THE MODERATOR: Please welcome back to our two-time champion and defending champion, Bryson DeChambeau. It's been a year; you were recently with us back in Pinehurst. Just some thoughts on last year's win and the past year.
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It's been an amazing year. So grateful to have won the U.S. Open. Worked hard to win at Pinehurst and have been playing some good golf after that. Still fine tuning. Working hard on my game. Played well this year in the majors, didn't get across the line in the Masters, the PGA. Won in Korea.
It's just been a lot of fun, and the fan support, the people that -- even out here this week, it's hearty, crazy, and I love them. It's been a lot of fun just experiencing what the fans are giving me. It's so much energy.
The only reason why I'm still here with this much energy is because of them, and even last week in Virginia, the crowds were really great and pumping me on. Am I tired? For sure. But am I excited? I'm more excited than I am tired.
Q. You were here in 2016. You were here last week. Just some reaction to the golf course and how it's playing.
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I think everybody knows this is probably the toughest golf course in the world right now, and you have to hit the fairways, you have to hit greens, and you have to two-putt, worst-case scenario. When you've got those putts inside 10 feet, you've got to make them. It's a great test of golf. I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure everybody else is. I think the person that wins this week is going to hit a lot of fairways and make a lot of putts.
Q. Bryson, you said after the PGA that you might have to tweak some equipment, maybe the ball because of the wind, you had some tricks up your sleeve for Oakmont. Have you made any tweaks?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I've got some new irons in the bag, which have been great. I've optimized it a little bit more, so hopefully that helps with those overdraws in my irons. You never know. But they seem to have helped this week, and hopefully it aids for me this week.
The golf ball is a longer discussion. That's going to be a bit of time. I'm still working on it. We think later this year I'll have a golf ball that will be very interesting to test.
If it helps, who knows. It's a test. But I'm excited to keep researching and trying and experimenting and optimizing. My goal right now is just to optimize myself to another level, and if I can't, so be it. If I can in some areas, great.
Q. Do you ever have any issues getting motivated, and if so, how do you deal with that?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I would say the only time I have low moments for me, like issues getting motivated I would say is when I feel like there's no place to go with equipment or my golf game or swing thoughts or theories. But I somehow always seem to find a little bit of hope, give myself a little bit of hope, and another part of it is doing it for the fans, patrons and the people that are viewing myself on YouTube. That's really what gets me up in the morning and gives me a lot of passion for this game.
Q. Bryson, how much have you looked into playing down different fairways like they did at the U.S. Am a few years back? They went 1 down 9, 14 down 12, 3 down 4. Is that something you've thought about doing?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Not specifically, but it's a great idea, thank you, so I'm going to go check that out now.
Q. Secondly, you mentioned the new irons. What's the biggest difference in the set that you're using now compared to what you've used in the past?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, so we iterated on the design of the face. The heel is a little bit flatter on the curvature. My face obviously has some curvature on the irons. So we're just optimizing for the gear effect on the heel and on the toe based on the mass properties that are there. Like the heel doesn't gear effect as much in an iron at my speeds, so hitting it on the heel, I've got to be a little flatter, and then the toe has a little bit more roundness on it to account for that out there, and then I moved the CG out towards the toe.
I've got such heavy grips and heavy golf shaft that it moves the CG of the club all the way to the heel so we try to offset that with that tungsten weight on the toe. That's very simply what it is.
Q. With 17-year-old Mason Howell in the field, what would you tell a 17-year-old Bryson?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Learn how to hit it farther. I didn't realize how much of a tremendous advantage -- look, I'll say hitting it farther, there's also difficulty to it. You have to be ready. You have to be unafraid. You can't be scared of missing it off line. You have to be fearless, in a sense.
I would say a few things are patience, continue to learn, be open minded, learn from players that you know would have worked before you've come around, and also just be grateful. That's one thing -- I was so focused when I was 17 on being the best player I could be, I lost sight of how cool it was to be traveling the country at that time and playing golf. I lost a little bit of that.
So I would say be grateful, as well, especially being at a U.S. Open at that young of an age. That was like six years before -- no. Four or five years before I even played in a U.S. Open.
