One of the more confusing aspects of The Duels on LIV Golf is the fact that Bryson DeChambeau did not feature in either of the first two stagings of the event.
LIV Golf has no bigger star than Bryson DeChambeau. Not only is DeChambeau the best player in the league, but he is also the marquee name, with DeChambeau proving to be a huge hit on his YouTube channel.
It is surely fair to say that DeChambeau’s YouTube channel has been pivotal in changing perceptions of the two-time US Open champion. It has allowed the 31-year-old to show more of his personality, and it seems that the golfing world has completely embraced him.
That is why it was strange that he did not play in The Duels at the events in Miami or Virginia. But that looks set to change in Dallas.
Dan Rapaport suggests the reason for Bryson DeChambeau’s odd behaviour before LIV Golf Dallas
DeChambeau is set to play alongside Fat Perez of Bob Does Sports in the latest event. However, DeChambeau kept everyone on their toes by deciding to not attend the press conference alongside Perez, Grant Horvat and Phil Mickelson.
That meant that questions about The Duels were put to DeChambeau during his normal press conference. But, while the Crushers captain did respond to the questions, he refused to speak about anything other than LIV Golf Dallas.
It does seem quite bizarre that DeChambeau was not prepared to promote The Duels. But speaking on Dan on Golf, Dan Rapaport suggested the reason why he may have been reluctant to speak about anything other than the main event.
Photo by Al Chang/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images
“This is interesting. They’re filming another Duels, another LIV Duels this week in Dallas. The one in Virginia went out on The Bryan Bros YouTube channel, was received well, they changed the way they filmed it, they didn’t use the broadcast cameras, it looked a lot more like a YouTube video. So they’re filming another one at LIV Dallas, and Bryson was supposed to do a press conference with Fat Perez, who is his teammate, and Grant Horvat and Phil Mickelson. He did not show up to the press conference. Then he was asked at his press conference about the Duels,” he said, before playing a clip of his press conference.
“I don’t think this means that he’s not going to play in the Duels. What I think this is, I don’t know, Brian Rolapp, something that he said as the new PGA Tour CEO, he said ‘we’ve got to focus on the competition’, the competition being the centrepiece of all of this. We have to hyper focus on the competition. I don’t know, it demeans the competition if they’re up there with their press conference talking about the tournament and he’s like, ‘oh, you’re playing with FP’. Could you imagine going up at a PGA Tour event and going to Rory McIlroy – well, not Rory because he doesn’t like it – but going up to someone and being like, ‘you’re playing with Luke Kwon today’? They’re going to be like, ‘no, I’m here to win the Travelers Championship’.
“I think they’re trying to [say] this is something fun we do that’s separate from the competition. It has to have the competition piece be very [serious], if they’re going to be a sports league, they don’t want it to be viewed as this whole thing is like an influencer gathering.”
Why Rapaport’s explanation does not clear everything up as Bryson DeChambeau gets the rumour mill going
While you can understand Rapaport’s assessment of DeChambeau’s press conference, that arguably does not explain why he decided to skip media duties for The Duels.
Of course, his main focus should be on LIV Golf Dallas, particularly as he is the main attraction. However, the sight of an empty chair at the earlier press conference was always going to lead to questions.
And when he then decided against speaking about The Duels when he did arrive to speak to the press, it was inevitable that the rumour mill was going to kick into overdrive.
It is a strange situation which DeChambeau has seemingly made a lot worse for the time-being.