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2026 PGA Championship: ESPN commentator calls Bryson DeChambeau an 'absolute dumpsterfire' on hot mic

Danby: Daniel Hager2 hours agoDanielHagerOn3

We’ve got a hot mic at the Opening Round of the 2026 PGA Championship! Just what everyone loves to see.

It’s been a rough start to the weekend for two-time Major Champion Bryson DeChambeau, and these comments by the ESPN broadcast team won’t make it any better. Through his first 13 holes, DeChambeau is sitting at +4 (T-59th).

As the ESPN broadcast faded to commercial, the broadcast crew was caught making a crude remark about DeChambeau’s play so far. And now, the entire golf world has heard it.

“Good lord, Bryson,” one commentator said. “He’s an absolute dumpster fire,” the other said. You can hear the comments in the clip below.

The start is certainly surprising for DeChambeau, who is a two-time U.S. Open Champion. The 2026 major season has not been kind to him, however, as he missed the cut at last month’s Masters. In eight career appearances in the PGA Championship, DeChambeau has missed the cut three times. His best finish came in 2022, when he tied for eighth place. Last year, he finished tied for 10th, his second-best finish in the event.

Although major championships have been a rough go-round so far in 2026, DeChambeau has won two LIV Golf events this year so far. He shot -14 to win LIV Golf Singapore on March 15, and shot -26 to win LIV Golf South Africa the following week. Both wins came in a Playoff. He outlasted Richard T. Lee to win in Singapore and defeated Jon Rahm to win in South Africa.

Bryson DeChambeau joined LIV Golf in June 2022

DeChambeau has been with LIV Golf since June 2022. LIV Golf seems to be in some trouble, however, as it was reported in late April that it would be losing funding from the Saudi Arabian-backed Public Investment Fund after the 2026 season.

Speculation began to grow about LIV’s future on April 15, ahead of an event in Mexico City. That day, the Financial Times reported the league was close to losing funding from the PIF, and high-level meetings took place to discuss next steps.

While those discussions continued, The Athletic reported LIV Golf staffers were also thinking about their own future. Some staffers were looking for a “life raft” if the league wound up shutting down after nearly four years of operations. In the meantime, LIV CEO Scott O’Neil sent an email to staffers and vowed the season would continue “exactly as planned.”

“I want to be crystal clear: Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle,” O’Neil wrote, via ESPN’s Jeff Darlington. “While the media landscape is often filled with speculation, our reality is defined by the work we do on the grass. We are heading into the heart of our 2026 schedule with the full energy of an organization that is bigger, louder, and more influential than ever before.

“The life of a startup movement is often defined by these moments of pressure. We signed up for this because we believe in disrupting the status quo. We have faced headwinds since the jump, and we’ve answered every time with resilience and grace. Now, we answer by doing what we do best: putting on the most compelling show in sports.”

On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this article.