Robert TheodorsonShinnecock Hills Golf Club, the site of the 126th U.S. Open, the world-famous course will pit the best golfers in the world against the harshest conditions in all of golf over a grueling four-day tournament.
Among the one-hundred plus men in the field, only one will be able to claim he conquered the course and his competitors. At Shinnecock, there is a man who has done this twice in his young career, and everyone knows his name.
Some cheer and follow him like he’s a sure thing to win, others curse his name and hope he misses the cut, not only to inflict personal wounds, but far-reaching ones that reverberate through the golf ecosphere and create collateral damage.
The U.S. Open is one of the biggest and most-watched tournaments in golf.
It goes without saying that the cameras and fans tend to follow a select few despite the enormous surplus of talent scattered across the course. We all know their names: Scheffler, McIlroy, Rahm.
However, there’s one golfer who captures the imagination of a nation and the attention of the world through his accessibility to his fans. He may not be as talented as the big three previously mentioned, but he’s easily one of the most popular by virtue of the ever-growing media following and branding empire he’s created over the past few seasons.
For Bryson DeChambeau, another win at Shinnecock Hills isn’t just about capturing his third U.S. Open title; it’s about saving a league, his league, in whatever name and shape it takes in 2027 and beyond.
More on the Line Than You Think
Since it’s inception in 2022, the LIV Golf league has been well represented by a talented field in all the major championships despite the PGA Tour’s best efforts to ban the apostates from competing in tournaments.
LIV has produced two major winners in Brooks Koepka (2023 PGA Championship) and DeChambeau (2024 U.S. Open) and a number of men flirting with victory: Phil Mickelson & Koepka (2023 Masters), DeChambeau (2025 PGA Championship), and most recently Jon Rahm (2026 PGA Championship) in spite of negative press, external (and internal) turmoil, and attempted bans.
While LIV was working on building it’s following (“grow the game”) through creating innovative tournaments at underserved U.S. markets and off-the-beaten-path international ones few dared to schedule, the real PR work was being done at the major championships by LIV’s elite.
With a near-captive audience that couldn’t help but to tune in and see what this rebellious group was all about, the majors were and always have been the best way to promote LIV. And who better to promote the league than its best emissaries, major champions Koepka and DeChambeau.
There’s something intriguing about backstabbing former colleagues, and the victims (PGA Tour) getting incredible chances to rub it right back in the LIV Golf players’ faces that the public just couldn’t resist.
For LIV, their popularity peaked when DeChambeau achieved a miraculous come-from-behind win over PGA Tour darling (and policy board member) Rory McIlroy at Pinehurst two years ago.
The 2024 U.S. Open marked a high point in LIV’s future and made DeChambeau a household name. The following year at Oakmont, the one-time villain became a fan favorite overnight and amassed a following the likes of which have not been seen in years, before an unceremonious exit on Friday night.
What a Win Could Mean
For whatever reasons he may have, Bryson is currently making it his business to act as LIV’s personal savior in the face of imminent cancellation. Moments after the league announced that funding will run out at the end of the season. DeChambeau rose above the rest and made public statements that he would personally work to save the league and/or work on something transformative to keep the league’s spirit and team play intact.
The potential end of LIV Golf as we know it is currently marked for August 30th, the conclusion of LIV Michigan, the league’s penultimate tournament, which is a grand finale where teams enter a playoff format to win the season-long team trophy.
What makes this situation even crazier is that LIV has already cancelled LIV Louisiana, originally scheduled for early July, and there is buzz about cancelling LIV UK, one of the more popular tournaments on the schedule. While the death of Louisiana was announced months ago, pulling LIV UK would serve as the coup de grace for the league as 54 Sports and Entertainment, the parent company to LIV, would be pulling the rug from underneath their own hometown fans (with plenty of execs in attendance, we’re sure!)
All that aside, if DeChambeau wins his 3rd U.S. Open and joins the likes of Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and Ben Hogan all three-time (or more) winners, his legacy will be secure and his name immortalized forever, but perhaps more importantly for the 57 plus men in LIV, it means they still have lifeline and very well may get to not only finish the current season, but stick together into 2027 and beyond.
What a Loss Will Mean
While the league’s very existence may not be immediately decided on the outcome of this tournament, there is a great chance it will go under if no LIV golfers can claim victory at The Open at Royal Birkdale, what I would consider to be LIV’s last shot.
With a major championship drought and no fresh blood able to step up and make a play for a first career major, the compounded failures could indeed trigger the death of the league.
While the immediate shock would be great, nobody could say they didn’t see it coming when DeChambeau and Rahm go home trophy-less and LIV announced they have shut down all remaining operations early, thus ending the season, and LIV with it.
There’s so much riding on this U.S. Open when viewership will be at an all-time high.
LIV’s tournaments after Andalucia (June 4 -7) are ‘meh’ at best. While events in the UK and Chicago do tend to draw out the fans, the question which has been asked since 2022 remains: “Who is actually watching this?” remains.
Does anybody really have a reason to spend a weekend watching a bunch of athletes whose best days are behind them give it the old college try against an artificially shrunken field? No.
LIV needs DeChambeau to win this third U.S. Open, or the next time we hear about him, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, and a few others is when they start serving their one-year penance, and are allowed to join the PGA Tour again!
