The future of the controversial breakaway golf circuit LIV Golf hangs in the balance after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) confirmed it will end its multi-billion-dollar financial backing by the close of 2024, leaving one of the league’s biggest stars, two-time U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, mapping out an alternative path centered on digital content creation. The 32-year-old American, who claimed the 2020 and 2024 U.S. Open titles, recently pushed back on recent speculation that he planned to exit LIV before his current contract expires at the end of the season, dismissing those reports as “completely untrue.”
Speaking to ESPN ahead of this week’s LIV Golf tournament hosted at Trump National Golf Club, DeChambeau opened up about his backup plan if the league fails to secure new funding to survive beyond 2024. He revealed that he intends to prioritize scaling up his popular YouTube channel, with ambitious goals to grow its audience threefold or even more by adding multi-language dubbing to make his content accessible to a global audience. Beyond digital expansion, the golfer said he would only continue competing in professional tournaments that actively invite his participation.
DeChambeau’s current contract with LIV is set to expire at the end of the 2024 season. Prior to PIF’s bombshell announcement that it would withdraw funding, he was in talks to sign a highly lucrative new extension, with industry reports indicating he was seeking a $500 million deal to remain with the breakaway league. The two-time major winner admitted that the PIF’s decision came as a complete surprise; he had been under the impression the fund would back LIV Golf through to 2032. To date, he says he has received no direct communication from PIF leadership addressing the funding pullout, noting simply that “things are moving on in a different direction.”
Launched in 2022, LIV Golf sent shockwaves through the professional golf world when it lured dozens of top-ranked players away from the established PGA Tour with the promise of enormous appearance fees and prize purses, creating a bitter divide that has defined men’s professional golf for the past two years. DeChambeau was one of the most high-profile golfers to make the jump to LIV in 2022, and earlier this year he rejected an opportunity to rejoin the PGA Tour through the circuit’s returning member program.
DeChambeau argued that the ongoing rift in professional golf could be resolved if all parties set aside their personal interests and egos to work toward growing the sport on a global scale. “Everybody needs to come in with a level-headed playing field, with an opportunistic mindset to grow the game of golf. That’s why I came over here. That’s why I do what I do on YouTube,” he explained. LIV Golf’s current leadership is now actively searching for alternative private investment to keep the league operating, as it transitions to governance under a newly established independent board.