Bryson, welcome to Royal Portrush. How are the preparations going?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Good so far. I’m hitting it solid. The greens seem like they’re rolling pretty well on the practice greens. I haven’t been out to the golf course yet, but right after this, going to go play nine and see how the elements fare for my game and make some adjustments where I need to make them and continue to work my hardest to be prepared for this event.
Q. Bryson, your first Open was 2017. What have you learned about playing links courses, especially as it pertains to your game?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, you have to adapt very well. When I played the Walker Cup in 2016 — no, 2015. I think 2015. I don’t remember. It’s like 10 years ago. When I played the Walker Cup at Royal Lytham St Anne’s, I played really well. I shot 66 in the singles matches, and I played great golf. I felt comfortable coming over here in 2017, and then I just wasn’t prepared for the elements.
The times I’ve been over here, for some reason, my golf swing hasn’t been where it needs to be. Right now it feels as good as it’s ever been. Hitting it far, hitting it straight as I can, and learning how to putt better on these greens in windy conditions and rain and all that. It’s just figuring it out. It’s just going to take time and something that I never really experienced growing up in California.
Q. Last year at Troon, you were laughing when you said it, your quote was I can do it when it’s warm and not windy. Have things changed? Also, just on a tactical level, what do you need to do in links golf that’s different? Like shot to shot, what skills do you have to build up?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I think building up hitting it and using the wind, playing into the wind a lot more, not trying to ride the wind is something that’s pretty simple to talk about but sometimes difficult to execute when it’s a unique scenario, depending on where the hazards are and the bunkers are and trying to get a certain shot to a certain place, just being a little more strategic. That’s what we’re looking at doing this week is just try to be as strategic as possible and put the ball in a place where I can give myself good chances for birdie but also not give myself too many difficult places to play from is the goal.
Q. Dumb follow-up. Does it involve more thinking over the ball with each shot? Are there more things to think about?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Absolutely. You’re feeling the wind, how much it’s coming into you and if it’s off the left or right a lot more than normal. Okay, how do I feel? How do I turn this into the wind? If you’re going to try to ride the wind one time, how do I control and make sure it doesn’t go into a crazy place? Because once the ball goes into that wind, it’s sayonara. That thing can go forever offline. It will turn east sometimes.
But just having fun out here is what I’m trying to accomplish this week and being pretty strategic.
Q. People have a lot of different ways to describe the wind over here. Some guys have called it a heavy wind or a thick wind. I was wondering if you — if that makes sense to you, if there’s a way to quantify that, and how that’s different than somewhere else.
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I’m still working on that. We’re doing some testing right now, going to continue to working on how heavy — how different types of wind affect the golf balls. It’s something I’m working on on a personal project, and it’s going to take time to understand it.
From terminology, yeah, heavy wind is a great way to describe it. It’s thick. It just — okay, I’m not going to say that. You know, it’s one of those situations where you’re in the environment and you go, all right, this feels like a 15-mile-an-hour wind, and all of a sudden it plays like a 30-mile-an-hour wind, and you’re like, what the heck? So I think that’s the trick of it. If you grew up here, you play a lot of golf over here, you get quite comfortable and knowledgeable about that. I just need more reps in a sense.
Hopefully I’ve had enough reps to be able to do that. I played well in some windy conditions. Andalucía was a good test last week in the first few days. Played well. But again, the wind is different from there to here. We’ll see how it goes this week. Hopefully it stays warm and my body stays warm. But yeah, it is a thick wind.
Q. Something along similar lines, you said last year that you were blown away by the wind.
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, literally.
Q. This year you’ve had some really good rounds in the wind. Talked about Miami.
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Miami was a good one.
Q. And Valderrama was another. Did you — what kind of things did you try to do to become a better wind player? Given your scientific bend of mind, did you get into a wind tunnel and try to do things?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: This is going to be wild, but imagine a scenario where you’ve got a 400-yard tent, and you can just hit any type of shot with any wind with all the fans. That’s what I imagine, like in a hangar or something like that in a big stadium. That would be cool to test, one.
