Bryson DeChambeau to feature at Pumpkin Ridge in Portland from June 30 to July 2; his agent Brett Falkoff has, however, confirmed that the world No 28 will not resign from the PGA Tour; Patrick Reed and Rickie Fowler also reportedly set to join LIV Golf Series
Thursday 9 June 2022 14:46, UK
Bryson DeChambeau has confirmed he will play in the second event of the LIV Golf Series, which starts in Portland later this month.
DeChambeau has become the latest high-profile player to join the Saudi-backed tour and plans to feature in the tournament at Pumpkin Ridge from June 30 to July 2.
The 28-year-old's agent Brett Falkoff has, however, confirmed the world No 28 will not resign from the PGA Tour after speaking to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and his sponsors on Tuesday evening, according to the Golf Channel.
The confirmation of DeChambeau's decision came after LIV Golf had earlier refused to deny a report claiming the 2020 US Open champion was to join the series along with Patrick Reed and Rickie Fowler.
Falkoff said: "Bryson has always been an innovator. Having the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something unique has always been intriguing to him. Pro golf as we know it is changing and it's happening quickly."
The move also comes less than a week after DeChambeau said he would not be joining the breakaway LIV Golf Series.
The LIV Golf Series' inaugural event begins on Thursday at the Centurion Club, with Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia among the 48-strong field.
Back in February, DeChambeau denied he was offered £100m to join the tour, and wrote on his official Twitter account: "While there has been a lot of speculation surrounding my support for another tour, I want to make it very clear that as long as the best players in the world are playing the PGA Tour, so will I."
DeChambeau, an eight-time PGA Tour winner, distanced himself from the tour as recently as Thursday, claiming he would not "risk" joining at this stage of his career.
"There's obviously a lot of conversation," he said after his opening round at the Memorial Tournament.
"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.
"I'm loyal to my family that I've created around me with sponsors and everything. And as of right now, the golf world is probably going to change in some capacity. I don't know what that is. Not my job to do so. I'm just going to keep playing professional golf and enjoy it wherever it takes me, play with the best players in the world. That's really all I've got, that's what I'll do for the rest of my life, because I want to be one of the best players in the world."
Speaking on Tuesday, five-time PGA Tour winner Fowler, who has been approached by the LIV Tour, says he is "intrigued" by the competition but has not made a decision either way.
"Competition is a good thing, always has been. LIV is definitely interesting and intriguing. It's worth looking at, but no I haven't made any decisions. It's going to be interesting to see how everything plays out."
Mickelson says he feels "so good" about the balance playing in the LIV Golf Series provides and added he will not resign from the PGA Tour during a tense press conference on Wednesday.
The 51-year-old is ending his self-imposed four-month exile from the sport to compete in this week's inaugural LIV Golf Invitational Series tournament at Centurion Club.
Mickelson skipped his PGA Championship defence following a backlash over comments he made about the Saudi-backed breakaway tour, and was facing the media for the first since confirming his LIV Golf participation on Monday.
The six-time major winner repeatedly said "I don't condone human rights violations" when asked about his reasons for competing in the tour, despite calling the Saudi regime "scary" back in February, and stressed LIV Golf can "do a lot of good for the game".
Addressing his break, Mickelson said: "I've had an awesome time, I've had a four-month break from the game. It's given me time to continue some of the work and therapy that I've been working on, on some areas I'm deficient in, in my life.
"It's given me time to reflect on what I want to do going forward, what's best for me, what's best for the people I care about. This allows me to be more present and engaged with people I care about.
"That is why, when I think about being a part of LIV Golf, I feel so good about it."
Mickelson also said he will not speak publicly about PGA "issues", and refused to deny if he had been banned by the Tour.
As a lifetime member of the PGA Tour, Mickelson acknowledged he does not have to play any of their events, and does not see "any reason" to give up his membership following Dustin Johnson's resignation on Tuesday.
He did, however, confirm he would take part in the US Open next week - "I'm looking forward to it," he added.
On Tuesday, the USGA confirmed golfers competing in this week's LIV series opener will be allowed to play in next week's US Open, providing they had already qualified.
Sky Sports commentator and pundit Andrew Coltart believes the money on offer in the LIV Golf Series is likely to tempt other players from the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, especially if they see some of the lower-ranked players winning large sums of cash.
He said: "They're not saying it in these press conferences but it is purely just about the money. Vast sums of money are being presented to these individuals right in front of them and clearly we are seeing how impossible that is to turn down.
"I think we may have had the names in place prior to this stage. It was pretty naive to think with what has been talked about over the last 12 months, some of these players were not going to turn their eyes towards this series.
"From my point of view I'm not surprised. I thought there was going to be a little bit more of a move en masse, rather than one or two players putting their head above the parapet, and now some others have joined in.
"Let's not forget you are talking about a £20m prize fund - the winner takes away £4m. Once other players start to see some of the other maybe lesser lights of that series pocketing these large sums of money, they are also going to have a look at it and say, 'I'm maybe missing out on this opportunity', and they've got to then make that moral obligation, moral decision, themselves as to whether they jump ship or whether they stay and play their respective tours."
All 48 players compete against each other in a traditional stroke play format, with the lowest 54-hole total from the no-cut event being the winner, while a draft will help allocate players into the team format.
Each team will have a LIV-appointed team captain, who will select their three open team positions via a snake draft format, similar to those used on the Ladies European Tour in the Aramco Team Series.
For the first two rounds, the best two stroke play scores will count for each team. For the third and final round, the best three scores will count, with the lowest overall team score after 54 holes being named the team winner.
The format changes in the Team Championship, which is a seeded four-day, four-round, match play knock-out tournament. The top four seeds automatically receive a bye through the first round, with the remaining eight teams playing against each other to see who reaches the quarter-finals.
Captains in bold, with the 48-strong field divided into 12 teams for first event at Centurion club:
4 ACES - Dustin Johnson, Shaun Norris, Oliver Bekker, Kevin Yuan
HY FLYERS - Phil Mickelson, Justin Harding, TK Chantananuwat (a), Chase Koepka
PUNCH - Wade Ormsby, Matt Jones, Ryosuke Kinoshita, Blake Windred
CLEEKS - Martin Kaymer, Pablo Larrazabal, JC Ritchie, Ian Snyman
IRON HEADS - Kevin Na, Sadom Kaewkanjana, Hideto Tanihara, Viraj Madappa
SMASH - Sihwan Kim, Scott Vincent, Jinichiro Kozuma, Itthipat Buranatanyarat
CRUSHERS - Peter Uihlein, Richard Bland, Phachara Khongwatmai, Travis Smyth
MAJESTICKS - Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Sam Horsfield, Laurie Canter
STINGER - Louis Oosthuizen, Hennie du Plessis, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace
FIREBALLS - Sergio Garcia, David Puig (a), James Piot (a), Jediah Morgan
NIBLICKS - Graeme McDowell, Bernd Wiesberger, Turk Pettit, Oliver Fisher
TORQUE - Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, Adrian Otaegui, Andy Ogletree
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