Last month, LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau posted a video to his YouTube channel featuring former United States President Donald Trump, where the pair tried to break 50 from the forward tees. In the latest edition, the U.S. Open champion attempted the same feat with John Daly.
In the video, while DeChambeau was warming up on the range, he handed Daly his 5-wood. The legend tried hitting DeChambeau’s club a few times, but couldn’t make solid contact.
“This is the funniest thing right here, look at this 5-wood, right. When I won my majors, my driver was smaller than this,” Daly said.
DeChambeau, one of the longest hitters in the game, has extremely thick grips on his clubs and the shafts are “something like” 3x-stiff.
“No, I can’t hit these just like you can’t swing like me. Everybody’s different in this game,” Daly said.
The Horizon Golf Course facility will be a two-story, 12,000-square-foot venue.
EL PASO, Texas — UnderPar Life, which bills itself as a competitor to Topgolf, is coming to this Texas border city.
The company, backed by current LIV Golf star Bryson DeChambeau and golf course architect Beau Welling, is set to make its second location at Horizon Golf Course in El Paso as part of a plan to expand to 30 locations nationwide, according to D Magazine.
The Horizon Golf Course facility will be a two-story, 12,000-square-foot venue. It will feature a 300-yard driving range, a golf instruction academy, a “tour-level” short game and practice area and a bar and restaurant, according to the article,
“It’s a perfect location for us,” the company co-founder David Deering told D Magazine. “Our thesis is proving out to be correct. The municipalities are loving our idea. They are willing to give us these favorable 99-year leases in exchange for us building on their golf course.
UnderPar Life rendering of the hitting bays at Horizon Golf Course. (Contributed photo)
“One of the challenges of a startup is, ‘Can they do things over and over again?’ Well, I’m starting to feel this is a repeatable process at scale where we don’t have to drop $20 million on a piece of land.”
A groundbreaking date hasn’t been set construction is slated to take between 18 and 24 months.
“Growing the game of golf is an essential component of Horizon Golf Club’s mission,” Luis Delgadillo, head pro at Horizon Golf Club, told D Magazine. “Partnering with UnderPar Life provides us an opportunity to expand our free youth programs and expose our top players to world-class practice facilities.“tour-level” short game and practice area and bars and restaurants, according to D Magazine.
El Paso’s Topgolf opened on Feb. 2, 2018, at 365 Vin Rambla Drive. Billed as “a game for everyone,” Topgolf estimates that 51% of its patrons are non-golfers. UnderPar Life is aiming at the same market.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.
The video was a charity opportunity benefitting the Wounded Warrior Project, and as of July 26 at noon ET, it had raised just under $30,000 and tallied 7.75 million views.
“First off, it’s an honor to play with anybody of that type of influence, no matter who it is on any political side,” DeChambeau told the media ahead of this week’s LIV Golf event in the United Kingdom. “Again, this whole content piece, it’s a content creation piece, was about delivering some unique different content on YouTube, and we wanted to showcase the golf abilities of any influential person, and he was definitely up on a list that I wanted to showcase.
“He’s obviously a figure that can pull a lot of views, and we thought it would be great to showcase his golfing ability, and he’s a pretty good golfer. It was a lot of fun to do.”
It wasn’t a big surprise to see Trump featured on DeChambeau’s channel, as the former President has been heavily involved with the LIV Golf League, hosting several events at his golf courses.
Despite Trump’s connection to the Republican Party, DeChambeau said he has reached out to the Democratic Party to see if anyone on that side of the aisle would be interested in an appearance.
“We asked the other side, as well, and anyone that wants to play,” he said. “They’re more than willing to do something for charity. Wanted to make it about charity and the wounded warriors foundation. I’ve done a lot for them in the past, and it was fantastic to see that he was willing to support it, as well, as well as anybody that wants to support their charity, I’m more than willing to do a fundraiser for them and drive a lot of traction to those charities, whichever they are.
“Whether it’s Obama or anyone else on that side, I’m more than willing to play with them. I have no issues whatsoever. That’s the thing about golf is that the more we can utilize golf to bring everyone together in a cool way, I think that’s the vision of the global game of golf.
“It’s important for me, inspiring a younger generation is huge for me, and that’s why I think this YouTube space is so cool because it really shows everyone’s true side. That’s what I’m trying to accomplish, and it’s definitely helped me on that regard, and I can’t wait to hopefully do it with others.”
Since the video’s release, DeChambeau’s YouTube channel has surpassed the 1 million subscribers mark.
Thank you so much for your continued support and for joining me on this crazy journey. 1M Subscribers is absolutely insane and is hard to wrap my head around. It wouldn’t be possible without all of you watching. Cheers to all of the amazing memories and moments still to come! pic.twitter.com/m69lNlfZ6S
TROON, Scotland — It’s been almost 40 years since the debut of the musical “Chess,” and while it was ostensibly about, well, chess, and set mostly in Thailand, one lyric has currency at the 152nd Open on the dilapidated west coast of Scotland.
One night in Bangkok makes the hard man humble Not much between despair and ecstasy One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
This might be the only time you’ll ever see Troon cross-referenced with Bangkok, but this week has been a pointed reminder of how capricious and cruel elite-level professional golf can be. Many players who arrived at Royal Troon in form have already departed, while some long thought washed up are still working. The young and studly are licking their wounds, the old and infirm are applying heating pads to loosen up for their weekend tee times.
Because links golf is seldom played, and the weather is more impactful than at any other major, it’s easy to write off results in golf’s oldest championship as anomalies, blips not reflective of the norm, a self-contained sideshow that lacks real meaning for the broader game. Players can have that luxury of compartmentalizing — and probably need it — but the decision-makers currently shaping the future of the game don’t, and they ought to be paying attention to what’s happening 4,000 miles east of Ponte Vedra Beach (and 3,000 east of Fenway).
