BROOKLINE, Mass. — At the same time the U. S. Open leaders were on the first tee Saturday afternoon, a former champion built like an NFL fullback was busy on the 18th hole, finishing up a round that had him trailing by two touchdowns. Bryson DeChambeau was a full 14 strokes out of the lead. His closing birdie for a 76 and a 54-hole total of 8-over likely didn’t impress his new Saudi employers, who probably didn’t have a temporary tie for 55th place in mind when they signed golf’s Incredible Bulk to a guaranteed up-front deal north of a hundred million bucks. DeChambeau, not the more famous and decorated Phil Mickelson, is the most important LIV golfer on the planet for this obvious reason: age. Bryson is 28, and Phil is 52. Lefty got all the (mostly unwanted) LIV attention because he is the biggest breakaway name with the biggest breakaway payday, reported at $200 million. But despite the fact that he won a major 13 months ago, Mickelson left The Country Club on Friday looking like a haunted, washed-up mess after missing the U. S. Open cut. The stress of his four-month exile clearly had done a number on him, and if he never recovers his old form, well, the Saudis will need some of their other recognizable faces to occasionally play some big-time tournament golf. And DeChambeau and friends have not played that kind of golf at this U. S. Open. What a golden opportunity the LIV boys just sent whistling out of bounds. More than anything, upstart leagues crave head-to-head competition with the establishment to prove they belong. After LIV CEO Greg Norman and his renegade cast of traveling all-stars weathered blistering criticism from 9/11 families and human-rights advocates for partnering with the Saudis, they needed something to change the conversation much sooner rather than later. That something was the 122nd United States Open. If a LIV golfer happened to win this thing Sunday evening, it wouldn’t have had the same impact on golf that Joe Namath’s made-good Super Bowl III guarantee had on pro football and the way the old AFL was perceived. But it would have been a significant game-changer in more ways than one. Fans caught up in the idea that the PGA Tour defectors had sold out for blood money might have taken a timeout to recall that at least a few of the LIV guys can still play at a world-class level. And everyone in and around the sport would have been handed another reason why it would be a bad idea for the four major championships to ban LIV players in the future. The very purpose of major championships is to identify the best players in the world, after all, regardless of where they come from and who they associate with. That is what the LIV circuit could have accomplished in the first two events that featured its bonus babies. And yet in the opener outside of London, instead of Mickelson and Dustin Johnson rising to the occasion by rising up the leaderboard in the 54-hole, no-cut, funky-team-concept format, LIV got Charl Schwartzel beating Hennie du Plessis for the $4 million first prize. That endgame was acceptable for a circuit just trying to start and finish a tournament without completely embarrassing itself. The U. S. Open was an entirely different story, with entirely different stakes. With USGA CEO Mike Whan saying he could definitely foresee a day when his governing body made it more difficult for LIV players to compete in the tournament, Mickelson, DJ, DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and company could have responded by taking a 3-iron to Whan’s vision. Instead, only four of the 14 LIV players in the U. S. Open field made the cut, with those 14 posting a combined 36-hole score of 64-over par. Mickelson missed the cut by eight shots and got outplayed by 10 amateurs. Reed, the 2018 Masters champ and Ryder Cup killer, took himself out of the tournament Saturday with a 75. DeChambeau, the 2020 U. S. Open champ, who has been limited by injuries and who finally made a 2022 cut, also reduced himself to a non-person. At 2-over heading into Sunday, Johnson was LIV’s last man standing, though he would need half a Father’s Day miracle — hurdling the 16 players ahead of him — to win his second national championship. Assuming that doesn’t happen, DeChambeau, not Johnson, will be the face of this big miss. Though he has been a shell of his former self this year, before and after April wrist surgery, he is the defector the PGA Tour fears the most. DeChambeau has speed, power, and the benefit of time. If he gets completely healthy, and if he doesn’t let his overanalytical mind and lingering immaturity conspire against his talent, DeChambeau could return as the kind of dominant force who once had the nerve to describe the par-72 Augusta National as a par-67. But man, Norman and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund sure could have used some of that force and bravado this week, after Rory McIlroy accused the younger players who left the PGA Tour of “taking the easy way out” by taking the guaranteed cash. Instead the biggest LIV names have done the PGA Tour a favor by coming up small at The Country Club. They have lost a meaningful battle in the fight over the sport’s soul. .