Some weeks in golf, you get to puff your chest out about a prediction that hit. Other weeks, you eat it.
This past week at Aronimink, I had to do both. I called Bryson DeChambeau’s major struggles, and the missed cut backed me up. But Jon Rahm and Cam Smith? I owe both of those guys an apology, because they showed up at the PGA Championship and reminded everyone they still belong in the conversation.
So let’s go through the LIV players who answered the bell, the one who didn’t, and what it all means heading into the U.S. Open at Shinnecock.
Jon Rahm finally put a major together
Rahm tied for second at the PGA Championship, three shots back of Aaron Rai. That’s his best major finish since winning the 2023 Masters.
I have been skeptical of his ceiling on these big stages since the move to LIV. His ball-striking always travels, but the putter and the closing rounds have not. This week, he was knocking on the door for four days on a course that played closer to a U.S. Open than a typical PGA setup, with wind gusts you usually only see at an Open Championship.
He got outplayed by a brilliant week from Aaron Rai. That happens. What does not happen often is Rahm hanging around the lead from Thursday through Sunday at a major. That part felt different, and it earned the recalibration.
If you want a sense of why Rahm tends to dominate conversations even when he loses, take a quick look at why he’s the kind of competitor you don’t want to wake up.
Cam Smith restored my faith in two days
Cam Smith finished tied for seventh at 4-under. Before this week, I had basically written him off for the year.
He missed the cut at the Masters. He had one top-10 on LIV all year. Watching him at Aronimink, the ball-striking looked as clean as it has in two seasons. The putter just wouldn’t cooperate. If even one of those Sunday looks drops on the front nine, we’re having a different conversation about whether he beats Rai.
That is the version of Cam Smith I forgot existed. Six months ago, he was the guy most fans assumed was done at the highest level. This week, he was tracking shots with the lead group. Big difference.
The other LIV names who deserve a mention
Two more LIV players had quietly solid weeks at Aronimink.
Joaquin Niemann finished tied for 18th. He has been the most consistent LIV player on the planet this year, and that performance kept the streak going. Top-20 at a major is a real number, especially on a setup that chewed up names like Tommy Fleetwood and J.J. Spaun before the weekend even started.
Dustin Johnson made the cut. Sounds small, until you realize he missed six of his last eleven majors before this week. Even when he sneaks in on the number, he hasn’t cracked the top-20 at a major since his T10 at the 2023 U.S. Open. Making the weekend is a step in the right direction for a former world number one whose major form had quietly disappeared.
The one prediction I got right was Bryson
Now the part that did not go well for the LIV camp.
Bryson DeChambeau missed the cut at Aronimink by three shots. That makes it three missed cuts in his last four majors, and back-to-back missed cuts at the Masters and the PGA in the same season for the first time in his career.
For a player with two U.S. Opens and a runner-up at last year’s PGA, this is a genuine slide. The boom-or-bust pattern is hard to ignore at this point.
The YouTube theory nobody wants to say out loud
Here is the part that’s going to get me hate mail.
Bryson’s poor major form correlates almost directly with the rise of his YouTube channel. Before the channel exploded, he was one of the most consistent players in the game on the biggest stages. Since the content production ramped up, the major results have collapsed.
Maybe it’s a coincidence. Maybe the calendar, the LIV travel, and the demands of building an audience just lined up at the wrong time. But from a coaching perspective, I have watched a lot of players try to add a second full-time job to their golf career, and very few of them have come out the other side with their tournament game intact.
Tournament golf at the major level demands a level of preparation, recovery, and mental quiet that does not coexist easily with running a content business. The reps are real, the editing time is real, the brand work is real. Something has to give. Right now, his major results are what’s giving.
What this all says about LIV at majors
A month ago, the easy take was that LIV players had become irrelevant at majors. The Masters reinforced it. The PGA Championship just made that take look lazy.
Three LIV players inside the top 20 at a major, with Rahm and Smith both threatening the lead deep into Sunday, is not nothing. It’s a reminder that great players don’t stop being great because of the logo on their shirt. The LIV format may not prepare guys the way 72-hole stroke play does week in and week out, but the talent is still in there.
If you need a refresher on how the league actually works and why these performances matter for the format conversation, here’s a breakdown of what LIV Golf is and how it operates.
What I’m watching at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock
Two more majors to go this year. Both will tell us a lot.
For Rahm and Smith, the question is whether this was a one-week heater or the beginning of a real return to form on the biggest stages. Top-tens at Shinnecock and Royal Birkdale would change the entire narrative around LIV players at majors for the rest of the season.
For Bryson, the question is simpler. Can he stop the slide? Three of his last four cuts have gone the wrong way. A fourth would put him in territory he has never been in as a professional.
From a coaching seat, this is what I want to see from him: tighter iron play, less swing rebuilding mid-round, and a quieter look on Thursday and Friday. If you want context on what’s gone into the version of Bryson we see today, take a look at the equipment changes that built his current game.
My honest take
I was wrong about Rahm and Smith. They proved it on a tough Philadelphia track, against a deep field, in conditions that punished bad swings. The credit is theirs to keep.
I was right about Bryson, and that one gives me no joy. He is one of the most talented and entertaining players in the sport, and watching him miss cuts at majors is not what anyone wants. But the pattern is the pattern, and pretending it isn’t there does not help him fix it.
The U.S. Open at Shinnecock will tell us which of these stories was a one-week event and which one is the new normal.
Do you think Bryson can manage a rising YouTube channel and still win majors? Or has the content business quietly cost him the prime years of his major career? Let me know, because this is one of the more interesting debates in golf right now.
Clint is PGA-certified and was a Head Teaching Professional at one of Toronto's busiest golf academies. He was also featured on Canada's National Golf TV program, "Score Golf Canada," twice. He graduated with a degree in Golf Management from the College of the Desert in California and studied under Callaway's co-founder, Tony Manzoni. He has a handicap index of 6.2 and spends the winters near Oaxaca, Mexico, where he plays twice a month at the Club de Golf Vista Hermosa. He's written over 100 articles at GolfSpan since 2021. You can connect with Clint at LinkedIn, FB, his website, or Clintcpga@gmail.com.