Q. In terms of losing that, was there a certain age where you got that perspective back?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I mean, just recently, like the past few years. Losing my father was difficult. Some other stuff happened, as well. For me personally, it was a wakening moment for me to realize what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, why I'm playing this great game and what I can do to inspire future generations because -- look, I view my legacy as not just winning golf tournaments. I view it as how much good can I do for the game outside of playing professionally. That's a metric that I hold myself up to.
The start is YouTube, but there is so much more that's coming down the line, and that's also what gets me up every day, as well.
Q. You said at the Masters, you said, you guys can say what you want, I'm just a little different. Now that you've been in the public eye for so long, do you get more comfortable with being different and that people will say what they say and not worry about it as much?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I think once I became more authentic to myself, just realizing who I am, especially doing YouTube content and being okay with who I am, I felt like I just became more comfortable and kind of let my guard down in a sense.
What's funny is as much as my guard has been let down, I feel like I'm more strategic in how I deliver things and how I give perspective on things. Before, I was pretty up front and would just say things the way I wanted to whenever I wanted to. Now it's more strategic in the way I do it and deliver it because I think there's a lot of good that can come from that.
There's some cool style points that come from it, all in good ways. But yeah, just being different, being more authentic and having a higher passion of caring for the game of golf has really led me to believe what I believe now.
Q. What kept you from using the clubs you're going to use this week at the Masters or the PGA Championship?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: A few design changes. The curvature on the face was a little different, the weight on the toe didn't feel right for some reason, and there were some internal things that we worked on in the club that made the face more resilient when you hit it all across the face. That's ultimately why -- it wasn't ready, and we had to print another version. This is version 3.
Q. Did you think they performed better than what you had been using last week?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah. Well, the weeks before that. I put them in play last week, and they felt great. Is it going to be the ultimate answer to me winning? I mean, probably not. You've still got to putt well, drive it well and everything. But I think will it help me on certain shots in certain conditions? I think it might. If it doesn't, I'll go back to the drawing board and try to figure out why that occurred and continue to optimize.
Q. When you won in 2020, you thanked a ton of sponsors afterwards.
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I had a lot.
Q. How have those sponsors changed, and do you feel like LIV has affected you in any way in terms of getting sponsors?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It's not been LIV's undoing. I would say that, yeah, there was a lot of sponsors, and in all honesty LIV has been very freeing for me, in a good way, in a really good way, where the people that want to be with us want to be with us. We've got Qualcomm now, Reebok, still with Rolex. Rolex has been a great -- I've had a great relationship with them for a long time, since I turned professional in 2016. There are a few other partners, Google, that I'm working with now.
If anything, it's helped almost reestablish, like, who wants to be a part of this, and I think that's really cool. My perspective is who wants to be a part of the Crushers, who wants to be a part of my YouTube content. It's almost freeing in a way, and it kind of was a reset to see who wanted to be around and who wanted to continue to support and who I wanted to support, as well, continue to support.
I think it's actually been a great thing, and from a sponsorship perspective, we're starting to move now. We've got a lot of great revenue coming about, and probably in a year from now, I hope to unveil some incredible master plans of what we're going to do with the Crushers and whatnot. There's some exciting stuff down the line.
Q. I'm wondering with your work ethic, your ambition, even your physics background, what would you be doing if you weren't a professional golfer?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, I'd be on the side of the street or I'd be in a research lab, something like that. Just kidding, everybody.
I would say I'd probably be doing something around biomechanics. I'm working with Sportsbox AI right now, so I'd probably be doing something around the biomechanics and how AI integrates into it and just researching more of the body and how it works most repeatably and most consistently and how to become healthier as well, something along those lines.
Q. You mentioned unveiling some stuff a year from now. When does your deal with LIV expire, and have you thought about what life would be like after your professional life with LIV?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, how do I phrase this? Yeah, next year is when it ends. We're looking to negotiate end of this year, and I'm very excited. They see the value in me. I see the value in what they can provide, and I believe we'll come to some sort of resolution on that. Super excited for the future.
I think that LIV is not going anywhere. HE has been steadfast in his belief on team golf, and whether everybody believes in it or not, I think it's a viable option. I think it's a viable commercial option. Our team has been EBIDTA positive for the past two years, so we're starting to grow and move in the right direction, just like TGL.
