Make no mistake, Bryson DeChambeau is not apologizing for jumping to LIV Golf.
But he is owning some of what he said along the way over the past four years.
Three days after LIV told a bankruptcy courtit would shut down and sell off what's left, the biggest name still tied to the league posted a statement on social media on Sunday, Nov. 8. It read like a closing chapter.
"I'm not going to rewrite the last four years," DeChambeau wrote. "I made a decision I believed in."
He also invoked Arnold Palmer's belief that no player is bigger than the game, and acknowledged that he has "said some things that didn't help."
He didn't say which things.
There are plenty to choose from. Few players were more tangled up in golf's civil war than DeChambeau, who left
the PGA Tour for the Saudi-funded league in 2022 and was one of the 11 LIV players who sued the tour that summer. Four years later, his relationship with some of the tour's biggest names still hasn't thawed. Rory McIlroy said in July that he's "not particularly fond of him."
DeChambeau did mention that his next stop is Sun City, South Africa. He'll play the Nedbank Golf Challenge, a DP World Tour event, Dec. 3-6. Where he plays after that is a bigger question.
— Bryson DeChambeau (@brysondech) November 8, 2026
What did Bryson DeChambeau say about LIV Golf?
Most of it was thank-yous. DeChambeau singled out the defunct league's staff, operations crews and caddies at LIV and his team, Crushers GC, the people he said "bet their careers on this." He thanked his teammates, sponsors and every fan who came out.
The record crowds in Adelaide and Johannesburg, he wrote, "will stick with me for the rest of my life."
Johannesburg was special to him. DeChambeau beat Jon Rahm on the first playoff hole at Steyn City in March to win LIV's first event in South Africa, in front of crowds LIV said topped 100,000.
He hasn't given up on the concept of team golf, either.
"It may look different in the future," he wrote, "but I still believe it's essential to growing the game."
Why do PGA Tour players have a problem with Bryson DeChambeau?
It started when he left.
DeChambeau jumped to LIV in 2022, and the PGA Tour suspended him. That August, he and 10 other LIV players sued the tour over those suspensions. He held on longer than almost anyone else, saying the tour still owed him money from a $3.5 million bonus under its Player Impact Program. He finally withdrew from the lawsuit in May 2023, one of the last two players to do so.
This spring, DeChambeau said his PGA Tour future depended on whether the players wanted him back. In the same breath, he floated skipping tours altogether to play the majors and make YouTube videos. Golf Channel reported the comments did not sit well with tour players, many of whom had stayed loyal while LIV paid out guaranteed money.
Then came the British Open. At Royal Birkdale in July, the R&A docked DeChambeau two shots for improving the area of his swing in the rough. His agent said DeChambeau felt "unfairly penalized" and might withdraw, and the dispute delayed the release of the next day's tee times. DeChambeau played on. "Obviously disappointed with the ruling," he posted on X at the time. "I don't agree with it, but it is what it is."
Rory McIlroy, the closest thing the PGA Tour has to a spokesman in all this, didn't hold back.
"I won't be up here and defend Bryson. I'm not [particularly fond of him," McIlroy said."I think a lot of it's performative. I think a lot of it's for attention."
Not every PGA Tour player piled on. Scottie Scheffler, the world's top-ranked player, said after the Open penalty that DeChambeau is not a cheater.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bryson DeChambeau breaks silence on LIV Golf's fall. What's next?
