THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome Crushers GC captain, Bryson DeChambeau, to the media center. Bryson, you won your most recent LIV Golf event in Korea, finished top 5 in each of the last five worldwide starts, including a T2 at the PGA. What's going through your mind now during this impressive run of form, starting the second half of the LIV Golf season, U.S. Open next week?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I've been playing some great golf recently. My game is in good form. Golf swing feels pretty solid. A lot of it's just more of the same for me right now, continuing to improve on little things that I know I can.
When something gets off, I focus on getting that back to my standards. And then continuing to just put pedal to the metal as hard as I can with these golf courses and give myself a lot of opportunities to win. That's the goal in this great game is to win these tournaments. I don't come here to finish second, as I hope no one else does out here, the same.
For me, it's just more of the same.
Q. Besides playing incredible golf, you've had time for a bunch of side quests --
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I've been doing some fun side quests, yes, there's no doubt.
Q. You had the trip around the track at the Indy 500, helicopter ride, you were hitting golf balls at the White House. How do you find time to sleep? And do you always sleep in Crushers apparel?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I would say that I don't sleep in Crushers apparel, but it's fun to show that off. Just give people a different perspective, entertainment.
How do I find time to sleep? I actually sleep quite well. It's a lot of planning. We prepare, strategize and execute accordingly with these game plans, and when things work based upon other people's schedules.
Flying the helicopters and going to the salt flats in Utah for Bucked Up was really fun. And then hitting golf balls off the salt flats, I literally picked up salt from the salt flats and I have it in my house. I'm using it for some of the meals I'm using, so I'm literally using it, which is really cool.
Hitting in the White House was incredibly special. I never thought I would ever in my life get an opportunity to do it, but the President himself was like, just go out there and hit some shots. I was like, okay, yes, sir.
It was quite the experience. It was 105 yards and I hit a few good shots to a couple feet and almost made a few of them, too.
But I'd say a lot of it's just preparation, making sure that I can get the right rest so I'm ready for the next day. I still got still to do my job, which is make sure my game is in top form. I monitor that, and if I'm not hitting the ball very well I focus more on that; and if I'm hitting it really well, I focus more on some side quests.
Q. What would you say your evolution has been, both as a player and as a person since joining LIV? And the follow-up would be, to what do you attribute your massive following on your YouTube channel which is now north of 2 million subscribers?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I appreciate it. I think LIV afforded me the opportunity to spend more time thinking, strategizing, getting my body healthy, ready for majors, in a pretty unique way.
For me, it was a great thing. I thought there was an opportunity to do other things in life, and look, do I want to win every single tournament I show up to, 100 percent. I'm never not going to be the hardest competitor out there in my perspective.
But it also allowed me to do other things which are meaningful, as well. I think creating my YouTube channel was something that I've always wanted to do, seeing what MrBeast and Dude Perfect had done in the mid-2010s, and I said, why can't I do that, as well?
I think there's an opportunity to be as influential as I am now, and this was just the beginning. I think there's a lot more to come.
I hope that's a positive force for the game of golf because that was my initiative with the game of golf is that, yeah, I want to win a lot of tournaments, but how can I make a greater impact, as well, than just winning golf tournaments.
Now that I've got a couple million followers on YouTube, I'm incredibly grateful. There's no other words about it. Did I ever think it would get this big? I had no clue. I really had no idea.
Is it now an incredible responsibility? Yes. And I understand that. I want to continue to entertain my fans and continue to play the great game of golf that we all love at the highest level.
I want to compete. I want to compete, and I want to entertain. Those are the two things that I love doing, and it's quite an honor.
Q. Can you talk a little bit about the golf course this week, the condition, the setup, and how that might be a good way to prepare for the U.S. Open?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, the rough out here at RTJ is really long, so it's a great setup for next week. You've got to drive the ball well out here. It is a bit of a bomber's paradise, but you have to hit the fairway. So it's going to test our driving ability for next week, which I think will play nicely into the U.S. Open.
The greens are in great shape. They're rolling well. They'll get faster as the week goes on.
Yeah, I think this is a great setup for Oakmont next week.