But two, all I’ve really done is hit more half shots and tried to play into the wind a lot more. If it’s a left-to-right wind, I’ll draw it. If it’s a right-to-left wind, I’ll try to cut it more often than not.
If I try to play with the wind, sometimes I lose control of the golf ball. That’s what I did; whenever I had a right-to-left wind and I was trying to hit draws, man, that thing would go forever offline.
Those are few things I’ve been working on. Wouldn’t it be cool to test in a massive wind tunnel? Yes, I’d for sure do that. I’d love that.
Q. What was your reaction to LIV’s renewed application for world ranking points? Is it something you were expecting, or had you given up on that? What are your general thoughts on the direction of the league three years in?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I think it’s great that we’re — I don’t know, do you guys think we should get points? I would say that we’ve got some pretty good players over there.
Going through the right process is important, and I think Scott and all of us are looking forward to going through that process and getting it done the right way. We’re excited for that.
Where do I think LIV is currently? It’s moving in the right direction. We’re commercializing. We’ve got some good partners aboard with us now. Is it taking longer than we would have thought? Yeah, but we’re okay with that. I think Scott’s okay with that, and H.E. is. I’m not going to speak for him, but I think he is too. We’ll see where it goes.
We’re excited to see with the new commissioner coming in and Scott and them being friends, I think there’s something that can get done in a good way for the game of golf. I’m really excited for the future of the game. There’s a lot of positive movement going on currently.
Q. You’re playing your first two rounds this year with Justin Rose and our own Bob MacIntyre. I know you congratulated Bob after his win last year in the Scottish Open. I’m not sure if your paths have crossed previously.
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: They haven’t.
Q. How impressed have you been, though, with the way he’s attacked, becoming one of the world’s elite golfers?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, it’s impressive. What he’s done to play in the U.S. and compete and contend is very impressive. Being a lefty and he’s got his dip of the head, it’s really cool to watch him play.
That’s why I think the game of golf is so cool because from any walks of life, any place, you can come play if you work hard enough. I think he’s shown that he’s an elite player, and it will be fun to play with him on Thursday.
Q. Do you think you’ll learn anything from him with his links experience over the next couple of days?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I plan to. I definitely plan to. I want to see what he does.
Q. Going back to the Official World Golf Ranking, what changes or tweaks to that application would you see being the most effective in potentially gaining world ranking points?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: That’s a great question and one I don’t know. I don’t know fully. I would say that there are definitely grounds upon which we can change some things. Definitely relegation for sure, more pathways into LIV. I think a global tour, more association to a global tour would be great for a feeder system into LIV. Those things, I think, could help quite a bit.
Albeit I don’t know the details, I think those are a few of the bigger points.
Q. Do you throw your opinion into these discussions on the table, or how does it work with these kinds of processes in LIV?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I’m not in the room when they’re talking about these instances, but I do give my feedback to Scott when I can. We talk quite a bit, but not directly about that. About a few other things that are important as well, but obviously the world ranking points is huge.
I think it’s big for us to have these players that are just jumping onboard still collect points. They are deserving of it. They’re playing some incredible golf every week, and I think having a system in place for us as players would benefit the ecosystem of the game tremendously, especially for fans.
Q. Have you made any equipment tweaks to your bag setup this week for the conditions you’re going to face?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I’m trying to, but I just can’t find something right now that’s a big enough difference for me to put it in play. I tried some golf balls, tried a 3-wood. There’s not really much.
If anything, I could put in a driving iron, but I don’t know, I’m not sure yet. I’ve got to go play the course and see what fits.
There’s some times where I could hit a super high 5-wood downwind and stop it soft on the green. That would be quite useful. But into the wind it’s not, so it’s kind of a give and take. I haven’t really changed much this week yet.
Q. Two-part question related to LIV scheduling. Jon Rahm over the last couple of years may be a bit critical about the lack of a links course on the LIV tour. And also some rumblings of a LIV New Zealand event coming on board. Have you been there, and would you like to see that?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: New Zealand is a beautiful place. I would love to go play golf in New Zealand. I don’t know where we’re at with that, but I would be excited to play there.
