Bryson DeChambeau Unveils The Orchard, a Hometown Course Project, as His DP World Tour Clock Ticks

Bryson DeChambeau still has not told the golf world where he will play in 2027. On Friday he told it where he wants to build.

The two-time U.S. Open champion used Instagram to announce a golf course design venture and its first project, The Orchard, an 18-hole championship course in his hometown of Clovis, California, GOLF.com reported (opens in a new tab). DeChambeau called the project "the first of many fully procured DeChambeau Designs." It lands with LIV Golf in liquidation and his DP World Tour membership window closing, which makes the timing as interesting as the blueprint.

What He Is Building

The Orchard is more than a course. The plan pairs the 18 holes with a practice facility, a master-planned residential community, an on-site farmers market and other amenities, with access for local kids and schools built into the pitch, per GOLF.com.

The site is personal. The land is the historic McFarlane Ranch, near Ashlan and Leonard avenues and just east of Clovis East High School, where DeChambeau graduated in 2012, according to AmateurGolf.com (opens in a new tab). His development partner is Cook Land Company, the Clovis-based firm run by the Cook family that has worked with him on real estate for several years, per AmateurGolf.com.

Do not expect a ribbon cutting soon. "We anticipate approval within 18 months, with some amenities such as a driving range coming sooner," DeChambeau wrote, per GOLF.com. He added that the process has been running since 2022 and that California's development rules are complicated, with the City of Clovis and Fresno County working with the project.

Not a New Idea, Just a Named One

Fresno already knew something was coming. In January 2025, ABC30 (opens in a new tab) reported DeChambeau was working on a project covering more than 200 acres in the area, a multisport complex with a driving range, a golf course, homes and a community center. At the time he said the goal was to grow his hometown by 30 percent, and that permitting left the project 12 to 15 months away.

That timeline slipped, which is normal for anything that needs a zoning board, and the new estimate of 18 months is a reminder that the hardest part is still ahead. What changed on Friday is the branding. DeChambeau Designs gives the venture a name, a mission statement and a pipeline. "We are dedicated to 'Building Stars of the Future,'" he wrote, per GOLF.com, before closing with a line that sounds like a man thinking past his own tee times: "Ultimately, it's time to make a better future for our next generation."

The Calendar Problem

Here is the part that makes Friday's post feel like a statement about more than dirt. DeChambeau has not publicly announced his 2027 playing schedule, GOLF.com noted, and his clock is running.

The Telegraph reported that the DP World Tour told his camp he would receive full playing privileges for 2027 if he applies, per Golf Channel (opens in a new tab). He qualifies through the tour's category for recent major champions. The exact deadline depends on who you read. Golf Channel's Nov. 5 report put it at Nov. 14, while Golfweek (opens in a new tab) reported in October that players have until Nov. 16 to commit to the DP World Tour for 2027. As of Saturday afternoon, no decision had been reported.

He is already entered in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa in December, per GOLF.com. Beyond that, he has kept it vague. "Beyond that," he wrote last week, "I'll go about whatever is next the right way."

The alternatives are thin. The PGA TOUR is not expected to settle the status of former LIV players until LIV's bankruptcy wraps up, and Rory McIlroy said this week that DeChambeau does not seem to have many options. LIV's parent has already filed a wind-down plan that targets liquidation in January.

Reading the Signal

It would be too cute to call a course design launch a retirement plan. DeChambeau contended at Royal Birkdale this summer, and he remains one of the most watched players in the sport. Nobody walks away from that to read soil reports.

But it does say something about how he sees the next phase. In his first statement after LIV collapsed, DeChambeau promised to approach "whatever comes next" with "humility and respect for the people who carried this game long before me," per Golf Channel (opens in a new tab). A hometown project aimed at kids and schools fits that tone better than another round of feuding over world ranking points.

It also fits the brand. DeChambeau built a YouTube audience by treating golf as an engineering problem, and course design is the ultimate version of that: physics, turf, water and how a ball reacts to a slope. If The Orchard gets built, it will almost certainly have a story behind every bunker.

What Comes Next

The near term is about paperwork on two fronts. Clovis and Fresno County have to approve The Orchard, and the DP World Tour needs an answer on membership within days. The second will shape his golf life in 2027. The first could shape his life after it.

For now, the most polarizing star of the LIV era has given fans a new way to think about him. Not as a rebel looking for a tour, but as a Clovis East grad trying to build something back home. Whether that coexists with a full European schedule is the next headline to watch.

Sources: GOLF.com, AmateurGolf.com, Golf Channel, Golfweek, ABC30 Fresno. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images via PGA TOUR.