Read more 👇:Bryson DeChambeau ‘feels bad’ for PGA Tour players who didn’t join LIV Golf after shock partnership announcement

Bryson DeChambeau ‘feels bad’ for PGA Tour players who didn’t join LIV Golf after shock partnership announcement

CNN — 

American golfer Bryson DeChambeau told CNN he “feels bad” for PGA Tour players who did not take the “risk” he did by joining the breakaway LIV Golf series, in the wake of the shock reconciliation between the warring tours on Tuesday.

An announcement by the PGA Tour declared a partnership with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf, as well as the DP World Tour, unifying the trio under a new, yet-to-be-named, commercial entity.

It looks set to end years of bitter public and legal friction between the different tours, a conflict that DeChambeau quickly found himself at the center of after becoming one of the first golfers to join the breakaway series in June 2022.



An eight-time winner on the PGA Tour and the 2020 US Open champion, DeChambeau’s move was a huge coup for LIV Golf. Bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the series pledged to award $250 million in total prize money, with $20 million guaranteed to be split between individual players across each of the first seven events.

Yet many of the game’s biggest stars stayed put, with several becoming outspoken critics of LIV Golf. Chief among them were Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods. The latter purportedly turned down a $700 – $800 million offer to join the breakaway series, according to LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman.

Speaking to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, DeChambeau said “decent information” offered to him and other players persuaded him to make the switch.

“The players that did go over, we did take a risk, and there was a reason for taking that risk relative to the capital that had to be paid out for that to occur,” DeChambeau said on CNN’s Primetime show Tuesday.

“I do feel bad for the PGA Tour players because they were told one thing and something else happened. On our side we were told one thing and it’s come to fruition.

In the end for me, I want the players, the fans, and the game of golf to win, and it does stink a little bit from my perspective that the PGA Tour players are not necessarily winning. I hope that they can find a way to make sure they are valued in the same way that we are over at LIV and I think that will happen, it’s just going to take some time with the players pushing back a little bit and trying to figure out what gives them the best opportunity to be successful on their own end.

“Eventually we all come back together now and play as one group – I think that’s the best thing, watching us play week in week out, the best players against each other.”