Bryson DeChambeau’s sticky contract situation is Greg Norman’s creation

Three and a half years before Brooks Koepka cut ties with LIV Golf, he was well aware of what was happening in an office park on the outskirts of London.

Greg Norman stood on stage at RD Studios, moving awkwardly through a pre-written speech. He looked left and right around the room – which was filled with concerned supporters of the new league – mainly because that was where the teleprompters were. He walked fine, but paused as soon as he missed a word, which led to the fifth paragraph of the speech, where he said a very important sentence:

We bring freedom of choice to golf, and this has always been the driving force behind what we wanted to do.

In some ways he was right. Norman and the Saudi PIF had created a new corner of the professional golf market and many relevant Tour pros were taking them (and their money) seriously. Norman loved those two words: free agency. They were an important part of his campaign. But now, almost four years later, he’s watching from the sidelines, unable to make an impact on the league as those two words suddenly work in reverse.

Koepka’s news shocked the golf world for a number of reasons. It landed around 5pm on December 23, just as the world was gathered around their fireplaces. It was also the first time a major character reneged on their original four-year contract, ending it a season early. Days later, Bryson DeChambeau reminded the world that he also has one year left on his deal, and Koepka’s decision changes things.

DeChambeau shared his thoughts with the social media account @FlushingItand as anomalous as that may sound to traditionalists, they are very real ideas that he shared privately in 2025. He believes in team golf and wants to reach an agreement with LIV, but a lot needs to change.

DeChambeau noted that he doesn’t have as much say in LIV as he would like, but he can worry about that later. What he does have a say in is where he sells his services, just as Norman argued years ago. Across the table from DeChambeau is a golf league a trillion dollar owner and nothing that amounts to a salary cap. That combination is one of one, just as DeChambeau himself is one. And considering that the PIF has created an irrational market with mega-millions of dollars in free agent purchases in 2022 and 2023, this may not be appreciated, but it wouldn’t be surprising if DeChambeau’s monetary request started with a B.

A player’s individual value, from a marketing and commercialization perspective, is central to any LIV negotiation, as is the threat to offer that value elsewhere. What makes DeChambeau different is that he has a theoretical third way, which he made clear to Flushing It: there is always YouTube. He loves creating content so much that you can watch him manifest exclusively in the Streaming Golfer if he so chooses. (Remember, he spent much of the Covid lockdown streaming Fortnite or speed training on Twitch.) DeChambeau is qualified for every major tournament up to and including the 2029 US Open. Could a place like Amazon – which isn’t allergic to paying huge sums for sports content – ​​offer him a creator deal for the weeks in between?

Norman would enjoy listening to DeChambeau’s work through that hypothesis. It was in 1994 that Norman petitioned the PGA Tour to let him compete in an unsanctioned series of international matches, alongside Nick Price and against other two-man teams. That two-person roving match concept has become quite popular in these years of golf content streaming, especially and unsurprisingly by LIV players who take their own marketing very seriously. Norman believed in that mentality. He liked the idea of ​​golfers texting each other, much like NBA players do, to consider joining forces. He reveled in the offseason discourse, which fueled the belief that a “big name” could jump out of the PGA Tour at any time, even if that rarely came to fruition. He had to love it when Koepka’s then-coach Claude Harmon took a victory lap in 2023, comparing his stud forward, who had just won the PGA Championship, to Justin Verlander signing a two-year, $90 million contract with the New York Mets. What’s important now is that it seems to be working both ways.

We saw last weekend Rory McIlroy admits thatIf it were up to him, LIV golfers would be allowed back on the PGA Tour. They have already paid the consequences, he said. He then joined Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter and said the same thing, not-so-subtly referencing Koepka’s possible return to the PGA Tour, and outwardly mentioning DeChambeau’s name.