Two-time major winner Bryson Dechambeau does an interview before attempting to replicate his 58 years at Greenbrier LIV Golf
Bryson, how far have we come, how fast did you expect us to be when we arrived after only 100 rounds at LIV Golf?
I didn’t know exactly where we would be after 100 rounds, but I can tell you that the ideas behind it, especially when I had the discussions back in 2022 and where this was going to go, I expected there to be a lot of progress, but the progress has been incredibly good, in everything we’ve done, everything what each team, the players, have done to make this league what it is now is amazing.
As I look at the five-year vision, the 10-year vision, I just see this thing exploding here in the near future.
When people start to see the real value we bring, that intrinsic value will grow over time, which I’m happy about. I’m waiting for that kind of domino effect, to start falling in that cool way that we’re seeing here at LIV, especially with the team aspect.
It feels like — very high-level golf but you feel like you have a family out here and some really good friends who can help, I guess you could say, make everybody better.
That’s what I’m interested in seeing how that continues, how it evolves, the sponsors who come in, the people who are a part of it, who want to be a part of it.
To see that potential there, we just have to go after it and find it because it’s right there for the taking, and I’m very happy with the 100 rounds and how it went.
Obviously I won a couple, and the Crushers did well, and we won the team championship, and I’m very proud of the guys. That is what we intend to do.
But we want to keep doing that. We want Paul, Baan, Charles to keep pushing forward and I’ll keep doing my job, and that’s what I’m happy about, and hopefully it will push these guys in other teams to keep pushing forward, too.
Let’s talk about that 58 last time you played here at the Greenbrier. This is where he shot a 12-under 58, which was the lowest round in LIV Golf history. Your 23-under combined wins remain the lowest among all LIV Golf champions.
I won’t go too deep into it, but I can tell you that it was the day my life changed for the better for sure. I used to struggle with my golf game, not really understanding how the job was done either. It had been a while since I felt like I had done something.
I played well at Valderrama, I did well at the PGA, but still I felt like I had it to win.
Coming here last year, I had this new equipment, a driver that I felt like I was going to be able to hit a lot straighter, and that ended up being a lot different for me to be more comfortable in golf. Yes, hit straight with the distance I had.
It was going long and straight, and having the wedges be greens and having a good wedge game that week and making a lot of putts. It all worked out in the end and the way I’ve seen it happen in the past.
That’s what started me the way I was playing this past year, I started winning the US Open this year and continuing to play golf at a high level.
I couldn’t be happier that this place started because I’ve always loved it. It has always had a place in my heart. Shoot, it’s one of those things where you get here and it just feels like home, and that’s what I felt last year. I was very relaxed.
The 58, I don’t know how to describe it. I guess you could just say he’s a little darker. One of those times on the last four holes I tried to win the tournament, but it started to rain and I kept focusing on my game.
I never got out of this bubble that I created for myself and I wanted to focus on hitting the next best shot. I think that’s what pushed me to obviously focus on winning the tournament but I shot in the 50s and obviously made a 40 footer on the last hole for a 58, that was the cherry on top.
What a special moment, a special place in my heart forever, and probably the biggest scoring round, if not – the biggest scoring round of my life, but maybe one of the most important moments of my entire life.
YYou shot 58, you didn’t make an eagle, you suffered one bogey. Can you foresee a time when you might break 58? Is that within the realm of possibility at some point in your career do you think?
Well, I’m trying to break 50 on my YouTube channel. But I can tell you that you break 58, I’m sure someone will do it one of these times at some point.
We are much better now. There will be a time when everything comes together. David Duval was one of the first, Al Geiberger was the first, Mr. 59, then David Duval and others have done it since then, and it’s starting to get a little easier.
It’s like runners breaking I think the 4 minute mile; it was one person who broke it, and the next year there were 12 or something like that.
I feel like that opens the door, and with Joaquín shooting a 59 this year, you’re starting to see it more. I believe there will be 57 at some point, maybe even 56.
I think the 57 has been shot on some tours before, but it will just fit over time. We’re pretty good now, and it’s fun. If you’re in that mindset and you’ve got that, oh, we go down and do everything, these guys know, that’s why we do it. That’s why we play golf.
