This week, Rory McIlroy was asked a version of a question that has been bouncing around the golf world for months?
What will Bryson DeChambeau do next?
The question was specifically about the possibility of DeChambeau playing the DP World Tour in 2027.
“Honestly, look, I’m certainly not in his shoes, nor would I ever want to be,” McIlroy said. “But it doesn’t seem like he has many options. You know, if he wants to play competitive golf, it doesn’t seem like he has many options.”
The first line was a blow to his rival. The second line was harsh but true; It seems that DeChambeau hopes to help launch LIV 2.0 brokenand is still suspended from the PGA Tour. But McIlroy’s third line was an acknowledgment that if, in fact, DeChambeau’s career aspirations are no bound by the traditional limits of professional golf tours – it has many options indeed. That is why, as the bankruptcy of LIV has gone and the former colleagues of DeChambeau are released. statements Regarding his future, DeChambeau remains calm, before returning to a place that no one expected:
Western Maine.
(You can listen to a version of this story on the Drop Zone podcast below or here.)
“SUGAR BREAD IT’S ONE OF THOSE HIDDEN PLACES,” says Oscar Park, the head professional of the course. It is 34 kilometers from the Canadian border. There are 50 miles to the end of the Appalachian Trail. It’s two and a half hours to Portland; Bangor is a bit closer but offers fewer flights.
“It’s remote,” says Park. “But also close enough to the real world that if you need a taste, you can go back to it really quickly.”
Sugarloaf doesn’t often get celebrity guests. Lucas Glover has family in Maine; has been there. So it has Cooper Flaggthe first Hooper of Vacationland. But for five months of the year, it is one of the best courses in the state (before turning into a ski resort for the winter) and, Park says, they want the world to know.
In the modern world of golf course marketing, this means recruiting help from wherever you can get it; Park said his team felt like the course’s location, layout and conditioning made it worthy of extra attention. His professional assistants cast a wide net around the world of new-age content creators, and, as a long shot, he even dropped a line to DeChambeau’s team, in case he might be interested.
Sugarloaf did not disclose exactly what it cost them to land DeChambeau, one of the largest fish in the YouTube golf sea Park said it was “not cost prohibitive”. Sugarloaf had something he was looking for, after all – a new golf experience in a beautiful location, and the willingness to accommodate it. And, Park added, the types of companies DeChambeau is looking for have bigger marketing budgets than Sugarloaf’s.
Most touring pros don’t tick off bucket list courses outside of the confines of their home courses, Tour stops and occasional nearby trips. But DeChambeau is not the most professional on tour. He grew his YouTube presence during his years at LIV Golf, making waves with a celebrity-based “Break 50” series. Recently, however, he seems to be zeroing in on experiences once again, from playing golf in the redwoods of Northern California to a course in Banff, in the heart of the Canadian Rockies.
It’s great to see such a high-profile competitor lean into the types of trips that everyday golfers dream of. It’s also rare, which makes it notable, especially in the context of DeChambeau’s competitive future. But this is a guy who is openly looking for meaning, in different corners of the golf world and beyond. He opened up in a recent “Figuring Out” podcast interviewoffering a glimpse of the questions he was asked after his 2024 US Open victory:
“I’ll never forget that we had a great party, we all had fun and I went to bed. It’s hard to sleep, by the way – your endorphins and your adrenaline are still there. But you sleep for five, six hours and you wake up and you look at yourself and you’re like, “I won the US Open” and then right after that, you say “What am I going to do next”? I’m in bed alone. I don’t have my family with me. I have no one around. And it’s a real moment of fragility. And it’s not easy because you’re told this is the goal. And then you realize that when you hit it, I gave up most of my life for it. I gave up 20 years of my life to do this and I did it. Well, now what to do? And I have no one near me. I don’t have anyone who loves me and gives me a kiss and a baby who comes on the bed and holds my hand and all that. Is this really what I want to do with my life? Is that the legacy I want to leave too? And so it really transforms you and makes you understand what life is all about. So, it’s a big thing. It’s also a humbling thing and it makes you feel alone at first, but if you can get past the loneliness, you realize what life is really about.”
