Bryson DeChambeau, the 2020 U.S. Open champion, and Patrick Reed, who won the 2018 Masters, are planning to affix the brand new Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit that hopes to challenge the established PGA Tour, in line with multiple reports.
Each golfers, unlike the vast majority of the highest players entered on this weekend’s inaugural LIV Golf event outside London, are still within the prime of their careers. DeChambeau, 28, has turn into one in every of golf’s hottest players due to his prodigious drives. Reed, 31, is an aggressive, feisty figure in the sport known for quality performances in the largest events. Reed has won 12 tournaments in america and Europe and finished in the highest 10 at each of the 4 major golf championships.
While DeChambeau and Reed aren’t in the sphere for the inaugural LIV Golf event, which begins Thursday, they join a growing list of PGA Tour players who’ve aligned with the upstart league and can play this week. That group includes Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter, Kevin Na, Martin Kaymer and Talor Gooch. Only two in that group are ranked in the highest 30 worldwide: Johnson is fifteenth, and Oosthuizen is twenty first.
DeChambeau and Reed are expected to make their LIV Golf debut on June 30 in an event outside Portland, Ore. Up to now in 2022, each players have struggled. DeChambeau has missed the cut in 4 of his last five tournaments while Reed has missed the cut or finished outside the highest 25 in 12 of the 14 events he has entered. Each players are expected to compete in next week’s U.S. Open within the suburbs of Boston. America Golf Association, which conducts the U.S. Open, said on Tuesday that players related to the LIV Golf circuit who had already qualified for the U.S. Open, which incorporates DeChambeau and Reed, could be permitted to play.
The Telegraph first reported that DeChambeau and Reed would commit to play on this 12 months’s LIV Golf Invitational series. The subsequent event for the circuit is outside Portland, starting June 30.
As recently as last week, DeChambeau denied being enticed by the mammoth upfront payouts and appearance fees being offered to the world’s top golfers by LIV Golf.
“Me, there’s obviously lots of conversation,” DeChambeau said on the PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament. “For me, I personally don’t think that at this cut-off date I’m in a spot in my profession where I can risk things like that.”
DeChambeau’s agent, Brett Falkoff, issued an announcement to a handful of stories outlets on Wednesday: “Bryson has all the time been an innovator. Having the chance to get in on the bottom floor of something unique has all the time been intriguing to him. Skilled golf as we realize it is changing, and it’s happening quickly.”
DeChambeau and Reed will probably be added to the list of tour members facing punishment from the PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, who has said that players selecting to play within the LIV Golf events without the tour’s permission could face suspension from the PGA Tour or a lifetime ban. No tour player was granted a release to play on this week’s event outside London.