I think that playing a links style golf course is what we need to do. There are some hindrances to that currently that I think is pretty public. I don’t know if it is necessarily, but it’s difficult to play links golf courses currently under what’s going on.
I think at some point we’ll be able to do that in the next few years. Until then, we’re just going to have to ride it out, but we definitely want to. We’ve thought about that from the inception of it. Getting it onto a links golf course has been nearly impossible.
Q. I like that idea of playing in a hangar or a dome.
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I do it every day in my head. A bunch of nothing going on up there.
Q. What scores would you guys shoot if you did? So every par-3 is 175, every par-4 is 450, every par-5 is 550; there’s no conditions.
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: And no trouble really?
Q. No trouble.
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Okay. Par 72?
Q. Par 72.
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Let’s see, elevation — no, I’m kidding.
(Laughter).
I think you’d have guys shooting close to 60. You look at Palm Springs, right? That’s pretty much like a dome sometimes in the mornings, so they play really well at LaQuinta and whatnot. That would be kind of the same likeness, I think. You’d have guys shooting close to 60 every day, a few of them, and there would be some 72s and 73s, but if you’re playing well, you could shoot 65 or less pretty easily.
Q. I guess the related question would be like, okay, how much — there’s all these obstacles that that is what a golf course is, right? There’s all this stuff that we put in the way, all these challenges, but how much is it those obstacles versus just basic execution of the golf shot? Does that make sense?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I would say that there’s a little bit of luck involved too, right? You pull it, and it bounces off of a round of bunkers that are going in it that day and whatnot, so there’s a bit of luck that plays into it. For the most part, if you put us on a stock normal golf course, like one of my public golf courses in my public golf course series, there’s some golf courses that are almost more difficult because the greens are not as good.
There’s more factors too as well. If they’re perfect greens, my gosh, we can shoot close to 60 if it’s a Tour-caliber golf course. If it’s not as conditioned, it becomes difficult for us to roll it in the hole just because of luck. So there’s numerous factors that play into it for the conditions, but from an execution perspective, give us a normal Tour course in those conditions, we’re shooting under 65 quite a bit.
In my public golf course series, there’s times where I literally shoot 1- or 2-under par because I just get some bad breaks and bad bounces and I’m not putting well. It’s nice to humble myself a little bit. I think I’m pretty good when I go out there, and then all of a sudden I shoot 3-under, and I’m like, oh, my gosh, what am I doing with my life? It’s still 4-under, but that’s the way I think about my game when I go play public golf courses.
Q. Bryson, what was your thought process in the return to the Avoda irons?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: For me, I had built the L.A. Golf irons, and we just made the wall thickness a little different. Just for some reason, well, I know why, they were just coming off a little hotter. So we’re working on building the new set to where it’s the same wall thickness, and I’ll put those other irons right back in play.
They’re doing great. Everything else was flying straighter, doing everything I wanted, from the sole interaction, you name it. It was flying over the greens at Oakmont, and that ultimately cost me making the cut, which was disappointing for me.
Q. In terms of the time frame, do you think you’ll be in these L.A. clubs in time for the Ryder Cup?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: For the Ryder Cup, 100 percent. Yeah, I’ll have — I’ll most likely, very good chance I’ll have a different driver and new irons in the bag for sure.
Q. Do you feel any pressure to play well here this week for Keegan to maybe solidify your —
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I feel pressure every week to play good for not only Keegan, but myself, and the people that I love online and everybody that’s watching me. I absolutely feel pressure.
Q. Extra pressure, though?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I put enough pressure on myself already. Yeah, for my country, for the game of golf, like, yeah, I do, but I’m excited for the challenge. It almost — it makes me more excited. When I feel those nerves, I’m like, okay, let’s go. It’s like I’ll walk through the fire rather than run away from it for me.