Because this Open is testament to the danger of constructing a product that’s rigged in favor of a small cohort of star players who then don’t actually deliver on the promise that’s been sold.
That’s the essence of sport, of course. Buying a ticket to a Lakers game doesn’t guarantee a fan will see LeBron James in full flight, nor even at all. But the odds are good that when the result is final, the star will be center stage. By comparison, golf is predictable only in its unpredictability.
A few things can be wagered on with certainty. Like Scottie Scheffler being in the mix, or Shane Lowry’s performance improving as the weather deteriorates, or John Daly missing the weekend (or going AWOL earlier in many cases). But the Open has showcased ample stories that seemed so improbable as the week began.
Take Daniel Brown, a little-known English professional whose 61st place finish at last week’s Genesis Scottish Open was his only made cut in more than four months. On Saturday, he played in the final group of a major — his first-ever major. Yet he showed up on Sky Sports’ set five hours before his tee time — evidence of a willingness to contribute, a lack of entitlement or a need to market himself, depending on your disposition. His countryman, Matt Wallace, missed the cut last week and during an emotional interview seemed about as low as a golfer can get. But he’s still here, and still working.
Matteo Manassero, the former child prodigy of European golf, who fell into an abyss that included stops on the Alps mini-tour, only to earn his way back to his first Open in a decade, is still just 31 years old. “Things also can turn around quickly,” the Italian said after making his first major cut since the 2016 U.S. Open.
Ludvig Aberg reacts on the 18th green during day two of The 152nd Open Championship at Royal Troon. The World No. 4 missed the cut. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
Darren Clarke also hasn’t made a major cut since ’16, the last time the Open was at Royal Troon. But as Northern Ireland’s most celebrated golfer flew to Portugal for a vacation after missing the cut, Rory McIlroy’s former mentor is chugging along in his 32nd appearance. Clarke loves this event, but the 2011 champion confessed on Friday evening that 2025 might be his last, tempted to sign off at Royal Portrush, close to where he grew up.
“I know I’ve earned my spot in the field until I’m 60,” he said, “but I’d hate to think that I was stopping some 19 or 20-year-old lad from living his dream.”
Nor is Clarke the only regular from the geriatric circuit who survived the carnage of Troon. When Alex Cejka last appeared on the first page of a major leaderboard, George W. Bush still had two years left in the White House, while Padraig Harrington’s irrepressible love of the game keeps him working when most of his contemporaries left for the broadcast booth or the bar.
The walk-on actors are delivering their lines in this production. What of the leading men?
Ten of the top 20 players in the Official World Golf Ranking are gone, blown off course and out of town by the challenging conditions. Major winners, runners-up and contenders dispatched without ceremony, including DeChambeau. McIlroy. Aberg, Hovland and Woods. The PGA Tour could have filled a charter jet Friday night from the ranks of winners this season who are surplus to requirements in Scotland.
That potential passenger manifest ought to be read carefully by Jay Monahan and SSG group’s John Henry, who are ultimately responsible for shaping and financing the Tour’s future. Depth equals strength, not dilution. The capriciousness of golf needs to be embraced because it can’t be litigated away in a misguided attempt to engineer a sport around a handful of superstars — a questionable strategy anyway when fans suspect that many of them aren’t quite the charitable, puppy-loving good guys they were promised. The few guys who sell tickets — really a precious few — can’t be guaranteed a spot at the trophy ceremony unless you’re willing to thoroughly bastardize the concept of meritocracy. Some weeks (even some of the biggest weeks) just turn out to be more about the Davids than the Goliaths, and the best weeks are about both. This is one of the best.
If they want predictability in the product, only one man in the field at Royal Troon delivered it. John Daly was a WD, as he was at the PGA Championship, and numerous times previously. It’s been a dozen years since he last played the weekend in a major, 14 years since he finished inside the top 50, 19 since he broke the top 20, and 29 since he had a top 10. But even that show has only two years left to run.
“He asked me how it felt on the putting green, then I asked him how it felt to have a hundred of them.”
TROON, Scotland – Tiger Woods may not be lighting up the leaderboards these days but that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten what it takes to be a great champion.
Woods, 48, is turning into a regular Arnold Palmer these days. Remember how Palmer used to famously send letters to the winners of all the major professional golf tournaments? It was a wonderful gesture and something that players saved and cherish.
Well, Tiger isn’t exactly penning love letters to his fellow pros but in his dotage he’s turned over a new leaf and started to become the elder statesman whose words of congratulations – or in the case of Rory McIlroy words of encouragement – mean the world to players.
Earlier this week, Tiger acknowledged that he waited a week for things to die down after the U.S. Open to text McIlroy and essentially tell him to keep his head up and better days are ahead after his heartbreaking defeat (more on Tiger’s text and McIlroy’s phone number change here).
It also became public that Tiger congratulated Bryson DeChambeau on winning the U.S. Open in June. DeChambeau had previously told Golfweek that Tiger had gone radio silent since he departed for LIV Golf, but he made an exception to tell DeChambeau job well done at Pinehurst.
“It is the first communication, but I’ll say he’s competitor and I have a lot of respect for him,” said DeChambeau, who used to play practice rounds with Tiger and whose game he often praised before he chose to join LIV. “I’m sure that winning two U.S. Opens definitely helped, I guess, for him coming up and saying congrats. I don’t know what his position is, but it was very thoughtful, and I was appreciative of it.”