Q. You won at Congressional as an amateur. Do you see any comparisons with the Robert Trent Jones design of this course and that course?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, Congressional you said? No, I won at Olympia Fields as an amateur, but Olympia Fields is very reminiscent still of this golf course: tight fairways, you've got to drive it well, old-school design.
So it reminds me quite well of that, and I like northeast golf. I've always played well in the north, even in Chicago. I won a LIV event in Chicago.
Again, I've played some incredible golf in these areas, in this type of style with the bent greens. It suits my game well.
Q. Ridgewood?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Ridgewood, as well. I've played well up in the northeast.
Q. Have you been able to test the conditions this week?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I have. I played nine holes yesterday. The greens are firming up. I hit an 8-iron on No. 4 yesterday that rolled out like eight, nine yards, so it is firming up. It's becoming a good tough test of golf. If the wind picks up, this is going to be a brutal test.
But the front nine is pretty sweet. I haven't seen the back nine yet. I know it's along the water, and that'll be cool visuals to have, as well.
But it's gettable but also difficult and a challenging test on the par-3s. You have to hit the fairway, and if not, you're going to be in the bunkers or the long rough, and it's going to be a tough test of golf.
Q. Your expectations this weekend, DMV crowd, a year and a half since the last tournament in Virginia, 40 minutes from here. Your thoughts on the crowd atmosphere this week?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I think the crowd atmosphere is going to be electric personally. I'm excited to see the fans out here, and hopefully they can cheer me on, cheer the Crushers on as hard as we possibly can. We've got to remember it's not just about me, as well.
My team, the Crushers, we've been playing well. They won last week, so I've got to give my hats offer to them and how hard they've been working so play as good as they can and I want them up there competing for the individual championship, as well.
The crowds will be great. I hope they're rooting the Crushers on. I know they will be, and I'm excited to see them out here this week.
Q. Bryson, you have tried to make yourself relatable to the average golfer. What advice could you give to the average golfer about executing tough shots under pressure? What was on your mind last year at Pinehurst when you faced that bunker shot?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, a lot of it's trying a bunch of weird stuff in practice. Going out and putting yourself in an awkward situation. I think for amateurs alike, they need to experience that. Even though they may not execute it or complete it, they still have to try it out so they can get comfortable with their hand-eye coordination of oh, I've got to swing a little weird this time or do something different.
The best piece of advice I give them is just practice in weird, unique situations for maybe an hour a week, 20 minutes, whatever. But try to be different and don't just hit the same stock shot every time.
Once you get a stock shot down and you're comfortable with it, go have some fun. Do a chipping contest with your amateur friends and throw it in the bunker from 50 yards or throw it in a bush and see if you can get out. Stuff to that extent has suited my game very well. It's allowed me to be an artist in my head, as much as I am a robot, and try to swing it as straight as possible and just stable as possible.
I still do have to hit cuts and draws and hit weird shots every once in a while, so I think giving myself those opportunities in the bunker, in the bush, whatever, has only aided in my golf career. For amateurs, I would say go try some weird shots. Have some fun.
Q. Question about the evolution of the Bryson fan. You said you've been really engaging with them, but in the past maybe they wore the same hat that you had, that you could identify. Now they may be following you -- with the LIV Golf concept, they're not here for practice rounds, so when you first see them, it's a competitive round. What is that experience like? Do you have to say, look, I can't engage quite as much during a round like this --
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: No.
Q. Can you talk about the experience engaging with fans but it's in a competitive way?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It's a great question. I think it allows us to prepare for the fans better. We get a lot of work done a lot quicker, which has been nice for us. Then when they get here, they're excited to see the competition. I like to feed off of the crowd, and I know a lot of guys out here do the same.
So being able to sign autographs -- we do sign before and we sign after still. We still take care of the fans in that capacity. But they're excited. They haven't seen us. It's a real round of golf.
Look, it's great to come out to a practice round, but we're actually working, so for us it actually helps us focus more on the fans during competition. We're able to provide more entertainment for them because we know that's our job, and we've prepared the entire week to show off our skill sets during that competition.
I think for us, it's a better model. We like it. For me, it's definitely helped me become more of a showman and realizing, okay, today is the day. Today is a day where I've got to entertain. It's boded well for a lot of us, and I like the concept. I love it, and glad to be a part of it.
