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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Bryson DeChambeau is running out of places to play, Rory McIlroy said Tuesday, as the two-time U.S. Open champion decides whether to join the European tour after LIV Golf’s collapse. His membership deadline falls within the next week.
“If he wants to play competitive golf, it doesn’t seem like he’s got many options,” McIlroy said at Jumeirah Golf Estates, the venue for this week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
The attention DeChambeau draws comes with good and bad, McIlroy said, and he would never want to be in DeChambeau’s position.
“He brings eyeballs, which is a good thing for tournaments,” McIlroy explained.
Bryson DeChambeau’s Playing Options After LIV Golf
Two other LIV departures, Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, have committed to the European tour for next season, Agence France-Presse reported.
Players leaving LIV typically serve a one-year PGA Tour suspension from their last start in the league. Brooks Koepka came back in January on one-time terms that cost him 2026 FedEx Cup bonus money and five years of tour equity. DeChambeau, Rahm, and Cameron Smith were offered the same deal and turned it down.
When announcing the program Jan. 12, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp gave eligible players until Feb. 2 to apply.
“This is a one-time, defined window and does not set a precedent for future situations,” Rolapp wrote.
DeChambeau spoke about the PGA Tour in August.
“Personally, I’d love to be able to play events on the PGA Tour,” DeChambeau said, according to Sky Sports.
Bryson DeChambeau Reaffirms Nedbank Golf Challenge Start
LIV announced its wind-down Nov. 5. DeChambeau’s first public comments afterward came Sunday in a statement posted to X.
“Whatever comes next, I’ll approach it with humility and respect for the people who carried this game long before me,” DeChambeau wrote.
He stood by his move to LIV. He called team golf essential to growing the game and reaffirmed his commitment to the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, a European tour co-sanctioned event, in December. Nedbank organizers had announced his entry on Aug. 18. The statement did not announce European tour membership for 2027. DeChambeau, 33, won five LIV events and said as late as October that he planned to stay through the league’s attempted relaunch.
He has also floated leaning on his YouTube channel, which has more than 3 million subscribers, and playing only the majors. His two U.S. Open titles came in 2020 and 2024. His European tour major exemption now covers only 2027, Sky Sports reported. Last year, he was runner-up to Scottie Scheffler at the PGA Championship, and he won one of his five matches in the Ryder Cup.
McIlroy weighed in on DeChambeau in July, after DeChambeau protested a two-shot penalty at the British Open at Royal Birkdale for improving the path of his swing in deep grass.
“I think a lot of it is performative,” McIlroy said at the time.
Rory McIlroy Pursues An Eighth Race To Dubai Title
A fourth DP World Tour Championship win would give McIlroy, 37, an eighth Race to Dubai title, tying Colin Montgomerie.
McIlroy said Tuesday that he struggled to reset his goals after winning the 2025 Masters, the title he had chased for a decade. Stating new goals publicly, he said, holds him accountable to follow through.
He trails Eugenio Chacarra by 533.93 points with 2,000 available to the winner.
McIlroy climbed into second by finishing third in Abu Dhabi last week, where Rahm won.
Patrick Reed is third in the standings.
“That was the goal coming into these two weeks, to try to catch Eugenio and Patrick and try to win the Race to Dubai again,” McIlroy said after finishing in Abu Dhabi.
His wins here in 2012, 2015, and 2024 are among 21 career European tour titles, The National reported in October, and he lost last year’s edition to Matt Fitzpatrick in a playoff.
Rahm, who has won three of his five starts here and never finished outside the top five, is sixth in the standings.
“So obviously gives this week a little bit more meaning than it did before,” Rahm said Tuesday.
Chacarra and Reed have clinched PGA Tour cards, which go to the top 10 players in the final standings not otherwise exempt. McIlroy and Chacarra were paired in the final group for Thursday’s opening round, the AP reported. The final round is Sunday.
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