Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau at growing risk of ultimate LIV Golf cost
Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau have enjoyed the best of both worlds two years on from turning their back on the PGA Tour and becoming founding members of LIV Golf.
But time is running out for the pair to enjoy both the luxury of LIV's millions while still having guaranteed entry to the major championships. Johnson and DeChambeau have made impressive starts to the LIV season, with the former winning in Las Vegas on February 10 to bank a cool $4million (£3.2m) after a fifth-place finish in Mayakoba, Mexico a week previously.
DeChambeau, too, has spent plenty of time near the top of the leaderboard early in the season, although he blew a big lead on the final day at Las Vegas Country Club and slumped to 11th place. Nonetheless, the American duo will fancy their chances when major season begins at Augusta National on April 8.
Both men, like all their LIV counterparts, have plummeted down the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) since making the leap to the Saudi Arabia-bankrolled breakaway tour in 2022. LIV's 54-hole format and lack of a satisfactory qualifying process mean the tour is not sanctioned by the OWGR, with players receiving no ranking points.
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The likes of Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell and Ian Poulter have shut out of the majors as a result, so drastic has been their fall down the rankings. But LIV's leading lights like Johnson, DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Brooks Koepka have been able to rely on their recent major championship success to punch their tickets for the four biggest tournaments of the year.
But that privilege will only last for so long, and if a solution to the proposed merger between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund is not forthcoming, they and face being locked out of the majors.
DeChambeau's major championship exemptions are running out (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)Two-time major champion Johnson has earned a lifetime exemption for The Masters after his 2020 victory, and he is booked in for the US Open until 2026 thanks to his 2016 win at Oakmont. But his exemptions for the PGA Championship and The Open Championship expire at the end of the 2025 season.
Former world number-one Johnson is ranked 231 by the OWGR, accruing no ranking points since The Open at Royal Liverpool last summer. Unless a solution is reached between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf's backers, or the breakaway league satisfies the criteria of the OWGR, Johnson is on borrowed time in The Open and the PGA Championship, putting him under pressure to perform well in the majors this summer.
DeChambeau's one and only major triumph, the 2020 US Open, means he is exempt through 2025 – and 2030 for the US Open, meaning he is in a similar situation to his LIV rival. And they risk falling into a similar situation to Sergio Garcia, the 2017 Masters champion, who has a lifetime ticket to Augusta but has to watch the other three majors from home.
Koepka, Cameron Smith and Jon Rahm, however, are in a more comfortable position after winning majors in the past two seasons.
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