Source: DeChambeau to play in LIV Golf series

Bryson DeChambeau, the 2020 U.S. Open Champion, is joining the LIV Golf Invitational Series, a source confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday.

Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters champion, is also joining the LIV series, according to multiple reports.

DeChambeau and Reed are expected to compete in LIV Golf’s first United States-based event, scheduled at Pumpkin Ridge in Portland, Oregon, from June 30-July 2.

A LIV Golf spokesperson declined comment.

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“Bryson has always been an innovator,” DeChambeau’s agent, Brett Falkoff of GSE Worldwide, told ESPN on Wednesday. “Having the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something unique has always been intriguing to him. Professional golf as we know it is changing, and it’s happening quickly.”

It would be another blow for the PGA Tour, which denied conflicting-event releases to players who requested them to compete in LIV Golf tournaments. The events are being financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

DeChambeau and Reed are two of the most polarizing players on tour.

The additions of DeChambeau and Reed would give LIV Golf at least nine former major champions. Six-time major champion Phil Mickelson, two-time major winners Dustin Johnson and Martin Kaymer and four others — Sergio Garcia (2017 Masters), Charl Schwartzel (2011 Masters), Graeme McDowell (2010 U.S. Open) and Louis Oosthuizen (2010 Open Championship) — are competing in LIV Golf’s inaugural event, which starts Thursday at Centurion Club outside London.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has threatened players who competed without releases with potential punishment, including fines, suspensions and/or bans. A handful of players, including Johnson, Garcia, Schwartzel and Kevin Na, have resigned from the tour.

DeChambeau, 28, was one of LIV Golf’s early targets. He said at the Memorial last week that he planned to keep playing on the PGA Tour.

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“I think that’s mostly — a lot of it is private,” DeChambeau said. “There’s not really any conversations that need to be made about that, other than the fact that, like, every person out here has their own opinion on it. Me, there’s obviously a lot of conversation. For me, I personally don’t think that at this point in time I’m in a place in my career where I can risk things like that.

“I’m loyal to my family that I’ve created around me with sponsors and everything. And as of right now, the golf world is probably going to change in some capacity. I don’t know what that is. Not my job to do so. I’m just going to keep playing professional golf and enjoy it wherever it takes me, play with the best players in the world. That’s really all I’ve got, that’s what I’ll do for the rest of my life, because I want to be one of the best players in the world.”

An eight-time winner on the PGA Tour, DeChambeau has made just six starts this season because of a left hand injury, which required surgery in April. He is ranked 28th in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Reed, 31, has nine PGA Tour victories and has earned nearly $37 million during his tour career. Reed struggled after being hospitalized with double pneumonia in August. He is ranked 36th in the world.

Reigning PGA champion Justin Thomas, speaking Wednesday from the PGA Tour’s stop in Toronto, repeated previous thoughts that his peers are entitled to choose where they wish to play.

“You know, it’s a bummer. I mean, I think a lot of us are — I don’t know if annoyed or tired is the right word. I mean, it’s just one of those things,” he said.

“I don’t dislike DJ [Dustin Johnson] now,” he went on to say. “I don’t think he’s a bad dude. I’m not going to treat him any differently. It’s like he’s entitled to choose as he wishes. Like I said, it doesn’t make him a bad person. Now I’m disappointed and I wish that he and others wouldn’t have done it, but that’s their decision.”

Four-time major champion Rory McIlroy reaffirmed his commitment to the PGA Tour on Wednesday while also agreeing with Thomas that fellow golfers are free to join LIV.

“I think my stance on it has been pretty clear from the start,” McIlroy said. “It’s not something that I want to participate in. I certainly understand the guys that have went. I understand what their goals and their ambitions are in their life. I’m not, certainly not knocking anyone for going. It’s their life, it’s their decision, they can live it the way they want to.

“But for me I want to play on the PGA Tour against the best players in the world. And I think for me, speaking to a few people yesterday and one of the comments was, anything, any decision that you make in your life that’s purely for money usually doesn’t end up going the right way. Obviously money is a deciding factor in a lot of things in this world, but if it’s purely for money it’s not, never seems to, you know, it never seems to go the way you want it to.”

ESPN’s Tom VanHaaren contributed to this report.

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