
Brandel Chamblee throws shade at LIV Golf: 'More people will watch a pickleball event than that'
Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee doesn't shy away from sharing his opinion.
He recently spoke about LIV Golf with host Dan Rapaport during an episode of the Dan on Golf Show, and referenced pickleball during the conversation.
The LIV Golf League features 54 players and 13 teams which compete throughout a 14-event season for the Individual Championship and Team Championship.
Chamblee, 62, indicated that America's fastest-growing sport is more popular than LIV Golf, especially from a viewership standpoint.
The former pro set the stage for his pickleball-related comment with a poignant preamble.
"People only really watch sports that matter. You’ve only got so many hours in a day to invest in the entertainment aspects of watching a sport. I don’t think there’s any sense that anything that they’re doing on LIV matters historically, or will matter from a legacy standpoint," stated Chamblee. "If you ask people in the golf business to go through every TOUR event this year, and tell you who won, they could probably do it. Right? If you ask people to do the same thing about LIV, there’s just zero chance that they could do it, unless they’re in the business of getting into granular detail about everything. I think there's a sense that those that went to LIV sold their business really at a discount, I would argue. It’s just not resonating."
Then, it was time for Chamblee to deliver the knockout punch.
And he absolutely nailed it.
"I think I got the numbers wrong in one of my tweets last week. I said their year-end event that concluded on the East Coast in prime time last year with [Jon] Rahm winning got 55,000. It actually got 89,000. But, whether it’s 55 or 89, the point is still the same. Relatively speaking, almost nobody’s watching," insisted Chamblee. "More people will watch a pickleball event than that. And you’re talking about Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson. You’re talking about ostensibly a star-chalked field. And nobody watched."
Talk about a mic drop with authority.
Pickleball enthusiasts will absolutely shatter those numbers during Carvana Championship Sunday on FOX this coming weekend from 4:30pm - 6:30pm ET in conjunction with the Black Desert Resort Red Rock Open.
Stay tuned.