Bryson DeChambeau, after his Crushers team won the LIV Golf New York event Sunday at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, spoke about the mystery investor that’s supposed to begin funding the fledgling tour with the Saudis no longer doing so.
Four days after CEO Scott O’Neil announced that the tour has a new investor, DeChambeau spoke about the relationship between the league’s reported new investor, BC Partners, and his management company, GSE.
“Look, I love GSE,’’ he said. “They’ve been with me my entire career. I think they’ve been fantastic in what they’ve done for me, so all positive things to say about GSE.’’
DeChambeau said he does not know “the mechanics of the conversations between the LIV investor and GSE, adding, “What I can tell you is that the investor, from the conversations I’ve had, has a new and fresh vision on this product. It won’t be changing too much, but it’ll be changing in the right ways.
“He sees the vision. He wants to pursue it even more than what we’ve previously done, and he’s excited, from what I can tell. I think, again, if we’re able to get the players all aligned, which I feel like it’ll happen in some capacity, I think it’ll happen, this is going to be a product that will be a force for good in the game, in the ecosystem.
“I think there’s a lot of potential that could be unlocked for the global game of golf, and we can support that. But I think the thing we’ve all talked about is how can we be a good force in the ecosystem. How can we work together to make the game of golf better. So I think that’s what the lead investor … I’m not going to speak for him, but from the conversations I’ve had, we all see that vision alongside Scott. I hope that all of us players can see that and we can move forward in a really cool way and be a great force for good in the game of golf.”
DeChambeau said he and the rest of the players were surprised that Yasir al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) that has financed LIV, turned up at Sunday’s final round at Bedminster.
“We all found out [Saturday] night that he was going to be out here,’’ he said. “I think he needed to have some conversations with the president [Donald Trump]. That was a whole other thing. I’m not going to get involved with that. But I know that he’s supported golf for a long, long time, and as this transitions over hopefully into the new investor’s hands and into the players’ hands, and that’s what it’s going to be, in the players’ hands, we really have an opportunity to align a lot of the global incentives to be a force for good for the game.’’
“But it was great to see him out here. I think he’s done wonders for us and the global game of golf. How it moves forward, I think there’s a great place for the PIF and where they want to be moving forward. Where that is, I’m not exactly sure.
After weeks of reports that the LIV team championship event in Michigan, Aug. 27-30, was not going to take place, despite LIV not confirming, LIV Golf’s TV host, Craig Doyle, said on the air Sunday it was not happening.
“That is going to be, at this stage, I think we can call it, is going to be the final event in LIV Golf 2026,” Doyle said, referring to the Indianapolis LIV tournament set for Aug. 20-23.
The team championship was set to have a prize pool of $40 million. LIV earlier this year canceled its tournament in New Orleans.
