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What will Bryson DeChambeau do? He’s not said much lately (Mateo Villalba/LIV Golf)
This promises to be an interesting week for LIV Golf as it attempts to reorganize amid bankruptcy proceedings and entice a group of players to buy into a new version of the breakaway league that, so far, has offered little in the way of definitive plans going forward.
BC Partners, the company that has stepped up to transition LIV into the future with a commitment of up to $300 million investment, has a looming deadline for player commitments on Sunday that could actually lead to the organization being disbanded altogether.
That deadline originally laid out a minimum level of commitment from current LIV players, since amended and extended. Whether the deadline — and player commitments — can be extended longer is unclear. Especially since the DP World Tour has its own deadline for players to make a commitment to the European league.
It almost seems imperative that LIV Golf get an extension because there appears to be very few players who have committed compared to the number who have said they’re moving on. It is certainly possible that much of that remains private, but so far there appears to be just four players — Richard Bland, Ben Campbell, Cameron Tringale and Brendan Steele — who have definitively said they want to return.
Also in today’s DD …
This week in golf: Chacarra rolls on; Hosono grabs Japan invite to Masters, Open
Stray Shots on all things happening (or maybe happening) with LIV
Bryson DeChambeau, who has long supported CEO Scott O’Neil in his attempts to secure investment for LIV 2.0, has gone silent. So has Cam Smith, who seemed a lock to stick around due to his Aussie team being among the most popular and the league providing him the competitive outlet he embraced.
Meanwhile, so many other players who have competed for LIV over the past few years have either announced their intentions to move on or remain uncommitted. Jon Rahm is the biggest name to say he’s leaving LIV. But others, such as Charles Howell III, aren’t sticking around. He might be enticed by an offer from the DP World Tour for increased sponsor exemptions, despite having never been a member of the European tour.
In the last several weeks, the DP World Tour has stepped up to play hardball, telling prospective LIV players they won’t be accepted as members if they choose to be part of LIV 2.0. It also offered increased sponsor exemptions to non-members who agreed not to join LIV 2.0.
That perk is one that might be very enticing to a number of players, who otherwise wouldn’t have much access to the tour. Joaquin Niemann seems a perfect example. The nine-time LIV winner failed to play the minimum number of DP World Tour events in 2025, thus being in violation of tour rules and unable to join this year.
His only way to obtain membership for 2027 is to attend the tour’s Q-School or win a DPWT event. Winning might come a lot easier with more opportunities, and the DP World Tour is in the position to make invite offers beyond the usual maximum extended.
Should Niemann take the offer, he would be in position to earn his membership via the non-member points category.
While the DPWT offer to accept LIV players might not sit well with some existing European tour members, it is clearly not messing around and sees an opportunity to bring some marketable players to its events while likely damaging LIV Golf’s efforts to continue into 2027.
According to the social media account @Robopz, the DP World Tour has a lot of invites it can offer: “About the DPWT non-member Sponsor Exemption program ... what we know and don’t ...
“We know ... DPWT is offering a number of SE starts to select LIV non DPWT members. Rolex events excluded.
“We don’t know ... ‘officially’ to who or how many starts will be available.”
There are also numerous LIV players who have DP World Tour status and could claim it in 2027 without the use of sponsor invites. Players such as Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell, Martin Kaymer, Branden Grace, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Paul Casey have status via a legends category if they choose to take it.
All of this likely has impacted the lack of movement with LIV Golf. Players have some decisions to make and it’s tough to commit when there are so few details about the new version of the league.
So far, O’Neil has touted a 10-event schedule with five North American events. The purses would range from $5.5 million to $9 million, which is far below the $20 million purses that were offered the last five years but is still a sizable prize fund when you compare it to DPWT events, with a majority of their tournaments offering less than $4 million.
O’Neil has said players would get equity in the league and in the teams, but what does that mean at this point? Equity in what? The Financial Times also reported a plan to have 17 events, although LIV Golf has declined to comment on that number.
