Bryson DeChambeau’s LIV Golf Korea win all about what might come next

For Bryson DeChambeau, the fourth time was a charm in 2025.

After several final-round flops in a row, the two-time U.S. Open champion finally got it over the line Sunday when he held off a furious Charles Howell III rally to win LIV Golf Korea at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in Incheon.

DeChambeau held the 36-hole leads at LIV Golf Miami and LIV Golf Mexico before being tracked down by Marc Leishman and Joaquin Niemann. He grabbed the early Sunday lead from Rory McIlroy at the Masters, but his ball-striking failed him as he faded to a T-5 finish.

On Saturday, DeChambeau said he needed to play “like a kid” to finish the job and secure his first LIV Golf win since 2023.

With the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club on deck, DeChambeau entered Sunday needing to flip the script to ensure he arrives at the second major with the confidence needed to put another major pelt on his wall.

Blow a lead to Howell, Richard Bland or Talor Gooch, and the narrative around DeChambeau heading into Quail Hollow would be dramatically different after four straight missed opportunities.

DeChambeau looked tense on Sunday in South Korea.

There were several loose irons and wedges coupled with missed short putts that left the door open for Howell, who turned back the clock with a 9-under-par 63.

“I was personally pretty nervous on the front nine for whatever reason,” DeChambeau said after his win.

After making the turn at even par for the day, DeChambeau flipped a switch and made sure he’d leave South Korea with a win.

He birdied 10, 12, 13, 15, 17 and 18 to put an exclamation point on a win that allowed him to exhale heading into the PGA Championship and cemented him as one of the top contenders for the Wannamkaer Trophy along with Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, who is leading the CJ Cup Byron Nelson by eight shots after three rounds.

“My goal is to win every tournament that I show up to,” DeChambeau said after the win. “Scottie is on a great run. Joaquin Niemann is on a great run. Jon Rahm has been playing well. There’s a lot of star-studded talent out there right now that’s going to be in the PGA Championship. We’re going to be battling it out.

“Glad to have pushed through in this victory and won this event, but there’s a lot more work to be done this year. There’s three more majors, and my eyes are focused on that with all the other LIV events, doing my absolute best in every single event I show up to.”

As my colleague Sean Zak wrote, the PGA Championship suddenly has many storylines bubbling up to the surface.

DeChambeau will enter off a win. Scheffer will do the same. McIlroy has won three times and finally won the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam. Jordan Spieth is rounding into form as he looks to join McIlroy in the career Grand Slam club.

DeChambeau has carded four top-six finishes in the last five majors, including a win at the 2024 U.S. Open. His only blemish came via a missed cut at the 2025 Open Championship.

Last year at the PGA Championship at Valhalla, DeChambeau pushed Xander Schauffele to the end but eventually came up one shot short. A month later, he bested McIlroy by one shot at Pinehurst No. 2 to take home his second U.S. Open win.

DeChambeau has been a constant presence on major leaderboards over the past calendar year, and there’s no reason to believe the 2025 PGA Championship will be a different story.

With his third LIV Golf title now in the trophy case, DeChambeau will arrive in Charlotte, North Carolina, in two weeks as a major threat to win the Wanamaker Trophy.

And he’ll do so not with visions of his Augusta Sunday struggles on his mind, but with the confident winds of a job finished in South Korea at his back.

There are few things scarier on a major leaderboard than a confident DeChambeau.