that are out here but all the fans that have come out to these events and the economic impact that we’ve made in all these places, whether it’s South Africa, here in Indy or Australia, numerous places across the world, the U.K., all the different places we’ve been in the U.S. Even Nashville when we played a few years ago was unbelievable,” DeChambeau said on Thursday. “I think we just have a bit of a responsibility to continue to show this.”
Then DeChambeau got real, conceding that all that effort may not save LIV in the end. And if it doesn’t, he’s confident he and his team will “figure things out.”
“If it works, it works; awesome. If it doesn’t, we’ll figure things out,” DeChambeau said. “Time will move on, and I would say that time heals things.”
Whether or not his “time heals things” remark is a reference to the frayed relationships between LIV stars and their PGA Tour counterparts is another question.
Bryson then seemed to respond to Rory McIlroy’s comments on Wednesday questioning if LIV’s stars have brought value to the league.
“I hope people can see that we actually bring value to the game of golf,” DeChambeau concluded. “My wish is that people give us one more shot and be open-minded.”
That could be read as a plea for fans (and investors) to give LIV Golf “one more shot.” Or perhaps DeChambeau was referring to LIV players like himself, who will be looking for other tours to play on should LIV fold after this season.
Time will tell.