And DeChambeau wasn’t the only recent major winner to receive warm words from Tiger for his major accomplishment. Tiger was paired with Xander Schauffele, winner of the PGA Championship in May, and approached him on the putting green before their opening round on Thursday.
“He said congrats to me,” Schauffele said. “He asked me how it felt on the putting green, then I asked him how it felt to have a hundred of them. We had a nice chuckle before the round. It puts it into perspective when you look at someone that’s done what he’s done, only having one.”
Much like Palmer before him, Tiger’s simple gesture seems to have gone a long way with his fellow competitors.
His opening round in the 152nd Open was, as the Scots say, dreich.
TROON, Scotland — Conventional wisdom, grounded in a data sample compiled over the past 164 years, says the key to success in the Open Championship is more about art than analytics, that links golf itself is best understood through poetry rather than pedagoguery. So it came as no surprise to learn Thursday that Bryson DeChambeau is taking the opposite tack in trying to solve a puzzle that continues to confound him.
His opening round in the 152nd Open was, as the Scots say, dreich — a word usually reserved for the dismal weather that has settled over the Ayrshire coast. Like a whiskey hangover, it began painfully and offered little respite. He was 6-over-par through eight holes. The skill for which he is most celebrated — the tee ball — was firing, but not much else. In approach play and putting, DeChambeau wasn’t close to breaking the top 120 in the 157-man field as the day wore on. He made 104 feet 5 inches of putts, but 54 feet 11 inches of that came on one stroke, an eagle putt on the 16th hole. He signed for a 5-over par round of 76.
Most Tour players would quickly dismiss a day like today, chalking up poor scores to the whipping wind, scattered rain and penal hazards on this venerable old links. Others certainly did.
“Disappointed. Got off to a bad start. Missed every sort of important putt. Drove it pretty poor. It wasn’t the best day.” — Tommy Fleetwood (76)
“One of the worst rounds I think I’ve had this year … It wasn’t a fun experience.” — Tyrrell Hatton (73)
“I just didn’t adapt well enough to the conditions. Your misses get punished a lot more this week.” — Rory McIlroy (78)
“They cannae f——-g play!” a cantankerous old Scot of my acquaintance muttered derisively.
DeChambeau is a cause-and-effect guy, willing to ascribe only so much of his performance to the vagaries of the conditions. “It’s a completely different test. I didn’t get any practice in it, and I didn’t really play much in the rain. It’s a difficult test out here,” the U.S. Open champion said. “Something I’m not familiar with. I never grew up playing it, and not to say that that’s the reason; I finished eighth at St. Andrews. I can do it when it’s warm and not windy.”
Bryson DeChambeau hits out of the rough on the 15th hole during the first round of the Open Championship golf tournament at Royal Troon. Mandatory Credit: Jack Gruber-USA TODAY Sports
Unfortunately for him, warm and windless weather isn’t on tap this week, nor many dry spells. They seldom are at the Open.
“I’m going to go figure it out,” he announced after signing his card. His game plan for mastering the ancient linksland won’t rely on inspirational talk about art or poetry, but on Flightscopes and Trackmans.
“It’s something equipment-related. The golf ball is — look, I’m not at 190 ball speed, so particularly when I’m hitting driver or 3-wood, those clubs are built for around that speed, that 190 ball speed, and my 3-wood around 180, so colder, firmer conditions the golf ball is not compressing as much,” he said. “So it’s probably something along those lines.”
Somewhere Old Tom Morris, or even Young Tom Watson, chuckles.
“When there’s so many measurements going on in your mind — ,” a reporter began.
“There’s not that many. There’s a couple but not that many,” DeChambeau quickly replied, like a kid denying having eaten the cake he has just smeared all over his face.
The man who seldom provides stock answers seemed to be struggling to understand why his stock shots didn’t deliver stock results, while being reluctant to accept that stock shots can lose value in the crosswinds and firm conditions that prevailed Thursday at Royal Troon.
“I was trying to draw the ball and the ball was knuckling a little bit. It was a really difficult challenge, and I should have just cut the ball.”
“I was swinging it somewhat okay, just the ball wasn’t coming off in that window that I normally see, so it was a weird day.”
DeChambeau also referenced that windows theory in a press conference two days ago. “Most people try to see it through windows. I do too, but not that specific,” he said. “It’s more of, if I take it back a certain distance and go through, it will come out with a certain launch just based on the loft. So I’m really focused on accomplishing that task, just swinging the way I want to swing, and the results will speak for themselves hopefully.”
The results didn’t produce a comforting message but continued an unimpressive trend. In six previous appearances in the Open, the outlier remains a T-8 finish two years ago at the Old Course, the only venue he can bludgeon his way around. Otherwise, there are two missed cuts, no finishes inside the top 30, and two outside the top 50.
“I’m just proud of the way I persevered today. Shoot, man, I could have thrown in the towel after nine and could have been like, I’m going home. But no, I’ve got a chance tomorrow. I’m excited for the challenge,” he said. “If I have some putts go in and hit some shots the way I know how to and figure out this equipment stuff, I’ll be good.”
Who knows, DeChambeau might be proven right. He’s an inveterate problem solver. So too was Ivan Lendl, but then Lendl never quite managed to figure out his sport’s oldest and most prestigious major championship contested in the British Isles. And like the tennis great, even DeChambeau’s failure to solve the riddle is oddly compelling.
Friday at 2:48 p.m. Troon time, he gets to try again, beginning from well outside the projected cut. By the dinner hour, we’ll know whether golf fans will wait 262 days — or only 260 — before seeing him again in a tournament that matters.
TROON, Scotland — After dueling for the U.S. Open title last month in the North Carolina Sandhills, Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy dueled for the most disappointing start at the 152nd British Open on Thursday.
