Background and career
Bryson James Aldrich DeChambeau ( də-sham-BOH; born September 16, 1993) is an American professional golfer who plays on the LIV Golf League. He formerly played on the PGA Tour, and has won two major championships, the 2020 and 2024 U.S. Open. As an amateur, DeChambeau became the fifth player in history to win both the NCAA Division I championship and the U.S. Amateur in the same year. With his U.S. Open victory he became the third player to have won those three championships, after Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. Renowned for his analytical approaches to the sport, DeChambeau has acquired the nickname "the Scientist". His clubs are specially designed to his specifications, with thicker than normal grips and irons that are all the same length. In 2020, he became the longest driver on the PGA Tour.
DeChambeau was born on September 16, 1993, in Modesto, California, to Janet (née Druffel) and Jon Aldrich DeChambeau. His full name is Bryson James Aldrich DeChambeau, with James being his middle name and "Aldrich DeChambeau" constituting two surnames. He did not find out he had two surnames until he was 14. DeChambeau's father was an accomplished amateur golfer who had a brief career as a professional. He later became director of operations at Riverbend Golf Club (renamed Dragonfly Golf Club) in Madera, California. DeChambeau has a brother named Garrett Wolford, who is 12 years older and was once a talented baseball player. At age seven, DeChambeau moved to Clovis, California. He attended Clovis East High School and won the California State Junior Championship at age 16 in 2010. He graduated in 2012 and accepted a scholarship to play for the SMU Mustangs at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where he majored in physics. DeChambeau wore an anachronistic flat cap while on the golf course due to his admiration for Ben Hogan and fellow SMU alumnus Payne Stewart. In June 2015, DeChambeau became the first SMU Mustang to win the NCAA individual championship, recording a score of 280 (−8) to win by one stroke. In August, he won the U.S. Amateur title, defeating Derek Bard 7 & 6 in the 36-hole final. He became the fifth player to win both the NCAA and U.S. Amateur titles in the same year, joining Jack Nicklaus (1961), Phil Mickelson (1990), Tiger Woods (1996), and Ryan Moore (2004). DeChambeau made his PGA Tour debut as an amateur in June 2015 at the FedEx St. Jude Classic near Memphis, Tennessee, and finished in 45th place. The following week, he played in his first major championship, the 2015 U.S. Open held at Chambers Bay. He shot 74-75 to miss the cut by four strokes. DeChambeau was unable to defend his NCAA title in 2016 after the SMU athletic department was handed a postseason ban by the NCAA, due to recruiting violations under former head coach Josh Gregory. Due to SMU's post-season suspension, DeChambeau decided to forgo his senior season to play in a number of professional events. He retained his amateur status to avoid losing entry to the Masters Tournament, which he received due to his U.S. Amateur victory. At the 2015 Australian Masters in November, he finished runner-up, two shots behind Peter Senior. He was the low amateur at the 2016 Masters Tournament, finishing in a tie for 21st place.
Immediately after the Masters in mid-April 2016, DeChambeau turned professional and signed a long-term agreement with Cobra-Puma Golf. He made his pro debut days later at the RBC Heritage in South Carolina and tied for fourth, earning over $259,000. The decision to turn professional meant the forfeiture of his exemptions to the U.S. Open at Oakmont and Open Championship at Royal Troon, but DeChambeau qualified his way into the U.S. Open and tied for 15th place to earn over $152,000, improving his world ranking to 148. Despite the strong start, DeChambeau did not earn enough non-member FedEx Cup points that season to qualify for a 2017 PGA Tour card but did qualify for the Web.com Tour Finals. He was successful at earning his card through the Finals, due to a win at the DAP Championship.