For those who have followed this all along, LIV Golf didn’t exactly sign its original batch of players in a timely manner. Nearly every one of them came on board within a week or a few days of the first event in 2022 in London. As was the case then, players are likely to wait to make sure they are comfortable — which doesn’t help if LIV Golf really does have an Oct. 25 deadline to secure commitments.
This might yield some answers. This week’s Hong Kong Open, which offers a spot in the Masters and the Open Championship to the winner, has more than 20 players in its field with ties to LIV Golf. It would make sense if O’Neil, or someone from his depleted management staff, is there to seek answers.
Soon enough, those answers will need to be forthcoming.
Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra wins for the third time this season on DP World Tour (Luke Walker/Getty Images)
This week in golf …
DP World India Championship: Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra rode a five-shot 54-hole lead to a two-shot victory at Delhi Golf Club to take over the top spot in the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai. It was Chacarra’s third DPWT win of the season including victories at the KLM and Italian Opens in June. His final-round 70 followed a third-round 63 that let him take control and hang on to beat New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier by two and Adrian Meronk and (as well as LIV Golf Bangkok in 2022). “I know what I’m capable of,” said Chacarra, who now ranks No. 39 in OWGR. “I was one of the best amateurs in the world and now I want to be one of the best professionals. I want to be on the next European Ryder Cup team and I want to be on it via qualification, not by a pick, and it would mean the world to add my name to that of Seve Ballesteros and Jon Rahm on the Race to Dubai trophy. That’s my goal this season.”
Yusaku Hosono won Japan Open to secure spots at Augusta, St. Andrews (Yoshimasa Nakano/R&A via Getty Images)
Japan Open: Yusaku Hosono shot a final-round 70 to hang onto a two-shot victory at Tarao CC (West) in Shiga, Japan, earning a spot in the 2027 Masters Tournament for winning the third of six qualifying international opens. He’ll also get to tee it up in the Open Championship at St. Andrews next summer. Hosono, 23, won the Japan PGA Championship in May and ranked No. 263 in the world before his victory on Sunday moved him the 188th.
Buick LPGA Shanghai: China’s Ruoning Yin birdied the 16th hole at Sheshan GC to break out of a back-nine tie with third-round leader Hye-Jin Choi of South Korea and win by one stroke. It was the seventh LPGA tournament win and second in as many starts for China’s Yin, who also won the FM Championship in August, her home country’s Shanghai event in 2024 and the 2023 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Hangzhou Open: Denmark’s Hamish Brown carded a final round 71 at West Lake GC in China to claim the third HotelPlanner Tour victory of his career and rise to the top of the Road to Mallorca Rankings.
SAS Championship: Vijay Singh outdueled Tim O’Neal down the stretch at Prestonwood CC in Raleigh, N.C., to win his sixth career PGA Tour Champions event by two shots over Ernie Els. Singh — who at 63 becomes the seventh-oldest winner in the senior tour’s history — led O’Neal (a one-time senior-circuit winner) by one heading to the 17th hole, where O’Neal made his second double bogey before adding a bogey at 18 to fall four back to T5 behind Alex Cejka and Tag Ridings in third.
SJM Macao Open: Taiwan’s Wang Wei-hsuan eagled the 18th hole in regulation then birdied it in a playoff to beat the PGA Tour’s Sungjae Im in the Asian Tour event at Macau Golf & Country Club. American Charles Porter fought off illness to shoot the lowest round of the tournament (9-under 61) to finish solo third three shots out of the playoff.
Rose welcomes LIV colleagues
There are undoubtedly numerous opinions on whether LIV golfers should be able to return to the major tours. Justin Rose is one who is ready to welcome them back.
“No hard feelings,” the Englishman said last week while competing at the DP World India Championship.
Rose, who was a target of the league when it launched in 2022, told The Mirror that he
