Bryson DeChambeau's pursuit of a third major championship began disastrously on Thursday, as the LIV Golf star struggled to adapt to the greens at Aronimink Golf Club in Pennsylvania. The two-time U.S. Open winner endured a brutal start to the PGA Championship, carding a four-over-par first round that leaves him with a significant challenge to make the weekend cut.
Viral Putting Mishap
The low point of his opening round came at the par-four 11th hole, where a birdie attempt spectacularly backfired after his ball caught a treacherous slope on the green. Footage of the putt quickly went viral on social media, showing the ball barely being tapped by DeChambeau before accelerating nearly 20 feet past the hole. The nightmare sequence resulted in a costly bogey, which was immediately followed by another dropped shot at the 13th hole as DeChambeau appeared visibly frustrated.
Physical Struggles
The 32-year-old recently noted, at the LIV Golf Virginia event, that his body was not feeling in top shape, having previously withdrawn from the final round of LIV Golf Mexico City due to discomfort in his wrist. 'It's struggling a bit unfortunately,' said DeChambeau on May 7, referring to his body. 'The wrist is feeling better. I've had some shoulder stuff since, shoot, the Ryder Cup. I don't know what happened. It's been trained. It's been treated. We've worked on it. We've done a bunch of stuff, MRIs. It's all been fine. When I won those two events, I was waking up every day, uh-oh, is it going to hurt today? It's a little bit of overuse. I'm grinding to figure it out.'
Future Uncertainty
DeChambeau's nightmare outing at the PGA Championship comes days after it was revealed that the American star could potentially make a return to the PGA Tour. His future is up in the air after Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund announced it would stop bankrolling LIV Golf at the end of this season. He has been linked with a possible return to the PGA Tour, but the 32-year-old American has also become a hugely popular YouTube star, amassing nearly 2.7 million subscribers. His most popular videos include challenges with President Donald Trump (17 million views) and John Daly (10 million views).
Earlier this week, the LIV Golf star suggested he would focus on building his social media audience should LIV collapse, rather than rejoin golf's old order. DeChambeau said he believed his YouTube content would break current PGA Tour rules. 'If I was to film a video during the week of one of their events with a content creator or a celebrity, that would be in violation, to my knowledge,' he told Skratch. 'It's their policy, they didn't let me do it when I was on there.'
However, according to Front Office Sports, the PGA Tour is preparing to introduce an updated social media policy that will allow players to post more content around events. PGA Tour stars will now be able to upload more of their own footage and more broadcast clips from their rounds.
