Gary Player announced that Bryson DeChambeau will tee it up at his DP World Tour event, the Nedbank Golf Challenge, in South Africa in December. It’s a notable addition to DeChambeau’s schedule for a number of reasons, but particularly because it’s his first confirmed start outside LIV Golf as he gets set to become a free agent next week.
The 2026 LIV Golf season will come to a close this weekend in Indianapolis after the embattled tour canceled its team event in Michigan. That will bring an end to a wild season that saw LIV Golf lose its funding from the Saudi Arabia PIF, cancel multiple events and scramble to find funding for 2027 and beyond.
Every player on LIV Golf now faces uncertainty about their future, but for the sport’s biggest impending free agent, Bryson DeChambeau, the timing of LIV’s apparent collapse has thrown a serious wrench in his plans. DeChambeau figured to enter this offseason with a ton of leverage to force LIV Golf to give him a huge amount of guaranteed money to return, or push for a great deal from the PGA Tour to return and serve as the effective death knell for LIV.
Instead, DeChambeau now finds himself with little in the way of leverage against either tour given LIV’s questionable at best financial situation as he gets set to hit golfing free agency.
As Player notes in his announcement, DeChambeau won a thriller in South Africa earlier this year on LIV Golf — one of the last events before everything started to crumble for the tour — and it’s a sensible place for DeChambeau to play in the offseason.
Unlike many of his European colleagues on LIV, DeChambeau has not played in other DP World Tour events in recent years, with his last DP World Tour start being the 2022 JP McManus Pro-Am. Now, facing the sudden reality that he is about to be a player without a home tour, DeChambeau will tee it up in South Africa for a rare DP World Tour start as he explores all of his potential options.
DeChambeau has voiced hope there could be a world where he could play on LIV Golf and the PGA Tour in the future, but there’s little reason to believe the PGA Tour will budge on its insistence that players choose one or the other now that LIV Golf has lost its blank check backing from the PIF.
The fall and winter are rarely exciting times in the golf world, but 2026 figures to be an exception with LIV Golf’s scramble to restructure, DeChambeau’s free agency, Jon Rahm’s future if LIV Golf declares bankruptcy and how the PGA Tour plays its cards with two of the sport’s top stars.
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