DeChambeau, Reed latest to join Saudi-funded tour
Past major champions Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed both will join the LIV Golf Invitational Series, according to multiple reports, giving the Saudi-funded competitor to the PGA Tour two more big names to go along with Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson.
LIV Golf’s first event is this week outside London, but DeChambeau and Reed are not in the field. They reportedly will take the course for the new league at its next tournament, to be held June 30July 2 outside of Portland, Oregon. Reed originally
was scheduled to play in this week’s Canadian Open on the PGA Tour but withdrew on Tuesday.
Both men have qualified to play in next week’s U.S. Open, a tournament DeChambeau won in 2020. On Tuesday, the USGA announced that golfers who had qualified for the tournament would be allowed to play, no matter their tour affiliation.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan has threatened to permanently ban any player who takes the course for LIV Golf, though a number of LIV golfers — including Johnson, Kevin Na, Louis Oosthuizen, Sergio Garcia, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace — have preempted any punishment by resigning from the PGA Tour.
The LIV tour reportedly will pay Johnson and Mickelson more than $100 million each simply to join the new league. Such financial-driven motivation does not sit well with fourtime major winner Rory McIlrory, who has maintained a steadfast devotion to the PGA Tour.
“Any decision you make in your life purely for money doesn’t usually end up going the right way. I’ve had that before, a couple times in my life,” McIlroy said Wednesday ahead of this week’s Canadian
Open event on the PGA Tour.
Requests for comment from LIV Golf and representatives of DeChambeau and Reed were not returned, and it’s unclear whether DeChambeau and Reed have forfeited their PGA Tour membership. On Tuesday, DeChambeau committed to play in the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship, which takes place later this month during the week between the U.S. Open and the second LIV Tour event.
At the Memorial last week, DeChambeau said leaving the PGA Tour was not worth the risk.
“I think that’s mostly — a lot of it is private,” said DeChambeau, an eighttime winner on tour. “There’s not really any conversations that need to be made about that, other than the fact that, like, every person out here has their own opinion on it. Me, there’s obviously a lot of conversation. For me, I personally don’t think that at this point in time I’m in a place in my career where I can risk things like that.”
Both DeChambeau and Reed, the 2018 Masters champ, have battled recent injuries and illnesses that have caused them to fall in the world rankings.
DeChambeau, who reached No. 4 in the rankings after the 2021 PGA Championship, has slipped to No. 28. Reed, was No. 7 last year, sits at No. 36. Their move to the LIV circuit means it now will feature six of the world’s top 50 golfers and 20 of the top 100.
PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas said the LIV-associated golfers are free to do as they choose but also called the PGA Tour “the best place to play in the world.”