Golf insider calls out Brandel Chamblee’s ‘tired narrative’ on LIV Golf pros' major struggle: “We’ve got to retire it”

Fifteen LIV Golf players participated in the 2025 PGA Championship. Following the event's conclusion, Brandel Chamblee stated that the league's golfers struggle to win Major championships. Renowned golf analyst Dan Rapaport took to his podcast, Dan on Golf, to disagree with the commentator.

Due to their 54-hole tournament format, LIV Golf's players do not earn Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points, making qualifying for Major championships challenging. The league's golfers rely on exemptions to participate on golf's biggest stage.

According to Dan Rapaport, Chamblee stated that Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm could not win as LIV Golf makes golfers uncompetitive. But Rapaport argued that golf is ultimately an individual sport, and a player's ability to win is based on their capabilities.

Rapaport said about LIV Golf's players in Major championships (via YouTube 16:40 - 20:49):

"This whole narrative that LIV makes guys uncompetitive? We’ve got to retire it. It’s not a disease. Is it possible that LIV Golf changed the calculus for some guys, their priorities, how much they practice?... But two things can be true at once: it could affect some guys, and it’s clearly not affecting Rahm or Bryson...And I just can’t believe we’re still doing this. This isn’t a pro-LIV rant. But to suggest that the reason a guy doesn’t win a major is because he plays on LIV? Well, what happens when they do win a Major? Is it in spite of LIV? It’s just a tired narrative."

Dan Rapaport also stated that LIV Golf's top three players - Joaquin Niemann, Bryson DeChambeau, and Jon Rahm - have a better aggregate showing than the PGA Tour's Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, and Xander Schauffele.

How did LIV Golf players do at the 2025 PGA Championship?

The 2025 PGA Championship saw 15 full-time golfers and one reserve golfer from LIV Golf in the field. Eight made the cut, with some of them finishing at the top of the leaderboard.

Bryson DeChambeau was the best-performing LIV golfer at the 2025 PGA Championship. He carded a final round score of 1-under par 70 to rise six spots up the leaderboard and claim the joint second place with Harris English and Davis Riley. A total 72-hole score of 6-under par left him five strokes behind the winner, Scottie Scheffler.

Jon Rahm tied for eighth place at the 2025 PGA Championship. The LIV Golf star posted rounds of 70, 70, 67, and 73 to total 4-under par for the week.

Here's a look at how each LIV Golf player fared at the 2025 PGA Championship:

T2 - Bryson DeChambeau (-6)
T8 - Joaquin Niemann (-4)
T8 - Jon Rahm (-4)
T37 - Richard Bland (+1)
T50 - Tom McKibbin (+4)
T60 - Tyrrell Hatton (+6)
T60 - David Puig (+6)
T67 - Sergio Garcia (+7)
MC - John Catlin (+3)
MC - Patrick Reed (+4)
MC - Dean Burmeester (+6)
MC - Cameron Smith (+7)
MC - Martin Kaymer (+8)
MC - Phil Mickelson (+9)
MC - Brooks Koepka (+9)
MC - Dustin Johnson (+12)

About the author

Lathika is one of the newer additions to Sportskeeda’s budding golf journalism team and has brought plenty of in-game experience to the role. Having been a golfer for over 12 years now, some of her crowning achievements include winning titles on the Indian Golf Union Ladies tour and Junior Girls Amateur tour.

She currently competes in Division 1 golf in New York, and hopes to play in the U.S. Open and Chevron Championship one day. She is set to cover the 2025 Ryder Cup as well. She is currently pursuing a degree in Business Administration and Management, and holds a Sports Marketing certification from Northwestern University, which helped her learn to draft press releases and ultimately transition into journalism.

Lathika has thus developed a knowledge base that allows her to view golf from both player, spectator and media lenses, enabling her to bring statistics, insights and an understanding of fan emotion together in her copies. She only uses verified information from reliable sources like the PGA TOUR.

Her favorite golfers are Nelly Korda and Tiger Woods, both for their playing style as well as their mental strength. Much of her time away from work is spent playing golf, but she also enjoys spending time with her family and friends, and learning new hobbies or upskilling.

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Edited by Samya Majumdar