DeChambeau shot 42 on the front nine at Royal Troon and posted 5-over 76 while McIlroy was even worse, slicing his tee shot on the train tracks at No. 11 and shooting 7-over 78.
“It was a weird day,” DeChambeau said.
“It was definitely tricky,” said McIlroy of the test that was Troon, the seaside links along the west coast of Ayrshire.
Despite a light rain for much of the day, the course played firm with just enough wind to wreak havoc.
“It was brutal out there,” defending champion Brian Harman said.
McIlroy, the world No. 2, said, “if anything, it was more like the conditions got the better of me, those cross-winds.”
Oh, those fickle winds. McIlroy dropped a shot at the first but got it back with his lone birdie of the day at No. 3 after wedging to inside 4 feet. It all started to go wrong at No. 8, the Postage Stamp par 3, where his tee shot found the right bunker and he needed two tries to extricate himself. Double bogey.
“I missed the green and left it in the bunker and made a 5. Then once we turned on that back nine, it was left-to-right winds. I was sort of struggling to hole the ball in that wind a little bit, and that got me.”
So did his tee shot at No. 11, which sailed right and out of bounds and resulted in another double bogey. McIlroy, who has been stuck on four major titles for nearly a decade, didn’t respond well to conditions that perplexed the field of 157.
“You play your practice rounds, and you try to come up with a strategy that you think is going to get you around the golf course. Then when the wind is like that, you know, other options present themselves, and you start to second guess yourself a little bit,” McIlroy said. “The conditions were tough on that back nine, and I just didn’t do a good enough job.”
Neither did DeChambeau, though his travails were largely on the front nine.
Bryson DeChambeau hits out of the rough on the 15th hole during the first round of the 2024 British Open at Royal Troon. (Jack Gruber-USA TODAY Sports)
He made bogeys at three of the first four holes, missing par putts of inside 5 feet at the first and just over 3 feet at the fourth. Then he made a double bogey at the sixth, spraying his tee shot right into thick rough and tried to hack a 7-iron out of trouble.
“I didn’t get it high enough,” he said. “I thinned it a little bit and caught the stuff and came out dead, and then I tried to open face a 5-wood and squirted off the left side of my face and just shot left. I’m just glad nobody got hurt. Luckily I found it.”
But it was the wind that proved to be a riddle that DeChambeau failed to solve.
“It was in and off the right and I was trying to draw the ball and the ball was knuckling a little bit,” he said. “It was a really difficult challenge, and I should have just cut the ball.”
DeChambeau finished T-6 at the Masters, second at the PGA Championship and then won the U.S. Open for the second time. But the Open Championship has typically given him fits: a T-8 in 2022 is his only finish better than T-33 in six previous starts, and the change in wind direction created a variable he said he felt unprepared for.
“It’s a completely different test. I didn’t get any practice in it, and I didn’t really play much in the rain,” he explained, calling the conditions “something I’m not familiar with.”
He added: “I never grew up playing it, and not to say that that’s the reason… I can do it when it’s warm and not windy.”
After playing his first eight holes in 6 over, DeChambeau righted the ship. He did have one highlight to remember, holing a 55-foot eagle putt at 16.
However, the driver was as erratic as it was in the final round of the U.S. Open when he managed to find just five fairways but kept drawing good lies amid the Pinehurst wiregrass and scrub brush. His luck ran out as the Scottish fescue proved more penal. DeChambeau blamed his Krank driver, which he said was designed for around 190 ball speed, for not being built for cooler conditions when the golf ball doesn’t compress as much.
“It’s probably something along those lines,” he said.
Both DeChambeau and McIlroy have dug big holes and will have their work cut out just to make the cut.
“He absolutely gutted,” Golf Channel’s Paul McGinley said of McIlroy. “His race is probably run now at this stage. As they say, you can’t win the Open or a major on the first day, but you can certainly lose it and he may well have lost it there today.”
DeChambeau, for one, wasn’t ready to throw in the towel.
DeChambeau is the most fascinating character in a game over-served with vanilla.
TROON, Scotland — There are umpteen ways in which Bryson DeChambeau has outmaneuvered his peers, not least in building the game’s most individualistic and powerful swing, and in tackling age-old equipment quandries with solutions that are as innovative as they are effective. He’s proven himself a thoroughly modern problem solver, but there’s one glaring Achilles that lurks near the surface, and which is also a decidedly modern trait.
DeChambeau desperately needs to be liked. Many people do, to be fair, moreso in a social media age when clicks on the ‘like’ button and reposts often impact self-worth. But it’s noteworthy to see a desire so obvious in a professional athlete, and potentially compromising in a man who is indisputably the most engaging figure in his sport.
On Tuesday at Royal Troon, DeChambeau was asked if the public perception of him has altered over the past year. “I think I’ve always been who I’ve been,” he said, before quickly contradicting himself. “I’ve definitely matured a lot. It’s been a growing process for me over the course of time. YouTube has massively helped, I can tell you that, being able to just release the emotions in the way that I know I can. When I was a kid, I was super emotional obviously, but I got frustrated on the golf course, I got really excited on the golf course.”
DeChambeau says he was urged to suppress that emotion when he reached the PGA Tour, which has always prized conformity. “I don’t want to be someone that I’m not. Just really defining that and refining that to a place where I am today has been a lot of work in progress,” he explained. “It’s just taken time for me to have a better, bigger perspective on life and also having a platform where I can showcase that and refine it to a really cool, cool level and give people some great entertainment.”
