Hours after Jon Rahm triumphed in Abu Dhabi to hoist the first trophy of the post-LIV Golf stage of his career, the now-deceased rebel league’s other big name started looking to the future.
That leaves many players with an uncertain playing future. Rahm said he has not yet spoken to the PGA Tour about a potential path back and is looking forward to playing on the DP World Tour in 2027 as things come back together. Tyrrell Hatton, David Puig, and others are DP World Tour members, so their immediate future is on the European circuit as they try to play their way back to the PGA Tour. The PGA Tour has not yet said what a pathway back for LIV Golf defectors would look like once the league has officially liquidated its assets in bankruptcy court.
As for DeChambeau, his playing future is unclear. He could take up DP World Tour membership via an exemption he earned through winning the 2024 U.S. Open. He could also wait to see whether BC Partners, the private equity group that tried to support LIV Golf 2.0, can create a team-golf successor to LIV, as the Financial Times reported is their goal, albeit one whose likelihood of success is unclear. That leaves DeChambeau in a grey area as he plots his playing future.
In his statement, DeChambeau mourned the death of LIV Golf and said he was prepared to “go about things the right way” to move forward — whatever that might look like.
Bryson DeChambeau’s statement after LIV Golf’s death
“I’m not going to rewrite the last four years,” DeChambeau wrote in a statement. “I made a decision I believed in, and I’m grateful for what came with it: playing in front of fans new and old around the world who rarely got to see the best players at home. The record crowds in Adelaide and Johannesburg will stick with me the rest of my life.
“I believed this game could reach more people, in more places, in a new way. I still believe that. And I gave everything I had to keep team golf alive.
“I want to say thank you to the people who believed in this from the start: the staff, the operations crew, the caddies, and everyone behind the scenes at LIV Golf and Crushers GC who bet their careers on this. You gave everything. And thank you to my Crushers teammates, our sponsors, and every fan who came out.
“I still believe in team golf. It may look different in the future, but I still believe it’s essential to growing the game.
“Arnold Palmer said no player is bigger than the game, and I want to acknowledge that, along the way, I’ve said things that didn’t help. Whatever comes next, I’ll approach it with humility and respect for people who carried this game long before me.
“In December, I’ll compete at the Nedbank Golf Challenge, Gary Player’s event, in front of fans who made my first visit to South Africa unforgettable. Beyond that, I’ll go about whatever is next the right way.
“My passion has been to grow this game. That’s still the goal. Thank you for sticking with me.
“Together we can all grow this great game we love.”
On Sunday, Jon Rahm officially closed the book on his LIV Golf era and started a new chapter with a victory in Abu Dhabi. Hatton, who also exited LIV Golf before its demise was official, finished second.
“I don’t know how else to say it. It’s on to the next page, right,” Rahm said of his win being the start of what’s next. “Luckily in golf, I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of opportunities and take advantage of them, and hopefully I can keep doing so.”
For Bryson DeChambeau, time will tell what his next chapter looks like.