Q. Nobody has gone back-to-back at the U.S. Open since Koepka did it. How are you approaching next week at Oakmont with that in mind, that you can be a back-to-back winner?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I think I'm always chasing history. Everybody is. We're all trying to accomplish feats that haven't been done in a long time, and going back-to-back would be great. Three in a row would be an even better accomplishment.
So it is in the back of my head. How am I preparing for it? Just like I would any other tournament. Just like I did last year with Pinehurst, focusing on executing the right shots, hitting the fairways, not three-putting next week. That's going to be a big deal. And keeping it out of the rough.
Not much more than that. I try to keep it simple.
Q. Going back to the 2015 U.S. Amateur, after your win you described one of the most important things is playing Bryson golf, and you described it as not what people would think. It was more of maximizing the artistry of the game and not the technical side. 10 years later, what is Bryson golf now, and is that something you still try to remind yourself of in big moments?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I think I answered that earlier, being a bit of an artist and still going and doing these weird chip shots in bushes and bunkers. It still stays true today. My mechanics are my mechanics and I try to repeat them as much as possible in practice. When I get to the golf course, it's pretty fluid. How am I going to get this ball in the fairway?
I'm still going to hit my stock shot of a draw, but when it requires you to hit a cut or whatever, I have to do it, hit it low or under the wind you've still got to do it. From my perspective, yeah, that hasn't changed from the 2015 U.S. Amateur.
Have I pivoted and changed my game a bit and adapted and grown my game? 100 percent. I'm not the same person I was in 2015.
But the inherent basics are still there.
Q. You're kind of well known for your work ethic and these marathon practice sessions you do.
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yes.
Q. I wonder if you can explain to us where that work ethic was born, how it's evolved over time, and are there any early memories or stories you can share of childhood Bryson taking part in these marathon sessions?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, so when I was a young kid, I was practicing at a golf course called River Bend. It's now called Dragonfly. I practiced at Belmont in Fresno, California, Medeira, California. I had a coach at the time that was awesome and Mike has been an inspiration and incredible for me growing up as a kid to just practice and do what I needed to do to get better.
He may not have had all the answers, but he led me towards the right answers, and I learned that work ethic was the most important thing.
A Ben Hogan quote stuck out to me one day when I was reading one of his books, that a day that you aren't practicing is another day that somebody else is getting better than you. That's kind of what initiated, okay, you've got to work really hard.
Consequently, when I realized other kids were better than me by practicing less hours, I quickly started to realize, I have to work harder and harder and harder, and it got to this place where it was eight hours a day of practice on Saturdays, eight to nine hours of practice, hitting golf balls. There were Saturdays where I'd count golf ball buckets and see if I could hit over 1000 balls in a day.
I did it a few times where my hands were cut up, they were bleeding, they were messed up, and I had to recover for a few days. So I realized going all in one day wasn't necessarily the best mode of practice.
But I did do it. I did have a time frame of, okay, got eight, nine hours, let's hit 1000 balls in a day, and I accomplished that feat numerous times.
I think it just became a bit of an obsession of how do I get better than others, because I wasn't the best in California growing up. You had guys like Patrick Grimes and Paul Smith, Patrick Rodgers, Beau Hossler, numerous others that were continually better than me, and they would practice, from what I would see, not even close to as much as me.
So I had to learn over time how to become more efficient with my practice but I also instilled a deep rooted hardworking mentality of dig it out of the dirt like Ben Hogan said.
That's where it stemmed from. It stemmed from me not being as good as others and then realizing I can only be as good as how hard I work.
So I just became obsessed with hitting crazy amounts of golf balls, and over the course of time I learned how to become more efficient and better. Yeah, there were times where I hit 200, 300 balls in a day trying to figure something out. It's getting less. I'm hitting a lot more.
Hopefully I don't have to do that as much anymore, but that work ethic remains from as a kid growing up realizing I wasn't as good as others.
Q. How old were you then?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: This was around 13 I became interested in practicing harder; 15 is when I really started practicing a crazy amount of hours. Yeah, I didn't have time for any other outside activities. I definitely lost a lot of my childhood practicing golf, but I wouldn't change it for the world.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports