Bryson DeChambeau returns to defend U.S. Open title as golf's YouTube king
OAKMONT, Pa. — Bryson DeChambeau returns to the 2025 U.S. Open as the defending champion and golf's YouTube king, at least among the pro ranks.
From his 2 million YouTube fans watching him try to "Break 50" with the likes of Donald Trump, various influencers and athletes to joining Johnson Wagner as he tried to reproduce his remarkable bunker shot at 18 at Pinehurst No. 2 during Golf Channel's "Live From," people love DeChambeau's content creation. The latest example was on display at Oakmont, site of this week's 125th U.S. Open, when DeChambeau showed up for a practice round on May 31 and filmed every shot. It was riveting stuff that no other player had done before.
'He's done a heck of a job using social media channels to connect with viewers, connect with golfers, and show his true personality because I think he probably didn't do a great job of that early on in his career,' NBC's Kevin Kisner said.
ESPN's Scott Van Pelt took his analysis of DeChambeau's reboot as a YouTube star – he's got nearly 3 million Instagram followers and another 2 million on TikTok, too – one step further.
'I think he's now kind of figured out where he wants to be. He's almost reinvented himself in some ways,' he said. 'He's grown as a human, it seems to me. Last year he came and sat down in the Butler Cabin with me on Thursday and Friday, and he's been sort of this — he's played very different characters in a movie. It's almost like he's been many different versions of himself.
'And when he sat and visited with me last year, I just remarked to a number of people, he just seems like a different guy. He seems more at ease with himself. I don't know if it's the tour he plays, I don't know if it's just part of growing up, which is part of all of our lives, but he seemed comfortable, entirely comfortable with himself.'
DeChambeau, 31, finally is becoming comfortable in his own skin, and YouTube has helped him let his guard down, he said, 'showing the fans a side of me that was locked up for so long.'
'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,' he explained. '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.'
DeChambeau has said he's taken a page out of the playbook of MrBeast, whose viral content are the most-watched videos on YouTube. Asked whether any of his peers have turned to him for advice on how to launch a YouTube channel, DeChambeau highlighted Phil Mickelson. Lefty said he'd always seen what he called the playful, fun, intelligent and interesting side of DeChambeau.
'He's able to showcase that and not have who he is be filtered by a middle person,' Mickelson said. 'He controls what content he puts out there and what he wants to shoot and so forth. So his personality comes out. It's been remarkable to see the evolution of it and the way the public has responded to him because he's always been like that. It just hasn't been able to be noticed, I guess, properly.'
In discussing the tips he has passed along to Mickelson, DeChambeau said he reads the comments section and tries to give the people what they want.
'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,' he said.
Major champion. Long driver. YouTube star. A case could be made that the latter has become what drives DeChambeau.
'It's a new space. I'm learning how to become a little bit more entertaining,' he said. 'It's not just golf, golf, golf, trying to win every tournament....That's really what gets me up in the morning and gives me a lot of passion for this game."
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: U.S. Open 2025: Bryson DeChambeau, the YouTube star at Oakmont
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