LIV superstars, led by Bryson DeChambeau, look to revive their impact in the majors at Aronimink

When superstars Brooks Koepka won the 2023 PGA Championship and Bryson DeChambeau won the 2024 U.S. Open, it looked like LIV Golf was on its way to becoming a true force in the sports world and a real threat to the PGA Tour.

As it turns out, there was no real threat, either on the course or off it.

In the seven majors between DeChambeau’s win at Pinehurst and this week’s PGA at Aronimink, LIV golfers have won none. They’ve occupied 105 starting times since then but they’ve finished in the top 10 just 11 times; DeChambeau and Rahm accounted for seven of those. Only 10 LIV players qualified for the 2026 Masters, the lowest number of LIV players ever in a major, and half of them missed the cut.

Only 11 LIV golfers teed off here Thursday. Dustin Johnson’s presence kept them from tying the record, and he didn’t qualify. He was issued a special invitation.

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There is a war raging in the region between the United States and Israel against Iran and its allies. There is a metaphorical battle for talent, with top LIV players such as Koepka and Patrick Reed repatriating themselves on the PGA Tour. LIV, which once strong-armed the PGA Tour into partnership negotiations, has become a charity case.

The Saudi-funded usurper tour, which began in 2022 and operated solely to sports wash a controversial, theocratic regime, had proven its best players could continue to compete in the most significant and most difficult tournaments. This mattered because, when founded in 2022 by paying millions of dollars in bonus money to lure big-name players like Phil Mickelson, many pundits believed LIV would fail to offer a sufficient level of play to keep its studs in peak fettle.

LIV players were banned from PGA Tour events outside of majors for which they qualified, and all LIV offered was its short schedule, no-cut, three-day tournaments, and the small, weak fields on generally inferior courses.

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Still, LIV players regularly contended at majors. Then Koepka, and then DeChambeau, and DeChambeau’s post-win plea: “I hope we can figure things out quickly. I hope this can bridge the gap between the divided game.”

At that point, the Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) seemed resolute in its commitment to funding LIV despite the tour having lost an estimated $1.5 billion by the end of 2024.

Fast-forward just seven majors from DeChambeau’s plea, to the 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club.

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On the business side, yearslong negotiations for a partnership between LIV and the PGA Tour have dissolved. Abrasive LIV CEO Greg Norman, who courted and signed the stars, was replaced in 2025 by Scott O’Neill, the former CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the 76ers. And now, finally, the other shoe has dropped: After operating at a reported $2 billion deficit since inception, PIF last month removed LIV founder Yasir Al-Rumayyan, created a board of directors, and will pull funding for the tour after the 2026 season.

Rory McIlroy, who completed the career Grand Slam at last year’s Masters, spent three years resisting both lucrative offers to join LIV and any inclination to accept the intrusion on his world. Lately, though, as the PGA Tour scrambled to compete with LIV, his resolve thawed, and he advocated for a form of unification.

Here on Monday he couldn’t resist a little self-satisfaction.

“I’m glad I was wrong,” he said.

The LIV headliners are not glad McIlroy was wrong. Most of them will face onerous monetary penalties and lengthy runways to qualify if they choose to return to the PGA Tour. Stars like DeChambeau and Rahm, like Koepka, likely will be allowed easier pathways to return. All of it will entail recalcitrance.

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DeChambeau’s social media presence outstrips any active golfer, but his LIV contract expires at the end of 2026 and reportedly had been negotiating a massive extension for LIV he hoped would be worth $500 million. His reaction to the PIF withdrawal, according to Golf.com:

“There’s no way. That’s frickin’ impossible, considering what I’d heard a couple months earlier. I thought there was a plan through 2032. It was a flip of the switch.”

Rahm, meanwhile, was LIV’s biggest fish. After trashing LIV for more than a year, he joined in 2023 for a reported $300 million, and his deal is believed to run through 2029.

Will he have to renegotiate? Will he and remaining LIV players have to make concessions on unpaid monies, future purses, and baked-in perks? Can he exit the deal?

Asked this week: Does he regret the move? No, he said. What has he learned?

“That is for me to know, and that’s about that.”

Same.