DeChambeau moves into contention at Quail Hollow by showing it's okay to crave attention

The 42

16-05-2025

IF THERE'S A lesson to be distilled from this second act of Bryson DeChambeau's career: it's okay to want to be liked.
Professional sport is not an arena in which you'll make many friends.
'I'm not going to try to be his best mate', replied Rory McIlroy this week when asked about DeChambeau's gripe that he hadn't said a word to him during the final round of the Masters.
We tend to dismiss any sportspeople who openly court public approval as vain and distracted, even if there's a nagging part of all of us arguing we'd be precisely the same in their position.
Stalking the fairways of Quail Hollow on Friday morning brought another bracing reminder as to just how popular Bryson has become, and how willingly he embraces it: his whoops and cheers were louder than any of those for McIlroy or Scottie Scheffler at the same time yesterday.
At virtually every shout of I love you Bryson!! today, he turned and said, 'Thank you.'
It's all part of his chase of attention and validation and he has been liberated by that chase.
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'He's the cool dude in golf at the minute', says his fellow LIV Tour member Tom McKibbin.
DeChambeau's route to affections has been to surf the boom in golf influencers, and he has quickly raced past a million YouTube subscribers. (A few of those influencers have been given press credentials this week and have been stopping for selfies as they walk inside the ropes. They have been getting more attention than the vast majority of the players.)
'I''m just learning to be myself and continue to be ok with what happens', said DeChambeau last year.
'From my perspective, what's been really nice and helpful for me is doing a lot of content on YouTube. As crazy as it sounds, it's been really awesome to see how I can affect a lot of peoples lives. Junior golfers, even middle aged men are coming and shouting 'Thank you for all the content, appreciate what you do online.'
DeChambeau has effectively found acceptance in a sport from which he had been ostracised. His enormous bulk and blithe belief in his own power was treated like a kind of heresy by golf's grandees, most obviously when he said he believed Augusta National was a par 67. He might as well have taken a shit in the fairway.
He has slimmed down since, and his major performances have become the exception to prove the LIV rule. As all of the other A-list defectors struggle to come out of their weekly lassitude to compete at the majors, DeChambeau has become the man for the big occasion, winning last year's US Open having finished second in the PGA Championship a few weeks earlier.
And today he hung tough to move himself into contention for the weekend at Quail Hollow. Having opened with a wobbly one-over 72, DeChambeau today found his groove to card a three-under 68, and found himself among the top 10 as he signed his card.
He began by ripping a 351 yard drive off the 10th tee to open with birdie, and there were times he was at risk of running out of course. The 14th hole is a downhill par four measuring 344 yards, and with the pin clinging to the back-left edge by the water, he had to club down to a three-wood off the tee to avoid flying over the green entirely. He found the front-left bunker but left his chip sufficiently short to be content with a par.
The frustration of a clumsy three-putt par on the par-five 15th was erased with a birdie on 16, and then bounced back from bogey on two with a birdie on three, which was followed by another pair of birdies on four and eight. Faced with a 10-footer par on his final hole, however, DeChambeau saw his putt drift past.
He spun sharply and loudly cursed himself in frustration before tapping in for bogey. Visibly dejected, he pulled his cap over his eyes and took a moment on the far side of the green before gathering himself to walk through his adoring crowds and back to the clubhouse.
He held out his arms to slap the tangle of hands outstretched from behind the barriers, albeit with much less enthusiasm than he had earlier in the day.
Perhaps that's the downside of all this cultivated love: it's hard work to always rise to the mood to meet it. Longer-term, all of this attention might just wear him out, under the principle that being universally loved can become a tyranny of its own.
But for now it doesn't matter, as the attention is giving him DeChambeau motivation to compete, and finding motivation on the LIV Tour is like striking oil. Take a glance down this leaderboard: Dustin Johnson is battling against finishing dead last, while all of Cam Smith, Brooks Koepka, Martin Kaymer and Phil Mickelson are bombing out, miles from the cut line.
DeChambeau, though, once again finds himself bang in the mix of a major championship.
As DeChambeau walked back across the putting green to the clubhouse with another day's adoration done, he passed Scheffler and McIlroy, both of whom were heading for the first tee, readying to walk their own tunnel of noise.
Though theirs was not going to be as loud as that of the man they passed.