Those words suggest that DeChambeau sees personality and platform as inseparable, that he found a safe space to be his authentic self via highly curated social media content. Yet the harsh reality of being in the public eye is that the message can’t always be controlled, a reminder delivered last week when Golfweek’s report on an acrimonious split with his former coach, Mike Schy, pierced the sterilized world he has constructed and stocked with paid staff and sycophants. “Look, it’s an unfortunate situation. I’ve loved that man for all of my life, and it’s a private matter that went public, unfortunately,” he said. “We tried to figure it out and make it make sense for everyone, and it just didn’t come out that way.”
DeChambeau’s play in the majors this year—a win at the U.S. Open, a near-win at the PGA Championship and a T-6 at the Masters—reminded fans of just why they were engaged by him before he went to LIV. Of course, engagement is a double-edged sword. There’s plenty of love—from fans, and often a fawning media corp—but also hate. The face-to-face world is mostly love, whereas hate dominates the social media sphere. The ability to tune out negativity is essential for public figures to retain some degree of sanity. DeChambeau clearly struggled with that, which is why going to LIV was probably good for him. He removed himself from the often toxic public square and found an audience, albeit minuscule, that was overwhelmingly welcoming of his presence.
DeChambeau admitted being criticized bothered him once, and in doing so inadvertently acknowledged it still matters. “You could say it’s bothered, but it was more of like, dang, I’m disappointed that people don’t see who I am,” he said. “It’s cool to get people to see who I am now. I’m just going to keep entertaining and showcasing to the fans what this great game is all about.”
DeChambeau gives the impression of a man who defines himself as a product—eager to change consumer sentiment and hopeful for kind reviews. It’s a smart way to sell, but less so a way to live. That perception of a manufactured man wasn’t helped when he offered this: “My social media team has been fantastic. They’re my best friends as well.”
For all his problem-solving skills, DeChambeau has yet to figure out the particular puzzle of links golf. If he does so this week and wins the 152nd Open, it would perhaps be the most impressive of his accomplishments. And yet he addressed that possibility in terms not of personal joy but of consumer reaction. “It would be awesome to let everybody touch the Claret Jug. That would be a dream come true,” he said.
DeChambeau is the most fascinating character in a game over-served with vanilla, and his re-emergence as a central character should be welcomed. There’s an obvious caveat though: he has performed well in the only three tournaments this year that exposed him to an audience of scale. That same audience he entertained at Augusta National, Valhalla and Pinehurst No. 2 will follow him to Royal Troon but hasn’t trailed him to LIV where viewing figures are so desultory they’re no longer made public. That helps explain the importance DeChambeau places on YouTube as a platform for keeping him relevant.
After this Open ends, a huge swathe of the fans who enthusiastically embraced him this spring and summer—many of them older and analog—will have to wait 260 days until the opening round of the Masters to get another fix. That’s a huge problem, both for the sport and for DeChambeau.
He has had memorable hole outs in each of the first three major championships this year, all coming on the 18th hole. He added another one to his resume on Saturday during the second round of 2024 LIV Golf Andalucia.
DeChambeau holed out from the 14th fairway for eagle on the 370-yard hole. The big bird moved him to 2 under for the day, and he signed for a 4-under 67 on Saturday at Valderrama Golf Club in Sotogrande, Spain, one of the lowest rounds of the week.
.@b_dechambeau with a SLAM DUNK eagle hole out on No. 14 🦅
However, it’s DeChambeau’s Crushers GC teammate, Anirban Lahiri, who is on top of the leaderboard after 36 holes. While DeChambeau is T-6 at 1 under overall, Lahiri is at 7 under with a four-shot lead going into the final round.
Crushers GC, which won the team championship in 2023, also leads by four over Fireballs GC, featuring Spanish captain Sergio Garcia.
As DeChambeau stopped funding a junior golf tour, his longtime coach admitted he’s ‘pissed and a little salty’
Mike Schy wants to be clear — he hated posting the news that the Central Valley Jon DeChambeau Memorial Junior Tour, “where champions play,” would be closing its doors due to a “lack of funding.” But from his perspective, he could no longer wait for his longtime pupil, Bryson DeChambeau, who he said reneged on underwriting the cost of the tour, to step up and do what he felt was the right thing.
“Bryson has decided this was not a priority to him, offering only to loan money to his father’s namesake,” Schy, 63, wrote in his official statement online.
Reached via phone on Tuesday night as he walked his dogs, rescues from China and Turkey, he told Golfweek he stalled for three weeks before posting his official statement on social media.
“I had to post that. I’m a little pissed. I’m a little salty for a number of reasons, one of which is he made me look bad again,” Schy said.
DeChambeau, who often has referred to Schy as “a second father,” says he hasn’t worked with Schy since 2018 and paid him nearly $1 million for his prior services. He now called Schy a “disgruntled employee” and he and his agent have charged the coach with trying to extort $2 million after DeChambeau won the U.S. Open last month.
“It’s a complete and utter lie, all of it,” DeChambeau said in a phone conversation with Golfweek on Wednesday. “It’s a disgruntled former employee, unfortunately, and it is what it is. We’ve had numerous conversations and it hasn’t worked out from a business standpoint.
“It’s quite disappointing how he’s turned this and spun this. It’s a non-recourse loan that was going out. I gave him my dad’s name, image and likeness for free on the assumption we’d have a good business plan and it just hasn’t worked out. I’m going to be doing a lot for my community, just in a different fashion with a proper business plan and done correctly.”
What started as a story about a local junior tour closing up shop has evolved into something much more dramatic – the end of what had been a special player-coach relationship with a pair of non-conformists who seemed made for each other. It’s also a story that DeChambeau doesn’t want you to read.