Bryson, you mentioned Break 50. You’re going to release another one today. It got about 20 million views, I think, total, of all the Break 50s ever. What is it about that particular series that you think has become so popular?
I think first of all, it’s a really interesting challenge. I was just talking to Phil yesterday about it, he was saying, man, I thought this was going to be too easy for the top players. I’m like, no, it makes your drive more difficult because you’re trying to drive 15 yards to the green, and you have to make an eagle – well, relatively speaking. -72 you have to do it five times.
You have to make five eagles, and sometimes not every par-5 out there is where you can drive and hit a wedge up there. The par-3s are the hardest part of the challenge because you’re over 100 yards and you’re trying to get uphill for a birdie, not an eagle like you would on a par-5.
He was like this, man, I never thought it would be this hard while we were there playing. It was like, yes, this is the real deal. It’s not a joke. We are trying to break 50.
It really changes the way you think about the game of golf in that there are so many different ways to play the game. You can challenge yourself in many ways. This Break 50 challenge is almost impossible to do. It’s almost impossible.
Part of your other feature is the content we are able to create from. There are so many different cool moments, hitting the golf ball off the tee, one-liners, whatever. It’s a fun piece, too, so you have that content of us trying to break 50 and the content of us being who we are, and it shows our personality a lot, and I think that’s what’s unique and cool about it.
It just exposes golf to the younger generation on YouTube and gets more people into the game of golf.
My goal in all of that is to bring viewers, young viewers, to LIV Golf, to the clubs, to all of us here, and I think that’s an important part of it that a lot of people don’t understand is trying to reach a new generation of potential golfers. That’s what LIV does. That’s what I’m trying to achieve alongside LIV and LIV as a partner, too.
It’s a symbiotic relationship where we can express the game of golf in a really cool, unique way.
Is there one favorite moment that sticks out in your mind, from all of your submissions?
To be honest, my favorite moment was the first one we actually did. My opinion on that is only based on the fact that I did it the first time with Garrett Clark, and we had a chance to do it on the last hole. We just had to go for eagle on the last hole and we would have done it on this golf course.
Now, it was a short golf course, a really easy golf course. He hits a lot of par-4s. But still, we had a great opportunity to break 50 on the official golf course.
We didn’t do it, but again, it reinforced the fact that although this challenge was real and possible and I want to do it with anyone and everyone who wants to be a part of it. I think that was a really good moment in that first video we ever did, Garrett Clark.
Since this is the semi-final tournament of the season, isn’t it nice to have something to say about how comfortable the environment is at the end?
Anytime you get to a place and feel comfortable, that’s good for any of us. I know Bubba and Patrick, they love this place, and so do I. I feel like it’s a comfortable place, and that only helps the reality of going out there and being in your name and playing your game and playing well. because he is just free.
There are times when I go on the golf course and I’m not comfortable, and I’m like, why am I not comfortable. Things are not easy; it’s not easy. I have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get to the driver’s seat or do this, that, or whatever.
It creates additional stress that you don’t need and can be harmful. It doesn’t mean it will happen, but sometimes you feel uncomfortable and your week doesn’t go as planned. Whenever you find that comfort here, it just allows us to explode and come down.
We touched on 100 rounds of golf played with LIV and what has been done over the past few years. Can you talk about the level of respect maybe for outsiders who come with that and grow LIV but also get respect from those who maybe doubted you in the beginning?
I mean, I’ll talk about that. I’m staying at a friend’s house this week, and it’s been great to see the change from individuals in the community here. Not only respect but also understanding. I think there is a difference in understanding what we are trying to achieve. It’s not one thing or anything. It’s here to stay, and we’re here to provide great entertainment, here to inspire, and hopefully educate people in a new format that will keep them interested in every single shot we hit.
I think that’s the best and the impact we can make in the community, and, seeing how much we’ve done for the Greenbrier and being able to help this community on a whole other level is what LIV is all about.
With your success, do you have plans to have a second channel where you’ll bring more golf content that goes into the grass roots of what you’re doing in the lab, if you like?
There are future plans for that. We want to continue to grow that audience and inspire a new generation, keep it up on my main channel. On the second channel there are always those options, especially in different languages and so on. That’s a completely different option that we’re looking at, too.
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