Bryson DeChambeau kept choosing LIV Golf long after it stopped being the easy option. In January, he turned down the one-time PGA Tour return offer that Brooks Koepka accepted. After LIV Golf confirmed that it was shutting down the league, Bryson’s future suddenly looked to be at risk. But there appears to be a path to competitive professional golf for the two-time major winner.
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The Telegraph reports that DeChambeau has been offered “a free route back to the professional game” by the DP World Tour. His advisers were reportedly told that, as the 2024 U.S. Open champion, he can secure full playing privileges in Europe in 2027. DeChambeau can avail of the Category 1 provision in the DP World Tour that allows any major winner membership of the tour. The eligibility window remains open for five years, but there is a small caveat.
For each year a major winner does not take advantage of the benefit, the eligibility window is reduced by one year. So Bryson DeChambeau originally had till 2029 to join the DP World Tour, but since he hasn’t activated the clause in either 2025 or 2026, the window has been reduced by two years. The former Crushers GC captain can play on the European circuit next year, but he has to act quickly. The deadline to apply for DP World Tour membership is November 16.
Cameron Smith is also another player who would’ve been eligible under this category. But his window as the 2022 Open Championship winner has closed. The offer from DPWT comes in the wake of LIV’s collapse. In April, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund announced it would end its funding of LIV after the 2026 season, and the league filed for Chapter 11 on September 8.
Its hopes rested on a $300 million rescue deal from BC Partners, which was contingent on securing commitments from enough players. Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Sergio Garcia, and others opted against the proposed relaunch, and the deal fell apart.
On Thursday, the league’s board said in a statement, “In light of the current circumstances, we believe shifting toward an orderly wind-down is the most responsible path forward for the League at this time.”
Players with no status, such as Joaquin Niemann and Thomas Pieters, must go through Q-School or rely on a set number of sponsor invites. The Telegraph adds that DeChambeau is the only LIV player without membership who holds this exemption.
Bryson’s PGA Tour return is in doubt as of now. Rahm, who left LIV last month, expects to serve a year-long PGA Tour suspension before returning, and the same would apply to DeChambeau. The suspension period begins with a player’s final LIV start, meaning DeChambeau’s suspension would end on August 23, 2027.
His PGA Tour exemption runs through 2029. DeChambeau has also suggested he could lean on his YouTube channel while continuing to compete in the majors, an idea experts have dismissed.
Notably, DeChambeau had been one of the few still backing the relaunch. He told the Figuring Out podcast:
“The business model makes a lot of sense. It’s no funny business, no nothing. It’s going to be done right. And this is going to be a league, hopefully, that exists forever.”
That said, Europe is not new territory for him. At the 2019 Dubai Desert Classic, he won by seven shots at a record 24 under, his first victory outside the United States. He took up European Tour membership that season and rose to fourth in the Race to Dubai. His next stop was the Saudi International the following week.
That relationship changed when he joined LIV in 2022. The tour barred LIV players from co-sanctioned events that summer, including the Scottish Open, which DeChambeau had planned to play before The Open. Outside the majors, his last regular start was the JP McManus Pro-Am in July 2022.
His return was already taking shape. In August, he committed to the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, set for December 3 to 6. He won LIV’s South Africa event earlier this year. Then his management reportedly asked the tour about more starts. That plan hit a wall when CEO Guy Kinnings ruled out dual membership for anyone joining LIV 2.0.
With LIV gone, the Nedbank Golf Challenge may now be the first step of a bigger move.