“I’m at a high point right now and I’m a big character right now and I’m trying to do what’s right for the game of golf and you’re trying to bring my image down to hurt the game of golf essentially,” DeChambeau said. “This just ain’t a story, it’s a disgruntled employee, my friend.”
It’s a sad tale, but it must be told.
DeChambeau, Schy teamed up on events
A year and a half ago, Schy and DeChambeau were talking when Schy expressed his disappointment at how junior golf tournaments had priced many of his students out of the market. DeChambeau, who grew up in Clovis, California, and learned the game under Schy’s watchful eye at the Mike Schy Golf Performance Institute at what is now known as Dragonfly Golf Club in Madera, a suburb of Fresno, didn’t have the financial support to play a national schedule of junior tournaments. Schy figured there were about 14 affordable events for DeChambeau to choose from in the Fresno area that helped him cut his teeth.
“They are all gone,” Schy lamented. “The one or two we have charge entry fees in the neighborhood of $200.”
Schy suggested to DeChambeau that they team up to do something to fill the void. DeChambeau nodded in agreement and listened. Schy said he thought DeChambeau understood that it was the right thing to do for their community. When Schy proposed naming it the Bryson DeChambeau Junior Tour, DeChambeau had a better idea.
“Let’s name it after my dad,” he said.
Last summer, Schy did a test run at Madera Country Club, attracting 70 kids between the ages of 12 and 18 and charging $60. DeChambeau did a welcome video for the inaugural event. It worked well enough that Schy did a few more events at other local country clubs. In September, DeChambeau asked him how much he needed for the second year. According to DeChambeau, Schy asked for $125,000 for two years to get the tour off the ground. (A draft of a line of credit document from DeChambeau’s camp indicates the actual amount was $130,000.)
Schy described the amount for DeChambeau as being equivalent to his coach dipping into his wallet and giving $3.
“I know Bryson and I knew he didn’t really want to give the money and I certainly knew he didn’t want to give it for a long period of time,” Schy said.
At their next meeting, Schy said DeChambeau, who fronted the cost of creating the 501-C3 foundation, told him he isn’t a fan of non-profits and he needed to make money off the tour. Schy said DeChambeau agreed to give the money but as a non-recourse loan for the tour, adding he wouldn’t need to repay the loan.
“What does that even mean?” Schy asked. “It was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard.”
DeChambeau claims he was never presented a viable business plan, and DeChambeau’s agent, Brett Falkoff, a vice president in the golf division at GSE Worldwide, contends that the 501-C3 was set up incorrectly in the state of California and DeChambeau never signed any official paperwork.
“It is our understanding that initially, they had only filed the certificate of incorporation (not attached) with the California Secretary of State and had not prepared bylaws or any other organizational documents. After requesting copies of the bylaws, it appears they then prepared some form bylaws and sent the attached bylaws to Connor Olson [DeChambeau’s manager]. The bylaws provided were not consistent with the stated intent of the Tour and would not have been adequate to support the proposed Tour activities. At that point, Bryson authorized his personal attorney to prepare bylaws that were consistent with the stated purposes of the Tour and would permit the Tour to function as intended,” Falkoff wrote in an email. “The new bylaws were prepared, at Bryson’s expense, and were completed sometime in June along with the Line of Credit Note that would have allowed Bryson to fund the Tour’s initial operations. Once the revised bylaws were approved and executed, there were a few additional resolutions that would have been prepared related to the makeup of the board of directors and authorizing the signing of the note.
“It did not appear that an attorney was consulted about the process for forming the new entity, which is why the cleanup was necessary. It would have been irresponsible for Bryson to advance money to the Tour entity prior to getting the proper documentation completed and signed.”
Receipt of the certificate to Olson was received on March 6. A month later, they requested bylaws and other required documents from Schy and his fellow board member Brandon McQueen. On June 5, DeChambeau’s lawyer reviewed and prepared the revised bylaws and six days before he won the U.S. Open, a line of credit to facilitate the funding had been prepared.
Schy was planning on doing four or five junior tour events this year, but once DeChambeau started ignoring him he grew more concerned about how he could keep the tour afloat. He sought other means to do so but those fell through, too. Tournaments were scheduled to begin in mid-June and parents started wondering what was going on. Schy said he heard only from DeChambeau’s management. Falkoff confirmed that was the case and offered an explanation for the delay.
Mike Schy with an assortment of his homemade gadgets and training aids. (Adam Schupak/Golfweek)
“Had Bryson not won the U.S. Open and a million things hadn’t come up that we’re trying to sort through maybe something would’ve gotten done a little quicker,” Falkoff said. “We still had all the documents. I told Mike to be patient and he decided not to be patient anymore. He decided to go nuclear.”
Schy, who said he was told “his bark was worse than his bite,” felt he had no choice but to close the doors and go public with the story.
“It was looking bad that I was the one who made it fail,” Schy said. “In the end, it was me because I was relying on Bryson to see this through and help us get this really rolling. I was very clear that we needed him to go to the next level.”
Schy had worked with DeChambeau — a nine-time winner on the PGA Tour, including the U.S. Opens in 2020 and 2024 — since age 11 and was on the bag when DeChambeau won the 2015 U.S. Amateur. Schy traveled as his instructor for his first three seasons on Tour before they had a blow-up at the 2018 PGA Championship and DeChambeau hired Chris Como, and more recently Dana Dahlquist. But while they may have stopped worked together in an official capacity, Schy said DeChambeau always called him when he was desperate for help.
Schy said he’s had others reach out, offering to help get the junior tour back on its feet, and he’s made it clear that he’s simply looking for around $65,000 per year – “not a million” – and had no designs of taking a hefty salary as the executive director. Schy did the leg work but had no intention of running the tour. He said he had a former tour operator lined up to run the events and insisted he’s simply looking to teach golf and give local golfers a place to learn to compete like DeChambeau had as a kid.
