Bryson DeChambeau called reporters the mafia at the LIV Golf season finale in Indianapolis on Tuesday, 18 August 2026, and a day later his team removed a media figure from the driving range.
The exchange took place at The Club at Chatham Hills, where the tournament was staged, as reported by OutKick.
DeChambeau, 32, had spent most of the year at a distance from golf writers, and the line was taken at the time as mostly joking.
What Bryson DeChambeau said about the media mafia
He arrived at the driving range on Tuesday, 18 August 2026 and turned to a group of reporters gathered nearby. The greeting he offered them, delivered as he walked up, set the tone for a week dominated by his dealings with the press.
DeChambeau said:
“Oooh the mafia has arrived. The mafia. You guys love talking s–t.”
A frosty relationship with golf writers had run through his whole year. DeChambeau did not speak to reporters at any major championship after missing the cut at The Masters, and at The Open Championship he recorded his own interview rather than take questions from the assembled media.
He also declined to comment on a rules controversy at that tournament, after being docked two strokes.
Three of the four majors ended with a missed cut, and he arrived in Indianapolis off a T-38 finish at LIV New York.
Why DeChambeau’s team removed a man from the driving range
The following day, Wednesday, 19 August 2026, a member of his team ejected Ryan French from the range.
French, who runs the Monday Q Info account on X, had been filming and watching DeChambeau practise, the routine work of covering a tournament.
The incident moved quickly across social media, and much of the reaction was critical of the move by DeChambeau’s team.
What began as a joke about the mafia on the Tuesday had turned into a dispute about media access on the Wednesday.
How the Bryson DeChambeau media mafia row was settled
A few hours later, DeChambeau telephoned French himself. The call lasted about 20 minutes, and French set out what had happened in a post on X without disclosing what was said between them. The response he gave was warmer than the one the ejection had drawn.
French wrote on X:
“Bryson gave me a call this afternoon, we spoke for about 20 mins. While the conversation will remain off the record, I really appreciate him calling. A lot of players wouldn’t have done that.”
The row played out against a league whose own future was unsettled. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund announced in April 2026 that it would stop funding LIV Golf at the end of the season, and the individual purse in Indianapolis fell from the usual $20 million to $10.1 million.
The LIV Team Championship, scheduled for Michigan later in August, was cancelled while that uncertainty ran, which left Indianapolis as the final event on a calendar with nothing confirmed behind it.
Whether there is a 2027 season now depends on a funding decision taken outside the sport, and none had been announced when Indianapolis finished.
