Among the interesting names set to tee it up at LIV Golf’s qualifying event was former European Ryder Cup player, Victor Dubuisson.

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However, the Frenchman withdrew early this week from the event, and subsequently announced his retirement from professional golf through L’Equipe.

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Dubuisson was a two-time winner on the Race to Dubai series with both victories coming at the Turkish Airlines Open.

“The solitude had become extremely heavy,” the 32-year-old said.

“I started from nothing, so I’m extremely satisfied with what I’ve done. I see myself as a little kid with my little bag and my Decathlon clubs.

“I wasn’t at all predestined to have this career. A lot of people will say that I could have done more and that I could have been world number one.

“But my strength is being satisfied with what I had. I’m happy with that. I don’t live in regret to dwell on all the time.”

Dubuisson burst on to the scene almost a decade ago, and his stunning performance at the 2014 Ryder Cup had playing partner Graeme McDowell describe him as ‘Europe’s next superstar’.

The Frenchman now plans to step into a coaching role of some sort, saying “I spent 15 years alone on the Tour, curled up on myself. I missed contact with people. So it’s just simple human relationships around golf that I want to have,”

The LIV Golf promotions event is set to kick off on Friday at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

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Gary McCord, who’s contract was not renewed by CBS in 2019, found himself with a massive offer from LIV Golf.

The deal would have put him with his friend David Feherty once again, but the now 75-year-old turned the offer down, despite its appeal.

While speaking with Golf.com on the Supbar Podcast, McCord shared that “the money was insane”.

“The last conversation I had with Norman was, ‘Greg, I’m 75, I don’t want to go to Adelaide, I don’t want to go to Hong Kong, I don’t want to go to Riyadh, I can’t do it.”

“What the future is going to be anyway, all golf shows are going to have their broadcast team going to a studio somewhere in the United States,” he said. “Every week it’s going to be there and you put two people on the ground, someone to do interviews, they will not know I’m in a studio in Dallas, Texas, with the two other guys talking. Put a backdrop of the 18th hole there, they will never know.”

“I was going to go and then, the money, believe me, was insane,” he said. “Greg never told me what I’d be, but I had to ask Feherty, ‘Let me ask what you are making?’ And I went, ‘What did you say?!’ I never told anybody. To this day I never told anybody. But that was interesting.”

It’s been speculated that Feherty is being paid roughly $10 million a year by LIV.

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While appearing on the Rick Shiels Golf Show, LIV Golf superstar Bryson DeChambeau discussed what path back to the PGA Tour may look like for LIV players if a “merger” indeed takes place.

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The former U.S. Open champion speculated that team golf could be the key to LIV players integrating into the signature event series on Tour.

• Related: Caddie opens up on surprise firing following multiple-win season

“What I could see is LIV integrating into the signature series on the PGA Tour in some capacity and having two championships in one, where you have the individual component in the signature series, and you have the team side of it,” DeChambeau said.

“You have the teams you’re playing for, so no matter what on that final day that guy that’s playing really bad still matters, it’s still a big deal on the team championship aspect of the tournament.

“Then you guys have the individual side that’s still competing for that individual title the way it is currently.”

“We want to be mainstream. We believe we should be mainstream, we have some of the best golfers in the world that should be highlighted at these events.

“That would be my blue-sky scenario where we integrate, we figure out how to make it all mutually be beneficial, and we play for the legacy that’s there with a new idea and concept on top.”

Bryson stressed that he believes the best path forward for golf is for LIV and the PGA Tour to come together.

“I think the game eventually needs to come back together.”

“I’ve said it from day one when I went over and there’s numerous times where I talked to Jay about it, I was like, ‘this all has to work out in the end for the good of the game, this can’t just be for the PGA Tour or for LIV. The fans have got to win here’.”

The deadline for the PIF and the PGA Tour to make a deal looms ever close as we near December 31.

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