DeChambeau sees Schy’s motives for being involved in the junior tour differently.
“He was using his placement in regards to my dad’s name to leverage a junior tour to be created so he could bring more kids out to his place, which I don’t care about. All I care about is doing the right thing for the Central Valley, which is what I want to do and I will continue to do in numerous facets,” he said.
To hear Schy tell it, the amount of money he requested should be a drop in the bucket for DeChambeau, who previously confirmed signing a deal to join LIV Golf for more than $100 million. Forbes estimated he earned $44 million last year alone, not to mention the $4.3 million for winning the U.S. Open last month. On this point, DeChambeau didn’t disagree.
“I can give that money tomorrow,” DeChambeau said. “The point is I want to make it sustainable. I don’t want to be divvying out money and giving it away fruitlessly. He said I hate non-profits, no, I said I hate the way they are usually run. That’s what I actually said. Everything I said is misconstrued and twisted in a way that is absolutely false.”
Schy has a pretty good idea — in his mind anyway — why DeChambeau backed out of the deal.
“Because it was me that was the problem. It could’ve been $10 and he still would’ve said I’m going to need to loan it to you. That’s really sad. All I ever did was help him no matter what.
“All I can say is I did an awful lot for that kid. Being on pins and needles for the last seven years, dude has literally almost killed me, and most of which was to protect him. I know some of the worst stuff imaginable, and now they know that my bite is a little bit worse than my bark. All he had to do was be a decent person and take care of the junior tour.”
Schy pointed out that this wasn’t the first time DeChambeau has had second thoughts on a deal they had agreed to. Schy said his original contract as DeChambeau’s coach paid him 10 percent for a win and after DeChambeau won the 2017 John Deere Classic he determined that was too much. When Schy reminded him he didn’t get paid at all when DeChambeau missed 14 straight cuts, DeChambeau shot back that he had paid his expenses.
“I don’t remember you paying my bill from PG&E,” Schy said.
Falkoff confirmed amendments to the contract were later made. Also, he noted that DeChambeau paid $450,000 for a down payment on Schy’s home in 2018. [Schy said DeChambeau loaned him $100,000 that he paid back as soon as the house closed.]
Schy also said that DeChambeau reneged on a deal to pay him $60,000 per year for the rest of his life after just six months, an agreement Falkoff said never reached paper. But DeChambeau’s memory of his arrangement with Schy is plenty sharp. Off the top of his head, DeChambeau quoted that he paid Schy a total of $959,000 while in his employ. [Schy said that figure is inflated and assumes it must include travel expenses, which would not count as income.]
Bryson DeChambeau hugs his caddie and longtime coach Mike Schy after defeating Sean Crocker 4&3 during the semifinals at the U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields (Ill.) Country Club.
U.S. Open snub damaged relationship
The hurt Schy feels runs deeper than money and it rose to the surface after DeChambeau won the U.S. Open and failed to mention him as he thanked various people during his winner’s press conference.
“If he would’ve just been nice enough to give me some credit I would just be thankful to be part of the deal,” Schy said, “but to ghost me, ignore me, and deliberately not mention me? This soaking balls in Epsom salt — he was asked, ‘How did you come about this?’ And you don’t talk about me at that point? It’s purposeful and calculated. Who do you think shows him all this stuff?”
Take, for instance, DeChambeau’s prized Krank driver, which he has credited for much of his success since putting it in his bag last summer after the British Open. Schy was getting his persimmon drivers refinished at Oughton’s Golf Repair in Carmichael, California, and store owner Doug Oughton happened to have a Krank driver sitting nearby as they talked about bulge and roll. Schy told DeChambeau about it and two days later, Schy had tracked down Lance Reader, the owner of Krank Golf.
“Three days later, he had a driver. Ten days later he shoots 61-58 (at LIV Greenbrier) and now his life has changed,” Schy said. “The only reason his life has changed is because he’s playing better golf. His whole world revolves around golf. If his golf is good, he’s good; if his golf is bad, he’s bad and everything in his world is bad. That is the essence of Bryson DeChambeau.”
DeChambeau had struck up a friendship with Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Tim Tebow, who read the Golfweek story and asked DeChambeau, “Is there anyone in the world that believes in you more than this guy? He’s saying you’re going to win a major this year. Is anyone else saying that?”
According to Schy, DeChambeau didn’t answer.
The world found out about DeChambeau’s bulge-and-roll irons at the Masters when he opened with 65 using a set of 3D-printed irons designed by a student of Schy’s named Tom Bailey, who took a trip from his home in England to Northern California to meet Schy in person. Bailey ended up staying in California and started a boutique clubmaking company named Avoda Golf out of the tent at Schy’s academy and, thanks to DeChambeau’s success, has expanded into a friend’s garage.
“I knew the driver was the first part and if we could get the irons rolling that was the final part. I knew there was something to it. It was just a matter if we can get it done in time,” Schy said. “I kept saying in January get the irons to the USGA now. Finally, Carter (Rich, senior director of equipment, rules and conformance at the USGA) sent the scans. They were non-conforming because of the 3D printing. It doesn’t layer so the plainer surface in the groove wasn’t smooth. All we had to do was smooth them out. That’s what Connor did on Monday at Augusta (to make them conforming).”
DeChambeau concedes that Schy gave him the initial connection to Krank Golf’s Reader but said he already knew him from his long drive days and developed that relationship on his own.
“I’ve said thanks numerous times for that (introduction). I went out to his tent and I’ve given lessons to the kids and been around,” DeChambeau said.
