Bryson DeChambeau says he cares “deeply” about team golf.
And that LIV Golf’s business model “makes a lot of sense.”
And that the LIV Golf “2.0” model makes “full financial sense.”
No, the two-time U.S. Open winner hasn’t publicly said whether he will rejoin the league after the loss of its primary backer, the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, and the exit of multiple players following the announcement that it plans to be reconfigured.
But, during a recent interview on the “Figuring Out with Raj Shamani” show, DeChambeau certainly didn’t shy away from stumping for the league in which he’s played since 2022. Without him, LIV’s future is doubtful, at best.
“It’s going to be done right,” he said. “And this is going to be a league hopefully that exists forever. It’s not combative. We’re not trying to compete against the Tour. We want to be a creative.
“We want to bring value to anywhere and everywhere in the golf market across the world.”
Across the two-and-a-half interview — which you can watch in full here — DeChambeau talked about a number of other topics, including his dad, mistakes he’s made, and his life as a pro golfer. Below are six additional takeaways, listed in order of when comments were said.
1. Weight gain was a mistake
In DeChambeau’s words, when asked for a moment in his life that turned out to be wrong: “When I was trying to hit the ball a lot farther, I went on a journey of eating and consuming as much food as possible to get as big as possible because I thought more mass, heavier weight meant I could hit it farther. I wasn’t right. It was a lot more about the fast-twitch muscles and developing the fast-twitch muscles. And that was a big thing for me, is I went down this health journey, a negative health journey actually of just consuming a lot of food, stuff that really was sensitive to my body and it made me overweight and didn’t feel really good. And I won the U.S. Open in 2020 because of it, because of getting bigger and getting stronger and swinging harder. But it wasn’t because of the food I was eating and getting bigger that I was able to swing it faster. It was because of the speed training I was doing. And I didn’t correlate that until afterwards.”
Also in DeChambeau’s words: “When I got to a level where I was three times the risk of a heart attack — I got to that level as a 27-, 28-year-old — I then said to my doctor, ‘We’ve got to change something. We’ve got to figure something out.’ So I got a chef and we started eating whole food relative to my sensitivities, like all my blood sensitivities. And I lost 24 pounds in 30 days.”
Much was made of DeChambeau’s weight gain after pro golf restarted in 2020 after the Covid hiatus. But on the podcast, he admitted that was a mistake — and unhealthy to him. The weight loss is also stunning.
2. What DeChambeau did that he felt made people hate him
In DeChambeau’s words, when asked what he did that he felt made people hate him: “There was a slow play moment where I took a bit of time to hit a putt and people called me out for slow play, which is a frustrating thing because I’m not necessarily the slowest player. On the greens, I’m very slow, but everywhere else I’m really fast. So, I’m pretty average when it comes to a professional golfer. And if not, I’ve gotten quicker over the past five years, six years. And then when I said my driver sucked, was not too great. And then when I got hit in the face with a rope because one of the security guards accidentally dropped it on me and I went underneath and it caught my eye and hit my eye. I got really frustrated. I was playing bad golf. This is peak 2022 and it caught my eye and it cut part of my cornea. Actually, nobody really knows that, but it looked like I was — and I’m going to curse on here, so sorry — it looked like I was a b***h. I felt like one, too.”
All of the incidents above made headlines and made the rounds on social media. On the show, DeChambeau also said he appreciates the banter because it reminds him of “the humanity that is there.”
3. The feeling of loneliness
In DeChambeau’s words, when asked about being lonely after the 2024 U.S. Open: “I don’t have a family. I don’t have kids. I don’t have a wife. That’s one of the things where I had the [2024 U.S. Open] trophy right next to my bed, and I’ll never forget we had a nice party, we were all having fun and I go to bed. It’s tough to sleep, by the way — your endorphins and your adrenaline are still going. But you sleep for the five, six hours and you wake up and you look over and you’re like, I won the U.S. Open and then right after, you say, what do I do next. I’m in bed alone. I don’t have my family with me. I don’t have anybody around. And it’s a real moment of frailty. And it’s not easy because your entire life you’re told that’s what the goal is. The goal is to get to this trophy. And then you realize when you hit it, you go, I gave up most of my life for this. I gave up 20 years of my life to do this and I did it. Well, now what do I do? And I don’t have anybody next to me. I don’t have somebody loving on me and giving me a kiss and a kid coming up on the bed and holding my hand and all that. Is that really what I want to do for my life? Is that what the legacy I want to leave too? And so it really transforms you and makes you realize what life is about. So, it’s a great thing. It’s also a humbling thing and it makes you feel lonely at first, but if you can get past that loneliness, you realize what life is truly about.”
The comment was one of the more revealing ones of the show — and it brought to mind Scottie Scheffler’s comments ahead of the 2024 Open Championship.
4. DeChambeau said he felt depressed
In DeChambeau’s words: “I felt depressed. Like there were times where I was very on the edge of not going to a really great place and I had to be pulled out numerous times from it from other people that cared deeply about me and I love those people today.”
During the show, DeChambeau said the feelings came while playing early on in his pro career, then again in 2019 and at the end of 2021 and the start of 2022.
5. An emotional talk with his dad
In DeChambeau’s words, following the death of his dad, Jon, in 2022: “I felt him and I went out and had like a 30-minute conversation with him personally in the sky and I saw him and I felt him right up there and we made our peace with each other. And we were OK with each other. It was a really sad but cool moment because there was a lot of things I wanted to say to him that I couldn’t get to say to him in real life that I got to say to him just in this sky because he was OK. And it was awesome to feel that. And even right now, it makes me so emotional because he meant so much to me. As much as we fought and much as we struggled with each other, we still loved each other like nothing else. And he meant well. He meant well. And I knew that.”
Also in DeChambeau’s words, after being asked what he wanted to tell his dad: “Well, I told him how much of a piece of you know what he was to me and I was real with that and that I forgave him for that. Makes me cry every time I say it because it’s just the realest thing ever. And yeah, to anybody that’s holding grudges and stuff, just forgive them. Who cares? You got one life. You might as well live it without holding grudges on people.”
Throughout the interview, DeChambeau talked about the influence of his dad, and again, to watch the entire show, you can do so by clicking here.
6. DeChambeau wants to play golf — beyond Earth
In DeChambeau’s words: “I want to go to the moon. Maybe hit a shot. Be the second person to play on the moon. Or Mars. Maybe at the first shot on Mars. I don’t know. That’d be fun. I’d love to do that.”
Interesting.
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