'It Matters Where You Play' - Brandel Chamblee Says LIV Golf's Lack Of Competition Cost Bryson DeChambeau And Jon Rahm At PGA Championship

Brandel Chamblee said Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm's late collapse at the 2025 PGA Championship was almost exclusively down to where the two play their golf.

While Scottie Scheffler ultimately sealed his third Major - and a first PGA Championship - by five strokes at Quail Hollow on Sunday, the result looked as though it would be very different with just nine holes to play.

Scheffler had begun the final round with a three-shot headstart but was slowly reeled in by Rahm and DeChambeau, with the Spaniard briefly pulling alongside the World No.1.

Yet, DeChambeau was unable to maintain his charge and slipped backwards first before Rahm ran out of momentum as well after a trio of close calls at 13, 14 and 15.

In the end, DeChambeau ended T2nd on six-under, not helped by a four-over sequence along the Green Mile over the weekend. Rahm, meanwhile, knew the game was up once he reached the toughest stretch and was five-over along the same three holes on Sunday alone to finish T8th.

Discussing what happened to the fallen pair of two-time Major winners, Golf Channel analyst Chamblee insisted the perceived lack of competition in the 54-hole circuit was ultimately what cost DeChambeau and Rahm at the sharp end of the PGA Championship.

Chamblee said: "If you look at how Bryson DeChambeau played 'the Green Mile' over the past two days - four-over-par. You look at how Jon Rahm played 'the Green Mile' over the past two days - five-over-par. If you look at how Scottie Scheffler played 'the Green Mile' over the past two days - one-under-par.

"It matters where you play to be sharp, to be at your best, to test yourself against the best, which they’re not playing against the best week in and week out. Scottie Scheffler is, at the highest level.

"When it mattered the most, 16, 17 and 18, when you had to hit shots, when you had to control your nerves, when you had to control the rhythm of your golf swing, Scottie had it, Bryson didn’t, Rahm didn’t.”

Reflecting on the past year for both LIV stars, DeChambeau has managed to finish in the top-six at four of his past half-dozen Majors while winning another and missing the cut at the 2024 Open Championship.

LIV set Rahm, Bryson up to fail: Chamblee, McGinley | Live From the PGA Championship | Golf Channel - YouTube

Watch On

Meanwhile, Rahm largely failed to live up to expectations at the Majors in 2024 despite picking up the LIV Golf League Individual championship at the end of his first season with the PIF-backed circuit.

Weighing in on the subject, Chamblee's fellow Golf Channel analyst, Paul McGinley largely agreed with his colleague and claimed that LIV Golf's structure hardly prepares players for the rigours of Major championships.

McGinley said: “I think it’s hard to make an argument that LIV prepares you to win major championships because they are playing team events, they’re not playing on the most difficult golf courses, and they’re traveling around the world and then having to come back to America to play three of the four Majors. Those things alone.

“There’s a great quote from a Navy Seal that’s widely used in leadership. What do you do under pressure? And he says, 'I sink to the level of my training.' And the training that the guys get on LIV, the way they play on LIV, it’s not the same intensity as the PGA Tour. Nobody can argue that. That is true.

"Having said that, they do come close. Brooks has won a Major, Bryson has won a Major [since moving to LIV]. It's easy, with recency bias, to say that they can't win. But I'd agree with you to say that going to LIV is going to give you a better chance in winning a Major.

"I don’t care. You can argue that all day long. There’s no way that I can see [LIV] is a better and more productive pathway to be prepared to win majors.”