DeChambeau is an unlikely winner in game's civil war

As golf's civil war rumbles on, with any optimism that came from the announcement in June 2023 that LIV Golf and the PGA Tour had a framework agreement in place for a merger having long since dissipated, it's hard to argue that the situation has created many winners.

- LUKE BAKER

The players that made the switch to LIV have certainly been handsomely compensated from a financial perspective but they were hardly poor before and the low-wattage LIV events seem to be harming their chances of winning majors – with the likes of Jon Rahm and Dustin Johnson largely uncompetitive since making the switch and the likes of Talor Gooch now missing out entirely due to the lack of ranking points available.

Golf fans have certainly suffered, with the best players on the planet now split across two tours, making both less watchable on a week-to-week basis. Paltry viewing figures for LIV and rapidly collapsing TV ratings for the PGA Tour are proof of the waning interest and the endless parading of golfing politics as the civil war continues is hardly attractive to the casual fan.

The players who stayed loyal to the PGA Tour appear either powerless to control the direction of their sport or, in the case of the Rory McIlroys of the world, have engaged so deeply with the split that they admit it is now negatively impacting their oncourse performances. The Scottie Schefflers and Xander Schauffeles who are succeeding on the course appear to be doing so in spite of the split, rather than because of it, but even they can’t be relishing the constant questions and uncertainty around when everything will be resolved.

The PGA Tour themselves, led by the increasingly unpopular commissioner Jay Monahan, have incurred the wrath of players and fans alike at both the lack of transparency and the inability to clean up the mess they find themselves in. While even PIF the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia bankrolling LIV can't be happy with the lack of return on investment so far and the mess the sport finds itself in.

But amid that negativity, there stands one notable exception the real winner of golf's civil war has to be Bryson DeChambeau.

And 2024 was undoubtedly the year of Bryson.