TGL has done a great job. They've got some teams that are making some money, and I believe there is a sustainable model out there. How it all works with the game of golf, who knows, but I know my worth. I know what LIV brings to the table. And I'm excited for the future of what golf is going to be.
Q. You said earlier you learned how to play fearlessly, especially with the driver. You also said this is the toughest test in golf. Can you be fearless on this golf course? Along those lines, what is the game plan this week? How many drivers do you think you'll hit?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It depends -- so how many drivers I will hit depends on how I'm hitting it. I'm hitting it pretty nicely right now, especially better than last week, so hopefully I don't have to hit that much.
Can I be fearless on this golf course? Well, yeah, anybody really can. Are there times to be more reserved, depending on wind locations, softness of greens, pin locations, you name it, very strategic.
It's not like every single hole is Winged Foot out here. You can't just bomb it on every single hole and blast over bunkers and have a wedge run up to the front of the green. You can on a lot of the holes but not on every one of them.
I think this golf course you have to be just a fraction more strategic, especially with the rough is so long. I'm going to be as fearless as I can possibly be out there; I know that.
Q. Is there any added pressure being the most recent LIV player to win a major and defending your title this week?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I think for any golfer out here trying to win the U.S. Open, there's just as much pressure. You can put as much pressure on yourself as you want. I try to look at it as there's a lot of fans out there. I'm excited to showcase my skill sets and try to play the best golf as I possibly can, and if that adds up to the lowest number out here, great. If not, I've got to work harder.
That's the pressure I put on myself is performing for the fans.
Q. Have any of your peers, your playing peers, come to you for advice on how to start a YouTube account?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Phil. Phil Mickelson has been one of the only ones to do that. Jon Rahm has talked to me a little bit about it. He's busy with his family, and I totally respect that, admiration for that.
Phil has been extremely interested. He sees that as also a viable option for commercialization, the future, inspiration, education, entertainment. He did a short game series back in the day. He knows what teaching means to the public.
So he's been one that's talked to me a lot about that, and it's been fun to help a little bit, and now he has Grant Horvat, and it's been great getting to help him a little bit.
It's so funny because he's taught me a bunch in short game, so we kind of exchange ideas in that role. He teaches me a couple things out of the bunker and wedges, and I'm like, all right, here's something we do for our channel that makes it a little more interesting. Kind of fun stuff. It's fun.
I'll say it again; playing with numerous content creators, whether it's Grant or Garrett or Bob Does Sports, those guys are crazy, but you name it, they're awesome to play with. It gives great perspective. Helps me. And I know I'm going on a bit of a tangent, but it helps me become more comfortable in my skin because I realize what I'm doing it for, and it's just fun to integrate with these guys that are creators and you see their liveliness and you're like, I could use a little bit of that.
It's like you're learning. It's a new space. I'm learning how to become a little bit more entertaining, and it's great to feed off of that. It's not just golf, golf, golf, professional, trying to win every tournament. It's like, whoa, okay, there's a different perspective on this and there's so much influence. What are they doing that's influencing me to -- it's allowed me to influence in a positive way, and I learn from them. So it's a lot of fun to actually learn from those guys.
Q. Could you tell us what advice you gave Phil for starting his YouTube account?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, first off, I said, you can be yourself. You have that creative control to be yourself, and I think that's what's so beautiful about it. You hire the right team around you that understands you, and it frees you up to be yourself, one.
I said, two, you can do the content that you want to do. Anything you want to do, you can do it. Then three, listen to the people in the comments section. Go through, read them all, see what they want from you. Those are the things that we look at the most.
That's why we've grown our channel, and I say "our" because it's a team. I've got a team behind me. We've grown our channel to over 2 million followers now and couldn't be more thankful, and it's literally by listening to the comments section, by looking at the comments and seeing what they want.
Q. You have successfully reinvented the game of golf in so many different ways, both on and off the course. How do you want to be remembered?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: What a great question, first off. Great job. Second off, I hope that I can inspire kids like yourself who will become a gentleman one day, kids like yourself to play golf, understand how great this amazing game is for developing relationships, and hopefully inspire to play professionally and come out here and compete for a U.S. Open. That's my goal.
That's what I hope a lot of us are here to do, but I know it's what I want to do. So hopefully I can do that for you and all your peers.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports