PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced just before the new year that the self-imposed PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger deadline of December 31st would be extended. Both parties, the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) would work together to reach an agreement to bring the PIF on as minority co-investors.

This was a big moment in the world of golf that kind of got glossed over by the sports world due to the timing of Jay Monahan’s memo to PGA Tour members. It was on 12/31 which was an NFL Sunday, peak College Football bowl season, a holiday for many, and this allowed the news to sort of slip through the cracks at the PGA Tour punted merger talks down the line.

In the days since, Bryson DeChambeau spoke with SI’s Bob Harig for an interview where he outlined how PGA Tour integration cold work. Bryson DeChambeau also discussed how Tiger Woods, once the most popular athlete on earth, is (at least in part) a living model for LIV Golf’s path to success. DeChambeau told Bob Harig:

Bryson DeChambeau has to see the irony here, right? He’s using Tiger Woods’ immense success as an individual as the example for how LIV Golf fans would support a team.

In this thought experiment, Tiger Woods is still more popular with golf fans than any 3 or 4 man team of golfers on earth. Bryson’s point, it seems, is to create interest about an entity that reaches beyond the sport or league itself, and that’s a valid point.

Tiger Woods’ popularity was (is?) bigger than golf. But LIV Golf will need to do so much work, they’ll have to move mountains, in order to actually make the LIV teams popular with fans.

Elsewhere in the interview, Bryson DeChambeau spoke about Rory McIlroy’s recent comments and softened stance on LIV Golf. Bryson said:

I went back and looked at Bryson’s comments on LIV Golf and the PGA Tour from September 2022 when tensions were highest.

At that time, Bryson said “I personally believe that over the course of time they will come to a resolution. There has to be. It’s only in the best interest of the game of golf down the road. What LIV Golf has provided is something new and unique/different. And what that there’s going to be some disruption and some people aren’t going to like it.”

DeChambeau has been more diplomatic through the LIV Golf schism and potential PGA Tour merger than anyone, myself included, has given him credit for in the past. It’s evident that he truly believes that LIV’s team model has the potential to grow the game of golf. Whether or not that is true, however, remains to be seen.