Add Tiger Woods and Bryson DeChambeau to the list of torn relationships caused by tension between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
DeChambeau told Golfweek ahead of the LIV Orlando event this weekend that Woods has cut him off since his defection to the Saudi-backed golf league in June 2022.
At first, DeChambeau didn’t mention Woods by name — only suggesting that someone had cut him off, and joking to the outlet that “I’m sure you can guess who” — before addressing his relationship with the 47-year-old, 15-time major champion.
“Yeah, I’m not going to throw anyone under the bus,” DeChambeau said. “He’s been a great friend. I texted him on his birthday. It is what it is. He has his viewpoints on it and thinks we’re potentially hurting his record. If anything, nobody is ever going to touch his record. That’s just it, that’s the bottom line.”
DeChambeau’s criticism of Woods came a week before the PGA Tour and LIV golfers collide in a strange and awkward way during the 2023 Masters — stemming from a December decision by Augusta National that allowed golfers from both groups to compete despite the “recent actions have divided men’s professional golf by diminishing the virtues of the game and the meaningful legacies of those who built it,” chairman Fred Ridley said in a statement at the time.
Woods has supported the PGA Tour as prominent golfers left, and his agent, Mark Steinberg, even generated attention when he suddenly dumped Thomas Pieters following Pieters’ bolted to LIV.
In November, Woods also blasted LIV Golf CEO and commissioner Greg Norman and said that he “has to go.”
The Masters begins Thursday, with defending champion and World Golf Ranking No. 1 Scottie Scheffler a favorite to repeat.
At the LIV Golf event in Orlando this weekend, DeChambeau opened with a 1-under round and sits in a tie for 26th.
“There’s a chance to grow the game even more and I hope one day [Woods will] see the vision that we all have out here,” DeChambeau told Golfweek.
Source: nypost
