It’s Friday, and you know what that means: You can recategorize all of today’s problems into next week’s problems with no tax penalty and spend the rest of the afternoon watching YouTube at your desk. Hell yeah, brother. Let’s get into it.
Something or Nothing?
The demise of the Washington Post sports section this week got me thinking about longtime WaPo reporter/columnist Tony Kornheiser and, of course, his incredible run hosting ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption.” If you’re roughly my age and spent any amount of time in a college dorm or in a local dive during happy hour over the past two-and-a-half decades, then ‘PTI’ was probably part of the wallpaper for you too—a comforting consistency in a world of fakes and flakes.
One of my favorite segments on PTI was always “Something or Nothing,” which would find Kornhesier and co-host Michael Wilbon debating whether a headline was the real deal or merely a false alarm. The segment ralways esonated because it posed a universal question, one that we all ask ourselves on a daily basis—Is that cryptic meeting invite from my boss something? Is that strange pain in my back nothing? But also because no matter the sports topic at hand, it always seemed to produce two contrasting, but equally valid, points of view.
That’s where we find ourselves with Bryson DeChambeau this week.
On Wednesday, at almost exactly the same time 2026 LIV Golf season got underway in Riyadh, DeChambeau released his first proper ‘Break 50’ episode since November. The episdoe was no B-side either, starring himself and the number-one men’s tennis player in the world, Carlos Alcaraz, who became the youngest-ever player to complete a career grand slam when he took down Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final on Sunday. Considering the A-list guest, the poignant timing and the weeks of thorny context, we can’t help but wonder:
Is this something or nothing?
RELATED: Who will be the first LPGA star to embrace YouTube like Bryson DeChambeau?
As most golf fans at this point know, DeChambeau is currently embroiled in contract negotiations with LIV Golf. His current deal is up at the end of the 2026 season, at which point the most ubiquitously known golfer since Tiger Woods will become a free agent. We already know the PGA Tour wants him back. The reinstatement policy that allowed Koepka to return to the tour without suspension was also open to DeChambeau (though the deadline to accept expired February 2nd). And, of course we know that LIV Golf would like to keep their prize asset. In fact, their very survival might depend on it.
What we don’t know is what DeChambeau wants. A few weeks ago, he went on record saying that doing YouTube full-time while playing the majors via exemptions was “an incredibly viable option.” Earlier this week, he told Today’s Golfer that he “didn’t sign up to play 72” in response to LIV’s move from 54 to 72 holes and that he’s “indifferent to it right now.”
Both of these statements felt like veiled messages to LIV—that the league needs him more than he needs them. With the release of the Alcaraz ‘Break 50’ this week, DeChambeau is no longer talking the talk, he’s walking the walk. He’s putting his money where his mouth is. The episode racked up over 850,000 views in its first 48 hours. LIV would kill for those numbers, and we’re guessing that’s exactly the point DeChambeau was trying to make.
Given all of the subtext and subterfuge, it’s tough not to lean toward camp “something.” We know DeChambeau is a savvy businessman who also moonlights as a wildly successful influencer. That he means he knows how to create leverage when he needs to and a little drama when it suits him. Sure, in every structural way, this is just another episode ‘Break 50,’ but in every structural way, the Trojan Horse was just a big wooden horse.
Quick Hits
Bob Does Sports
Last week, we wrote at length about the first two episodes of the Two Man YouTube Golf Championship featuring the Bryan Bros, Grant Horvat and Bob Does Sports. The finale is now up on Bob Does Sports’ channel, so skedaddle over there before someone spoils it for you.
Good Good Golf
The triple-G gang try to one-up Bryson DeChambeau and break 40(!) That may seem ambitious, but the Thor’s Hammer—AKA Kyle Berkshire—in their corner, anything is possible. In other news, there was an actual real-life marriage proposal at the Good Good Desert Open this week. And they say romance is dead …
Bryan Bros.
This week, the brothers Bryan kick off their season-long “FedEx Cup”-style series, which will culminate in a winner-take-all, $100,000 showdown at the end of the year. Check it out so you can say you’ve been there from the start.
No Laying Up
If elite, under-the-radar munys are your thing, follow Tron and Soly to The Park in West Palm Beach, which they liken to Melbourne Sandbelt courses (think Royal Melbourne, Kingston Heath, etc.). If you’re a regular reader of our World’s 100 Greatest, you know that’s high praise indeed.
Peter Finch
Want to watch some objectively great golf this weekend without all the drunken ASU frat boys? Then check out this 18-hole match between Peter Finch and Luke Kwon. From a pure skill standpoint, it doesn’t get much better than this on YouTube.
Rick Shiels
2022 Champion Golfer of the Year, Cam Smith, was one of the few players eligible to return to the PGA Tour immediately under the reinstatement policy that allowed Brooks Koepka back into the fold earlier this year. Smith didn’t take the bait, but if that allows him to keep popping up in videos like this one with Rick Shiels, we’re glad he didn’t. Loser has to do a shoey!
RELATED: ‘No conversation necessary’: Wesley Bryan reveals the response he received from the PGA Tour regarding his suspension
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