He did not go into specifics about what life is, in fact, but based on his actions we can assume that at least depart of what life is about is throwing to Augusta on a whim – Augusta, Maine, that is – to catch the fall crowd. What was it like on the Sugarloaf side, getting the word out that DeChambeau was interested?
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“They were great. I mean, they were very professional,” Park said. “They didn’t waste a lot of time. They didn’t have a ton of lists – no satin sheets and caviar for lunch or anything like that. I mean a very regular group of guys, you know, in the video, you know, Bryson eats a hamburger, you know, he just did an all-nighter to get himself…”
I have to admit that this was my favorite part of the video and it came at the beginning. I have no idea what it’s like to fly privately from Las Vegas to Augusta, Maine. I’m not sure anyone has ever done this before Bryson did a few weeks ago. But I am intimately familiar with the feeling of driving the roads of Northern England at night, hoping to find something open – and settle for whatever you can get. I found Bryson’s gas station stop more enjoyable than even his David Attenborough impression that would follow.
I was curious, given everything going on in DeChambeau’s background, if he was making any reference to his own competitive future. Parchi said not really; She seemed immersed in her first fall golf experience in New England and was eager to return.
It’s safe to say that Sugarloaf would be happy to have him. Within a couple of days, the video had accumulated more than 2 million views; a week later it is more than 3 million. That’s a lot of potential customers salivating over the views of the Carrabassett Valley and the fall crowd at a course they’d never heard of.
“I feel like it did us great justice, the golf course and the experience here,” Parks said of the final video. “I felt that his words had an impact and ownership on what it feels like to play here, being a special kind of place, so I was happy to see the finished product.”
Parks said he was struck by how ready DeChambeau was for his new surroundings; he got up close and personal with the tree bark and leaves. Parks described him as a “good, clean and healthy man”, who did not curse and was very present in his surroundings.
It was an employee and guest member day, which worked as an extra perk for Sugarloaf VIPs, who had unexpected access to the two-time major champion.
“Every person who was waiting for an autograph, he signed for them,” Parks said. “It was certainly an experience that no one will soon forget.”
The most DeChambeau detail of all, which will sound familiar to anyone who has covered his competitive career, was that, after his turn, he couldn’t leave until he solved a sticky swing thought.
“He finished playing, he came over and he talked and he was like, ‘I need to hit balls.’ I need to practice,” Parks said. “And he signed some autographs, he went out for 45 minutes to an hour, he hit more golf balls until dark. And then he came and signed the rest of the autographs that we had or things that we had reserved for him.”
For Sugarloaf, the takeaway was pretty clear. They hope Bryson’s visit will spark new interest in a golf course they are proud of. Ditto for Sunday River, where DeChambeau later stopped and filmed his attempt to break his course record. The Big Golfer could mean big business.
As for DeChambeau himself? His future is darker than ever. On Sunday, he released a declaration about the end of this chapter of LIV. He thanked the fans and the people behind the tournaments, apologized for saying some things along the way that “didn’t help” and said he still believes in team golf. He added that he believes that golf can “reach more people, in more places, in a new way. I still believe that, he said.
So he left us in the mystery. He played an event in South Africa in December. After that, he said, “I’ll go about what’s next in the right way.”
It could be a year or more before DeChambeau is welcomed back to the PGA Tour. Report from the Telegraph suggests he could play on the DP World Tour in the meantime, if he so chooses. But DeChambeau himself has suggested there is a third door. He could just play on YouTube, what comes next after a trip to Maine, and then play in the majors, at least as a sabbatical, while he continues to figure things out.
“There are 30,000 golf courses (in the world),” Parks said. “I think it’s going to be a long time before it’s content, for sure.”
You can watch the entire video of Sugarloaf here.
