19th Hole
‘One of the saddest days in the history of pro golf’ – Brandel Chamblee blasts PGA Tour-LIV merger

The fallout from today’s stunning news has probably just started.
After two years of wrangling – both verbal and legal – players discussing their loyalty to here and there, social media rows amongst former united professionals and huge fines for playing on the ‘other side’, golf has suddenly and, completely unexpectedly, come together.
After a fairly quiet winter, rows between the former rivals have escalated over the past few weeks with the most notable, and visual, being that between six-time major winner and the man that brought LIV to the public eye, Phil Mickelson and Brandel Chamblee, notable anti-LIV broadcaster.
Both players made their feelings clear after the PGA Tour released the shock news, with 2023 PGA Champion Brooks Koepka, calling for a health check on the Golf Channel anchor.
Golf fans around the world have been waiting to hear the thoughts of Chamblee, and in the last few hours, the 60-year-old has been speaking on Golf Channel, saying in part:
“When I first heard about it [the joint agreement], I was completely shocked,” revealed the one-time PGA Tour winner.
“I can’t imagine that too many people outside of maybe the two, three, four or five people that were in the room would have known anything about it,” he admitted.
“One of the saddest days in the HISTORY of professional golf” – Brandel Chamblee pic.twitter.com/XNMkZ46eSX
— BeatinTheBookie.com®? (@BeatinTheBookie) June 6, 2023
Continuing to still look astounded at today’s developments, Chamblee continued.
“After the shock had ebbed away, I was hugely disappointed,” he said before revealing,
“This was one of the saddest days in the history of professional golf,”
Coincidentally, a phrase he used back in June 2022, when the PGA Tour banned former players that took part in the LIV International Series.
“I do believe that the governing bodies, the entities, the professional entities have sacrificed their principles for profit. And then, of course, I tried to imagine what circumstances would have led to such a capitulation.”
“I think there are three things likely that would have led to something like this,” he surmised, before explaining.
“Intractable legal issues going on, indefinitely into the future, no doubt with legal vulnerability on both sides of this issue. And the only people that stood to profit from that were the lawyers that were involved.”
“I always felt like it was the athletes themselves who had the power to say ‘No’ to Saudi Arabia.”
Brandel Chamblee is going to remain very critical and vocal about the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. @chambleebrandel pic.twitter.com/Mm6Tk83k23
— Andrew Jerell Jones, Luke 1:37 (IG:twdbk3) (@sluggahjells) June 6, 2023
Check out Brandel Chamblee’s entire Golf Channel segment from today here.
More from the 19th Hole
19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
19th Hole
How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
19th Hole
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.