As Bryson DeChambeau enters defining contract negotiations with LIV Golf, Rory McIlroy has pondered the league’s future…

The eyes of the golf world are fixed firmly on Bryson DeChambeau right now. In truth, they often are.

But after a dramatic week in which the PGA Tour’s paradigm shift offered Brooks Koepka and three other LIV stars an immediate olive branch to return, the spotlight on DeChambeau is now almost blinding.

The two-time US Open champion’s LIV contract is up in August, and while he will play at least one more season as Crushers GC captain, Koepka’s reintegration via the Tour’s Returning Member’s Program has handed DeChambeau considerable leverage in negotiations to extend his stay.

That much was blatantly obvious in West Palm Beach this week, when DeChambeau was hesitant to commit his long-term future to the league in an exclusive interview with TG.

“I have no idea what’s going to happen in a year,” he said, “but what I can tell you is that we’ll do everything possible to make it make sense for both sides.”

DeChambeau holds all the aces in this civil war – and he knows it.

Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, is certainly an interested observer. Yet the Masters champion believes that even if DeChambeau does indeed re-sign, Koepka’s U-turn is a signal that LIV is in decline regardless.

“It’s not as if they made any huge signings this year, is it?” McIlroy told the Telegraph‘s James Corrigan in Dubai, where he is kicking off his 2026 season.

“They haven’t signed anyone who moves the needle and I don’t think they will. I mean, they could re-sign Bryson for hundreds of millions of dollars, but even if they do, it doesn’t change their product, does it?

“They’ll just be paying for the exact same thing. And they’ve lost Brooks, so they’ll be paying out all this money.”  

McIlroy hails Koepka’s return as a big win for the PGA Tour and, with LIV weakened, he stressed that the league’s Saudi benefactors will need to pour in more big money just to avoid going backwards.

“A lot of these guys’ contracts are up,” he added. “They’re going to ask for the same number or an even bigger number. LIV have spent five or six billion and they’re going to have to spend another five or six just to maintain where they are.

“I’m way more comfortable being on the PGA Tour side than on their side, but who knows what will happen.”