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Fans have accused Masters of PGA Tour bias after limited coverage of Bryson DeChambeau. The outrage came amid dropping viewership numbers, fuelling PGA Tour favoritism in the tournament's broadcast strategy.
Despite a strong performance in the first two rounds and being firmly in contention, fans expressed their frustration at the absence of Bryson DeChambeau on major telecasts, especially in the first round.
SBJ's Josh Carpenter reported that the viewership numbers of the first round of the Masters 2025 were 28% down from 3.2 million viewers last year to 2.3 million. Golf account NUCLR GOLF shared the news on their X page and wrote:
"ESPN is reporting first round viewership of 2.3M, down a significant 28% from last year’s first round of 3.2M viewers."
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It further asked its fans if the low viewership was due to Tiger Woods' absence at the Masters.
Many fans agreed that the viewership declined due to the absence of Woods. Some reasoned that it was due to the limited coverage of Bryson DeChambeau.
"Where's Brsyon DeChambeau?" one fan asked.
Some fans called out the PGA Tour for bias towards LIV Golf players, while some called him the game's "most popular" and "entertaining" player.
"The PGA has a player likability problem and a lack coverage of Bryson Dechambeau by ESPN only pushes people away. Tiger has nothing to do with it," another fan commented.
"Maybe they should actually broadcast the game’s most popular player, Bryson Dechambeau," one fan wrote.
"The absolute most entertaining man in golf was barely covered. Of course, referring to Bryson," another fan wrote.
Others accused networks of deliberately sidelining him, arguing that more airtime for DeChambeau would boost the viewership numbers.
"Because they black ball Bryson," one fan wrote.
"If they showed Bryson a little, I bet it would have been higher," other fan commented.
LIV Golf players, including Bryson DeChambeau, have become polarizing figures since their move to LIV Golf. The PGA Tour officially suspended players who joined the Saudi-backed Tour and revoked their memberships.
However, DeChambeau outperformed numerous PGA Tour players in the first two rounds and is placed second with an aggregate score of 7-under.
Bryson DeChambeau says that LIV Golf's format helps him perform better in major championships
In a recent press conference, Bryson DeChambeau was asked if LIV Golf's three-round format helps him approach majors with greater intensity from the first shot. He agreed and said that in LIV Golf, every shot counts. He pointed out that a double or triple bogey makes it hard to recover.
DeChambeau further said, via ASAP Sports:
"I think that's the point is getting of to that jump start, that fast start, allowing us to be in that mindset of attack, attack, attack, has helped us in certain scenarios, and obviously when you've got a U.S. Open or a British Open where there's extreme patience required, it's a little bit of a change, but for the most part, gunning after it, it's definitely helped I think all three of us up here."
DeChambeau won his second major last year at the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 by one stroke over Rory McIlroy. He was also in contention at last year's Major and PGA Championship. He'll tee off at 2:40 pm ET in the third round on Saturday alongside Justin Rose.
