Bryson DeChambeau believes the 48 players competing on the LIV Golf Series are the 'luckiest guys on the planet', as the breakaway league edges closer to its one year anniversary. LIV Golf rocked the sport when forming last summer, and it has been quite the year since.
A whole host of big name players gave up their PGA Tour memberships to join the Saudi-funded series, as they signed mega-money contracts to compete for lucrative prize pots. Arguably one of the biggest to make the controversial move was DeChambeau.
The 2020 US Open champion reportedly signed a deal worth over £100 million back in the summer of 2022, and has since taken the reins of one of LIV's 12 teams, Crushers GC.
Since forming last June, the breakaway league has never been too far away from controversy, whether that is through their funding by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, or their outlandish CEO Greg Norman. Despite the criticism, DeChambeau is more than happy with life with LIV.
The American star said: "LIV Golf for me — I can speak personally — has given me an opportunity to succeed. There are so many good golfers out there, and just to be one of the 48 [with LIV], I feel like one of the luckiest guys on planet Earth. It gives young guys another opportunity is the way I see it.”
In its 12-month history LIV Golf is arguably enjoying its most successful period, having enjoyed plenty of success on the major scene. Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed and Brooks Koepka all found themselves inside the top five at last month's Masters, before Koepka secured his fifth major title at last weekend's PGA Championship.
The major form of Koepka and co has proved the doubters of LIV Golf wrong, with many questioning whether the rebel players still had the ability to compete with their PGA Tour rivals. Hailing the impact, DeChambeau commented: "It proves that we can play in major championships, proves that the schedule is good enough for us to win major championships.
"We have numerous players up on the leaderboard. Mito played well last round; Cam played well; I did all right; Brooks winning. It's huge in general. Yeah, it's an individual sport, but there's a team component to it now, and it's really cool to see how they're playing well not only for their teams and for themselves but for an organisation that deserves to be mentioned a lot more in abetter light than what it is."
