By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo Credit: Suresh Rajcoomar/Fullview.
Bryson DeChambeau has released a statement about his future plans following the liquidation and winding down of LIV Golf on Thursday.
LIV Golf has confirmed plans to wind down operations and enter liquidation, abandoning hopes of launching a new version due to a lack of financial backing.
DeChambeau has until November 15 to declare his intention to become a DP World Tour member in 2027, or risk being frozen out of professional golf.
He has defended his decision to join LIV from the outset and thanked his supporters in a statement posted on X on Sunday.
“I’m not going to rewrite the last four years,” DeChambeau wrote.
“I made a decision I believed in, and I’m grateful for what came with it: playing in front of fans new and old around the world who rarely got to see the best players at home. The record crowds in Adelaide and Johannesburg will stick with me for the rest of my life.
“I believed this game could reach more people, in more places, in a new way. I still believe that. And I gave it everything I had to keep team golf alive.
“I want to say thank you to the people who believed in this from the start: the staff, the operations crews, the caddies, and everyone behind the scenes at LIV and Crushers GC who bet their careers on this. You gave everything. And thank you to my Crushers team-mates, our sponsors, and every fan who came out.
“I still believe in team golf. It may look different in the future, but I still believe it’s essential to growing the game.”
The two-time major champion explained last week that he was hopeful the league could “exist forever”, with Dechambeau also revealing he had played a role in plotting out how LIV 2.0 could move forward.
Despite LIV’s impending liquidation, the American golfer remained tight-lipped about his own future:
“Arnold Palmer said no player is bigger than the game, and I want to acknowledge that, along the way, I’ve said some things that didn’t help. Whatever comes next, I’ll approach it with humility and respect for the people who carried this game long before me.
“In December, I’ll compete at the Nedbank Golf Challenge, Gary Player’s event, in front of fans who made my first visit to South Africa unforgettable. Beyond that, I’ll go about whatever is next the right way.
“My passion has been to grow this game. That’s still the goal. Thank you for sticking with me. Together we can all grow this great game we love.”
Fullview also learnt BC Partners is seeking to acquire a $50 million bankruptcy loan from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the debtor-in-possession financing that would allow it to exert control over LIV Golf’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy process.