Ahead of The Masters, Brandel Chamblee has spoken about LIV Golf, specifically around the stats of Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau.
The Golf Channel analyst was speaking on his and his wife Bailey’s podcast, The Favorite Chamblee, where he offered his thoughts on who could be in contention at The Masters.
Chamblee, who has frequently attacked LIV Golf since its launch in 2022, suggested there isn’t a clear favorite this year, but put forward the names of PGA Tour stars Collin Morikawa and Cameron Young as potential Green Jacket winners, before turning his attention to DeChambeau and Rahm.
So far this year, DeChambeau has two LIV Golf wins in its five events, while Rahm has one win and three runner-up finishes.
However, while impressive, Chamblee isn’t convinced those results tell the full story, citing their greens in regulation percentages as a big tell-tale sign.
He said: “Their statistics out there are just laughable to look at them. I’ll try to put it in perspective. Bryson, he’s played, like, five times this year. He’s averaging right at 77% of the greens in regulation.
“To put that into perspective, when he played the tour for five or six years, he averaged around 67% of the greens hit in regulation.
“Tour leaders every year in greens regulation is usually around 72, 73%. When Tiger had his historic year in 2000, he hit 75% of the greens. Nobody’s ever hit a golf ball better than Tiger in 2000, and I can promise you, Bryson’s not hitting his irons that good.”
For context, DeChambeau's final PGA Tour season, in 2021/22, saw him make 67.15% of greens in regulation.
Incredibly, the Crushers GC captain doesn’t even top the greens in regulation stats on LIV Golf this season, with Sergio Garcia and Rahm both ahead of him, as Chamblee went on to point out.
"He’s not even leading!" said Chamblee. "Jon Rahm is leading with 82.22% of the greens. This would be like Steph Curry shooting free throws through a hula hoop size goal and peacocking around like he’s, you know, better than he’s ever been.
"So, you know, the numbers are just, you know, they’re dubious, and you kind of look at them askance, and you’re like, you can’t make heads or tails of those.”
A look at the stats suggests Chamblee has a point. For example, so far in 2026 on the PGA Tour, Johnny Keefer leads the greens in regulation rankings at 73.72%, almost 10% lower than Rahm.
Meanwhile, even in comparison to other LIV Golf seasons, Rahm and DeChambeau’s percentages are inflated so far this year.
For example, in 2025, Rahm topped the list with 74.86% of greens in regulation, while DeChambeau was down in 10th on 69.17%. In 2024, Rahm led the way with 74.62%, with DeChambeau in eighth on 70.56%.
Rahm’s final season on the PGA Tour came in 2023, where he finished 14th on the greens in regulation rankings with 70.51%. On LIV Golf, DeChambeau was 15th with the same percentage.
Going back to the first LIV Golf season, DeChambeau hit 69.44% of greens in regulation, placing him 23rd, while on the PGA Tour, Rahm stood at 71.59%, leaving him third.
A look at individual events also suggests that, this season at least, the courses are not as demanding on LIV Golf as the PGA Tour.
For example, on the PGA Tour this season, five of the 12 events finished without a player breaching 80% of greens in regulation.
In contrast, all five LIV Golf events saw that percentage bettered, with 10 achieving it in Riyadh, winner Anthony Kim managing it in Adelaide, 15 players breaching 80% in Hong Kong, Rahm doing so in Singapore and 12 achieving it in South Africa.
Despite Chamblee clearly believing that courses on LIV Golf are not as demanding as those on the PGA Tour, he did acknowledge that both Rahm, who won The Masters in 2023, and DeChambeau, who placed in the top 10 in the last two editions, will go into it among the favorites to take the title.
He added: “There’s no doubt though that they’re elite players. Bryson hasn’t been impoverished by going to LIV, unlike every other player has been and that includes Jon Rahm, so you would put them among the favorites, but it’s tough to really get your arms around how well they are in fact playing.”
