President Donald Trump persuades Brandel Chamblee to make an astonishing U-turn over LIV chief - “He did change my mind”
Long one of LIV Golf's most ardent detractors, Brandel Chamblee, longtime golf analyst, has seemingly done an about-face in his opinion of the rebel tour. With the merger pending and LIV creeping more and more into mainstream golf all the time, Chamblee has reversed course after a round of golf with President Donald Trump.
Trump said before his election that he would like to see a resolution to the pending merger, and several PGA Tour policy-makers went to the White House to get his assistance. Now, Trump, a longtime fan of LIV Golf, has even convinced one of the tour’s biggest naysayers to change his mind.
Chamblee said at the WM Phoenix Open:
"At the end of it, I will say that he (President Donald Trump) did change my mind. He made me think about Yasir [Al-Rumayyan] as a partner in the game of golf, and not looking just for an economic opportunity through the game of golf."
For a long time, Chamblee has been highly critical of Yasir Al-Rumayyan, often believing him to be using golf for his own financial gain rather than trying to grow the game, which has been his and LIV Golf's stated mission.
Chamblee still has strong feelings about LIV and its players, but he's coming around to the idea of their relevancy. He admitted a few months ago that he'd like to see the merger resolved soon so that the two sides can come together once more.
He has, over the years, slowly softened his stance and become more accepting of LIV Golf as part of golf's present and future.
Brandel Chamblee remains critical of LIV Golf player
Despite his newfound respect for LIV Golf chair Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Brandel Chamblee still has thoughts and opinions on a lot of LIV players, including Joaquin Niemann.
The golf analyst said via GolfWRX:
"All those players joined that tour saying they wanted to play less but now, to accrue world ranking points, they’re playing more and all around the world where ranking points are available, the way Joaquin Niemann has done. And Niemann, yeah, he’s a good player, but let’s not pretend that he’s as good as they pretend he is. He’s played in 22 majors and never even finished in the top-15. Seven missed cuts.”
Niemann is one of the brightest young stars on LIV Golf, but Brandel Chamblee said this situation was very similar to how it was for Talor Gooch. He went on:
“They keep acting like he’s the next Rory McIlroy, the same way they were talking about Talor Gooch last year, who, by the way, played in three majors, missed two cuts and finished 34th in the other [in 2023], so turns out he’s not as good as they said he was.”
Chamblee places a lot of value on the Majors and how well people perform in them. Since neither Gooch nor Niemann have had much success in the Masters, US Open, PGA Championship, or the Open, Chamblee doesn't think they're as good as other people consider them to be.