Q. Not unrelated to that, Bryson, it seems like you’re in a very good and very happy place, possibly professionally the happiest you’ve been in your career so far. Is the good golf as a result of the happiness or is the happiness a result of the good golf?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I think it’s just being more comfortable in my own skin. I’m not happy every day. Some days it goes up and — you know, working them in. I struggled a little bit last week the last day, and I just had a good team meeting and solved some stuff. I just feel like I’m in a really good spot right now with everything going on and where I’m headed with equipment and life in general and business, my health and whatnot.
I’m just grateful as well. Yeah, nothing’s ever smooth. There’s always stuff going on behind closed doors. For me, from the golf perspective, I’m pretty happy with what’s going on.
Q. Links greens are typically larger and slower than the greens you guys play on most of the time. Do you have an opinion on whether that suits good putters, or does it help worse putters?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I just look at the smoothness of the green. They could be slow; they could be fast. As long as they’re smooth, the best putters will win. That’s all I care about. As long as this week the greens are smooth and they’re not bouncing and moving all over the place, the best putter that feels the wind the best is going to win. That’s what I would attribute to good golf as well.
So to kind of answer your question, I think it’s more of, if the greens are smooth, yeah, the best golfer will win on any size green on anything. If they’re slower, faster, you got to be able to adapt to be a great putter.
Q. I have two teenage sons who are huge Bryson fans, and every teenage boy I know is a huge Bryson fan now. Have you seen a difference in fans’ attitudes to you now compared to Bryson 1.0, to Bryson 2.0 post-YouTube?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I think people see a different side of me on YouTube. I’m still the fiery, want to go, competitive go-getter that I’ve always been, but seeing a different side of me on YouTube where I can have fun, I can enjoy, I try to relate to others as much as I possibly can has been fun to show.
I personally care about the game and the health of the game, and as time goes on, I’m not going to be here forever. What footprint do I want to leave? I think it humbles me and almost makes me more passionate about what I’m doing off of the professional golf course because of the likes of what you just said. That’s what continues to inspire me, continues to make me want to go film content and create and be the person that I know I am.
Now, does that bring in other factors of expectations and whatnot? Yeah, you’ve got to be able to deal with that, and that’s where the pressures that he was talking about, right? There’s sometimes more outside of it. It almost gives me more perspective on that. For me, I always go back to what footprint can I leave now? I’m not going to be here forever. I’m not going to win every tournament.
Yeah, am I going to get frustrated playing bad golf? Yeah. Am I going to want to still sign autographs? Yeah, because I care about the game. Ultimately that’s the footprint I want to leave is inspiring a future generation to play this great game that we all, every one of us love.
Q. Are you ever surprised with the reaction you get when you come to somewhere like here?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, it’s fantastic, just screaming and yelling your name. It’s really fun. It can be overwhelming, but it’s fun. It’s a lot of fun.
Q. Scottie was in here earlier talking about how the bunkers here, you’re not going to see as much at some other links courses where you have a leg sticking out, the same shot in the bunker, two guys have completely different shots. One gets really punished; one’s a pretty easy bunker shot. Just curious your perspective on predictable outcomes. Does it bother you when two of the same shots get different outcomes, or is it something you embrace as part of a links challenge?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It does bother me, but I also understand it. That’s the game we’re playing. You’re going to get bad breaks, I’m going to get good breaks, vice versa. It’s just going to happen.
Staying out of those bunkers — they’re hazards for a reason. Staying out of those bunkers is the number one priority. Whether it’s fair or not, man, that’s such a subjective thing. It’s not really objective. You can’t strokes gain it really. You can, but it’s really perspective based. This week for me I’m trying to bring in a good perspective.
We all have perceptions about it, but I want to have a good perspective on it saying, look, it’s going to happen. Things are going to happen.
I think Scottie’s point is valid, yeah, it is different, but at the end of the day we’re all playing this game with the same relative conditions. You’re going to get lucky, and maybe I’m not going to get lucky, and that’s just the way golf is. Whether it’s fair or not, it’s very subjective.
