Sold Their Business’: Brandel Chamblee Blasts Jon Rahm & Co. Again Despite Backlash Over Hot LIV Golf Take

Brandel Chamblee has never been one to mince words, and when it comes to LIV Golf, his stance remains as strong as ever. The Golf Channel analyst, who firmly believes the PGA Tour is “killing it” right now, also thinks some of LIV’s biggest stars are starting to feel “seller’s remorse.” He has been an outspoken critic of the Saudi-backed league since its launch in 2022, and his latest comments on X only add fuel to the fire. His remarks came in response to a tweet highlighting NBC’s substantial viewership numbers during the final round of The Players Championship.

On Sunday, Rory McIlroy battled J.J. Spaun in a three-hole aggregate playoff, which carried over to Monday morning. Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter revealed that NBC’s final-round coverage drew 3.6 million viewers—an increase from the 3.5 million who watched Scottie Scheffler’s win in 2024. Even the Monday morning playoff, airing between 9-10 a.m. ET pulled in 1.5 million viewers across TV and digital platforms—a massive number for that time slot on cable.

After seeing these figures, Chamblee wasted no time taking a dig at LIV, tweeting: “Compare this to LIV’s finale last year that concluded in prime time on the east coast with Rahm winning… which drew 55,000 viewers. People tune in to sports that matter.” And once again, he has stoked that fire and found some air time. The 62 YO recently appeared on Dan on Golf and was asked about his very Tweet and whether he truly believes that LIV Golf is going nowhere.

Chamblee expressed his belief that people generally only watch sports that hold significance, as there are only so many hours in a day to dedicate to entertainment. In his view, nothing LIV Golf is doing is historic: “If you asked people in the golf business to go through every tour event this year and tell you who won, they could probably do it. If you asked people to do the same thing about LIV, there’s just zero chance they could, unless they’re in the business of getting into granular detail about everything. I think there’s a sense that those who went to LIV sold their business—really at a discount, I would argue. It’s just not resonating,” he added.

Greg Norman created the league with a mission – golf, but louder. That undoubtedly has been fulfilled, but well, they are still not being able to give the audience a product that would resonate with people and compels viewership. This is exactly what Chamblee touched upon, saying: “I disagree with you that they haven’t accomplished their mission. I think it was always the case that they were going to be able to buy some of these players—they had billions and unlimited funds, so that was a given.”

Well, where is the lie? Big names like Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, and others moved to the Breakaway League because they were offered millions of dollars. Who would not want it? But while exposing the ugly side of LIV Golf and its functioning, Brandel Chamblee did add that he had made a mistake while updating the tweet.