DeChambeau won’t play Travelers after joining LIV

Bryson DeChambeau has withdrawn from the Travelers Championship, the Golf Channel reported on Monday. DeChambeau has joined LIV Golf.

DeChambeau committed to playing the Travelers Championship on June 6 after missing two months recuperating from wrist surgery following the Masters. Later last week, reports surfaced that DeChambeau had committed to playing for LIV despite previous comments to the contrary, as recently as the Memorial.

“It was a business decision, first and foremost,” DeChambeau told the Golf Channel. ““That’s all there was to it. It’s given me a lot more opportunities outside of the game of golf and given me more time with my family and my future family. So for me, that was the decision.”

Seventeen members of the PGA Tour were suspended on Thursday not long after teeing it up in the first LIV Golf event held in London. That included Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia.

It did not include DeChambeau. He doesn’t tee it up in his first LIV Golf event until the event being held in Oregon the week after the Travelers. But DeChambeau told the Golf Channel he did not want to be a distraction for Connecticut’s event to be held June 23-26 at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell.

The only other golfer previously committed to play in the Travelers was Johnson, the 2020 champion. He resigned his PGA Tour membership, something DeChambeau — the 2020 U.S. Open champion — has not done.

LIV Golf is funded through Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

There are eight LIV Golf events being held this year. All are 54 holes, with no cuts and huge paydays. Last place in last week’s event received $120,000.

This would have been the seventh straight year DeChambeau played in the Travelers Championship.