Three-time Major champion Padraig Harrington admits the PGA Tour misses Bryson DeChambeau competing week-in-week-out and believes the American circuit can’t afford to lose any more personalities to LIV Golf.
DeChambeau, who joined LIV Golf in 2022, was box office at last week’s PGA Championship, delighting the crowds with his larger-than-life personality while the other leading men kept their emotions and energies in check.
They were focused and fixated on getting their hands on the Wanamaker Trophy, while DeChambeau’s main aim seemed to be putting on a show for the thousands of patrons that lined the fairways of Valhalla Golf Club.
It was electric and essential viewing. It was also something the PGA Tour has sorely missed in years gone by, with LIV players banned from competing on the Tour.
Yes, there are still characters playing every week in the States, but none of them really move the needle as much as DeChambeau, who has his own uniuqe approach to the game.
From bulking up to chase distance off the to using a 3D printed set of irons, the American is truly one of a kind.
Harrington, who was speaking to Golf Channel ahead of the Senior PGA Championship, agrees and weighed in on the debate on whether LIV Golf and the PGA Tour can co-exist.
“I realised last week that we miss Bryson,” said Harrington.
“He was box office last week and really, really helped that tournament. He helped push Xander’s win on. It was fantastic, interesting, exciting watching that.
“We do miss those guys. It’s hard to believe we miss Patrick Reed, but that’s just the way it is.
“I think ultimately, for me, if you’re looking for the perfect solution, I would have at least the two Tours and have some crossover like we did back in the day when everyone had a chip on their shoulder.
“A certain amount of players can come and go, back and forth, a few invites; something like that.
“Rivalry is a good thing in sport, it’s always been helpful. But we do need a solution, I will say that.
“Every day for the last two years, I’ve had an opinion and all I’ve found is that it keeps moving and changing because the scene changes.
“I think everybody in golf wants a solution. We want to have weeks like last week at the PGA Championship, where we have the drama and have both sides competing. We need more of that, for sure, but we don’t necessarily have to have everybody playing the same tournament at the same time.
“I know other people think that’s right, but if you get all the best players playing all the tournaments at the same time, there’s so few opportunities to win and it gets hard to create stars and build on that.
“I’m not adverse to two strong Tours and whatever goes with that. I don’t know the solutions; I don’t know if it's economically possible; we don’t know what the world of golf is going to look like in 20 years’ time.
“All I know is that we can’t let LIV Golf poach the best players off the PGA Tour for nothing and we also miss the players who have gone to LIV. That would be my two big takes and I don’t know how you solve that.
“If we get another big personality, we can’t afford to lose them on the PGA Tour.
“We’ve lost a lot with the personalities on the PGA Tour and we can’t afford that, so there has to be some mechanism that it’s too hard to leave.
“If you’ve picked a side, you’ve picked a side and vice versa, we’ve got to give the LIV guys some World Ranking points so they have an opportunity to compete in the Majors.”
