There have been quite a few words written lately about Jon Rahm’s recent rapprochement with the DP World Tour which means that the Spaniard will be eligible to play for Europe in the Ryder Cup at Adare Manor next year. This is good news for European golf as well as for Rahm, who is reported to be contracted to LIV Golf until 2029 even though the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) will not be financing the circuit beyond this year, which means the purses on LIV are likely to become rather less eye-wateringly lucrative than they have been until now. Rahm has admitted he thinks his contract will bind him to whatever happens.
So let’s turn to Bryson DeChambeau. Like Rahm, he is a LIV golfer. Like Rahm, he has won two major championships. Like Rahm, he would love to play in the next Ryder Cup. Unlike Rahm, he has been outspoken as to the PIF’s decision – “it left me completely shocked”, he said. Unlike Rahm, he has other huge money-spinning, golf-playing opportunities. If Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler are the best two golfers in the world right now (with apologies to Cameron Young), DeChambeau is publicity-wise the most consequential.
His YouTube channel has 2.7 million subscribers. The film of his round with President Trump garnered 17 million viewers. Elsewhere, a total TikTok audience of over 100 million saw him hit a golf ball over the roof of his house and make a hole-in-one on a green cut on the other side of it. He made it on the 134th attempt over 16 days of trying. By way of a comparison, the final-round audience for this year’s Masters was just shy of 14 million, and that was the highest since 2015.
Granted it’s quite a different commitment to watch maybe four hours of tournament golf versus a minute or two of Bryson extravagantly fooling around in his front (and back!) garden, but his numbers are mightily impressive. (Plus, of course, any random PGA Tour event does not attract the attention the Masters does.) So no wonder DeChambeau was pretty sanguine when he was asked if his LIV gig might be coming to a close. “From my perspective,” he said, “I’d love to grow my YouTube channel by three times, maybe even more. [Unlike most LIV people who harp on about the subject, he actually does something about ‘growing the game’.] I’d love to do a bunch of dubbing in different languages, giving the world more reason to watch, and then I’d love to play in tournaments that want me.”
There are clearly golfing ‘political’ issues surrounding that latter matter at present but eventually something will likely work out. If you haven’t watched DeChambeau’s YouTube material (I’m guessing that you probably have) then a particular favourite of mine was one of the episodes of his ‘Bryson’s Break 50’ series. The idea is that he and another player will attempt to shoot in the 40s playing better-ball off the front tees. The one with basketball star Steph Curry, shot at Lake Merced in San Francisco, is sensational. If you only have two minutes to spare, watch them play the first hole…and then I think you’ll find the time to watch the rest later…
You can follow Robert Green on Twitter @robrtgreen and enjoy his other blog f-factors.com as well as his golf archive on robertgreen-golf.hhcom