On July 16, 2017, DeChambeau earned his first PGA Tour victory by winning the John Deere Classic by a single stroke over Patrick Rodgers. He carded a round of 65 in the final round to win his maiden title in his 40th start on tour. The win gained DeChambeau a place in the 2017 Open Championship, which took place the following week. At Open, he missed the cut after rounds of 76–77 (+13). On June 3, 2018, DeChambeau won the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, in a sudden-death playoff against Kyle Stanley and An Byeong-hun, after the three finished regulation play tied at −15. After Stanley bogeyed the first hole of sudden death, DeChambeau proceeded to win with a birdie on the second hole, giving him his second victory on the tour. On August 26, 2018, he won The Northern Trust for his first playoff victory and, in the process, established a new record for the tournament when held at the Ridgewood Country Club – with a score of 266 – besting the old Ridgewood record of 270, which was set in 2014 by Hunter Mahan. The following week, DeChambeau won at the Dell Technologies Championship played at TPC Boston in Norton, Massachusetts, with a final score of −16, two shots clear of Justin Rose. This put him over 2000 points ahead of second place player Dustin Johnson in the FedEx Cup rankings. This margin secured him top seeding at The Tour Championship, regardless of his finish at the BMW Championship. This also marked his fourth win on the tour, third for the year, and second in a FedEx Cup playoff event. At the Tour Championship, DeChambeau finished 19th out of 30 participants. As a result, he fell to 3rd in the FedEx Cup, winning $2,000,000. In September 2018, DeChambeau was named as a captain's pick by Jim Furyk for the United States team participating in the 2018 Ryder Cup. Europe defeated the U.S. team, 17½ points to 10½ points. DeChambeau went 0–3–0. He lost his singles match against Alex Norén.
On November 4, 2018, DeChambeau won the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas, Nevada. The win was worth $1,260,000 in prize money. The win brought him to number five in the Official World Golf Ranking. On January 27, 2019, DeChambeau won the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in Dubai, UAE. DeChambeau claimed his maiden European Tour title by producing a closing 64 to win the tournament by seven shots. In December 2019, DeChambeau played on the U.S. team at the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia. The U.S. team won 16–14. DeChambeau went 0–1–1 and halved his Sunday singles match against Adam Hadwin. Beginning in late 2019, DeChambeau set out to add muscle mass in order to increase his swing speed and hit the ball farther. He added 20 pounds before the tour's break due to the COVID-19 pandemic and another 20 during the break. When the tour resumed, he quickly moved to the lead in driving distance. On July 5, 2020, DeChambeau won the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, Michigan, by three strokes over Matthew Wolff. In the final round, DeChambeau shot a 7-under 65 at Detroit Golf Club, birdieing four of the first seven holes and closing with three consecutive birdies. He finished at a career-best 23-under 265. DeChambeau came into the week with six straight top-eight finishes and was the only player with top-10s in the first three events after the restart from the coronavirus. In the second round of the 2020 Memorial Tournament in July, DeChambeau's second shot at the 15th went out of bounds under a fence. He argued that only part of the ball was out of bounds, and he should be allowed to play it, but PGA Tour rules official Ken Tackett ruled against him. DeChambeau asked for a ruling from a second official, who confirmed the initial ruling. He went on to shoot a quintuple-bogey 10 on the hole and miss the cut. In August 2020, DeChambeau briefly held a share of the lead during the final round of the PGA Championship; he went on to finish in a tie for fourth place, his first top-10 finish in a major championship. Six weeks later, at the 120th U.S. Open at Winged Foot, he came from two strokes behind at the start of the final round to win his first major championship. His six-under par total gave him a six stroke victory over Matthew Wolff. He was the only player under par in the final round, with a three-under par 67 and the only player to finish under par for the tournament. With the win, he became the third player in history, after Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, to win the NCAA Individual Championship, the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Open during a career. The win moved him to number five in the Official World Golf Ranking, matching his previous best, which he had first achieved in November 2018. In March 2021, DeChambeau won the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Florida. He shot a final round one-under 71 to defeat Lee Westwood by one shot. After shooting an opening round 1-over 71 at the 2021 Open Championship, DeChambeau placed blame on his driver, saying after the round, "That's what I said a couple of days ago; if I can hit it down the middle of the fairway, that's great, but with the driver right now, the driver sucks". That comment drew the ire of Ben Schomin, a tour operations manager for Cobra Golf who caddied for DeChambeau at the Rocket Mortgage Classic two weeks prior. Schomin told Golfweek, "It's just really, really painful when he says something that stupid. He has never really been happy, ever. Like, it's very rare when he's happy". DeChambeau would later issue an apology on Instagram.
In August 2021, DeChambeau shot 27 under-par at the BMW Championship in Owings Mills, Maryland, but lost on the sixth hole of a sudden-death playoff to Patrick Cantlay. In September 2021, DeChambeau played on the U.S. team in the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin. The U.S. team won 19–9 and Dechambeau went 2–0–1 and won his Sunday singles match against Sergio García.
