Hoopla in Hertfordshire as Bryson DeChambeau joins the big money trail

Day two of the golfing revolution and the headlines kept coming. Bryson DeChambeau, the biggest hitter in the sport, was confirmed as the latest star signing to LIV golf.

This was not a shock. DeChambeau had been expected to join the Saudi-funded competition since earlier in the week, but it was still confirmed with the now-customary hoopla. Greg Norman, the LIV figurehead, welcomed DeChambeau as an athlete “pushing the boundaries” of his sport.

“Bryson DeChambeau is an exciting addition to LIV Golf’s supercharged style of play”, Norman said. “He is passionate about the sport, innovative in his approach and committed to pushing the boundaries in pursuit of excellence. He’s not afraid to think outside the box and supports our mission of doing things differently to grow our game.”

DeChambeau is expected to join the eight event tour at its second stage, the Portland Invitational at Pumpkin Ridge at the end of this month. In house commentator Jerry Foltz was suitably excited and posed the question he hoped everyone would be asking: “If he is not the captain of Smash then what are we even doing?”

Smash is the name of one of the 12 teams competing for a collective prize of $3m on top of the minimum $125,000 individual prize money on top of the multi-million dollar signing on fees. The innovation of playing in both teams and individually is one clear way in which LIV is trying to, in Norman’s words, supercharge the sport. But on a gorgeous summer’s afternoon at the Centurion Club in Hemel Hempstead it wasn’t always that easy to identify how else it has been transformed.

“It’s still just golf isn’t it”, said Connor McGuigan, one of the younger cohort of fans in attendance on Friday. He had got a free ticket from a promotional