He also disputed Schy’s role in the irons, crediting Bailey for making them to DeChambeau’s exact specifications.
“I worked hard with him to build those irons, personally. Mike did not have input on those irons. I came up with the bulge-and-roll progression, personally,” said DeChambeau, emphasizing the final word of that sentence. “It didn’t work the first time. We came back with Tom and the second time it worked really well. He’s lying to you.”
Schy has always been a straight shooter and the hurt in his voice has never been more pronounced as the words continue to pour from his mouth.
“You would’ve thought I would’ve been able to come to him and say, dude, I need $60,000 to $70,000 for the next few years to fund this tour. He should’ve said, ‘Are you sure that’s enough?’ I’m thinking, ‘Why am I begging for money for this?’ I was totally uncomfortable. I should’ve been able to ask for $1 million and him going, ‘It’ll be in the bank tomorrow.’ Instead, it’s gotta make a profit, it’s gotta be this, it’s gotta be that. How about we get it off the ground first and then we decide what it’s going to be? How about thanks, Mike, for starting my dad’s tour. Nope.”
“He said I’m his second dad, right?” Schy said. DeChambeau’s father died in 2022. “He treats me just like his real dad. He treated his dad like shit.”
‘I always tell Bryson don’t single out anyone’
DeChambeau’s public transformation into “the greatest showman” reached a crescendo on Sunday at the U.S. Open as he mugged for the cameras, slapped hands with fans and extended a chance for everyone to touch the silver trophy. But when DeChambeau listed off those members of his team that helped him and left out Schy, that was the last straw.
“I always tell Bryson don’t single out anyone individually, always mention the team,” Falkoff said. “Then you don’t have to worry about hurting anyone’s feelings; Mike’s feelings got hurt, that’s ultimately what led to all of this.”
Falkoff called Schy the night of the U.S. Open victory, as was his custom, and said he was upset about the slight. Two days after DeChambeau had won his second major, just as Schy predicted, the former coach was still fuming and, according to the agent, called with demands.
“Mike says, ‘It’s time that Bryson opens up his checkbook and I get paid. I want $2 million,’ ” recalled Falkoff. “I took that back to Bryson. He said, ‘I’m not paying him almost 50 percent of my U.S. Open winnings, that’s not going to happen. I’m willing to compensate him for help with Krank and Avoda but he’s not going to extort me for $2 million.’ ”
Schy didn’t dispute that he asked for $2 million. In fact, he said he had a list of demands including reinstating his $60,000-a-year contract for the rest of his life that he had been promised — with backpay — as well as an apology.
“If you’re not going to recognize anything that I’ve done for you then Mike Schy has to look out for Mike Schy,” he said.
On July 2, Schy received a compensation offer, which he termed “a few bucks,” and a Non-Disclosure Agreement to sign. “I was offended,” said Schy, who rejected the offer on July 4.
“Oh, $300,000 is offensive?” DeChambeau said when told of Schy’s reaction. “Really, for not working with him since 2018?”
DeChambeau said he tried to resolve the situation and called Schy’s response unfortunate.
“I’m trying to take care of it like a good man,” DeChambeau said. “It’s unfortunate that he’s had to go to this position to try to take me down. You know what? It is what it is. It’s not true though, not one bit of it.”
There has been one other innocent bystander in this ugly breakup — David Schy.
“He fired my son, who he’s known for 20 years, who was building a putting green in his backyard,” Mike Schy said. “He’s mad at me, doesn’t even tell my son that he’s firing him.”
“We needed a clean split,” explained DeChambeau, who did so on July 5, after paying David for all his materials and anything outstanding at the time. “Having any ties to him after trying to extort me was necessary.”
Schy conceded that this breakup with his former prized pupil has taken its toll on him in the last six months.
“More than I thought it would,” he said, “and he doesn’t give a rip about it, which again, that’s exactly how he treated his real dad.”
“You know how he could fix this? He could make a call to me and say he’s going to fund it, keep the tour running and put out a statement that he made a mistake and he’s sorry. Then everyone would say he’s really changed. But that ain’t going to happen. Because it’s me. I don’t know what it is within him that he hates me so much and yet whenever he truly needs something that everyone is going to make fun of he always calls me. I wish I could figure that out. I’ve talked to people who understand what a narcissist is.
“You think he’s ever called me to just to see how I’m doing? He’s never done that. Never asked how the business is going. I had to understand what that is. I thought I can take it but I didn’t know I couldn’t. You can only be called the names I’ve been called so many times.
“Do you know how many times he told me I don’t know shit?” Schy said, taking a pause after finishing his dog walk. “I’m through being on pins and needles. No more.”
The question still remains: Why didn’t DeChambeau mention Schy’s role in his success? Was it really calculated?
“I forgot my trainer,” DeChambeau said when posed the question of why he left out Schy. “I had a lot of people to mention and I’m sorry for it but at the same point in time trying to go out and extort someone for $2 million is a lot worse than forgetting to say thank you to somebody. We could’ve had an easy discussion about this but instead, he called my agent in a frantic, asking for $2 million. So you make the choice of what you think is really going on. All I have to say is I paid the guy close to a million dollars and I think you can read the room pretty well in this situation. He’s clearly reaching out to demolish me and that’s not going to happen.”
It will take more than a phone call between the two to patch this relationship up but that might be a good place to start. After all, this is a classic tale with three sides to the story: there’s Schy’s version, DeChambeau’s version and somewhere is the truth.
“There’s a lot more to this and I don’t know what to say,” Schy said, knowing he’s already said enough.
Asked how he thinks DeChambeau will fare at the British Open next week, Schy didn’t hesitate.
