VIDEO: Brandel Chamblee Calls PGA Tour Merger with LIV ‘One of the Saddest Days In the History of Professional Golf’

Brandel Chamblee
Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Warner Todd Huston

Amid a slew of social media users joking about how former pro golfer and Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee would take the news of the merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, the man himself has finally weighed in and has pronounced the news “one of the saddest days in the history of professional golf.”

Many golf fans wondered how Chamblee, a virulent critic of LIV Golf and one of its top golfers, Phil Mickelson, would take the news of the merger. Apparently, not well.

Speaking on the Golf Channel mere hours after the announcement, Chamblee told his audience he was “completely shocked” and “hugely disappointed” by the news.

“I think this is one of the saddest days in the history of professional golf. I do believe the governing bodies, the entities, the professional entities have sacrificed their principles for profit,” Chamblee carped on the air, Golf Monthly reported.

He also lashed out at the PGA Tour and pointedly asked if Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) would be the “owner of professional golf” from now on.

Despite the merger, it is pretty hard to imagine that the venerable and long-standing PGA Tour would hand itself over to the Saudi government. But, then again, we don’t really know all the details of this merger.

Despite his many attacks on Phil Mickelson, though, Chamblee also admitted that pro golf misses him though he wondered about the “avenues” for LIV golfers to return to the game.

“For all the beefs I’ve had with Phil Mickelson — on Twitter and elsewhere — the game of golf does miss Phil,” Chamblee said.

“The game does miss Phil, it does miss Brooks Koepka, it does miss Dustin Johnson. How will they be able to seamlessly come back into the game?”

One wonders what the “avenue” will be for Chamblee to “return” to his support of golf with this merger, too.

Especially when he has called people who supported LIV nothing short of supporters of “dictators.”

Last July, Chamblee blasted LIV spokesman Greg Norman as a “paid talking bobblehead” and slammed Mickelson and others, saying, “It’s lost on them (Mickelson and Norman) that they’re working for a dictator and dictators are notoriously good at manipulating people to the incremental change it takes to get to tyranny.”

But now, the PGA Tour can be arguably put in that category to follow Chamblee’s logic.

So, now what, Brandel?

The question caused many to joke about Chamblee’s state of mental health after the announcement was made on Tuesday.

One of Chamblee’s constant targets, Brooks Koepka, quickly jumped to Twitter this morning to ask for a “welfare check on Chamblee.”

Golf “influencer” Paige Spirinac also jumped in, joking about how she couldn’t wait to see what Chamblee would say about the merger.

Others joined in on the fun, too:

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