Was LIV Golf Perfect For Bryson DeChambeau?

Bryson DeChambeau joined LIV Golf in 2022 out of form and struggling with injury, ultimately finishing his first season in 21st-place with two top-10s to his name.

He moved to the league for a reported $125m+ deal, which helped him secure generational wealth and allow him to invest in his dream of owning a driving range and golf facility.

It also helped him spend more time away from tournament weeks and focus on his new-found love for content creation and his increasingly popular YouTube channel.

But Bryson has become far more than a YouTuber in that time, with his game continuing to return to its peak, and it seems like the best is still yet to come from the former US Amateur and US Open champion.

Before and during his high profile move to LIV Golf, DeChambeau was not quite the fan favorite you would expect despite being an entertaining, big-hitting Major champion. He was often criticized for slow play and his unique outlook on the game, but he has now become someone the fans are well and truly rooting for.

At Valhalla, up against one of the PGA Tour's biggest stars in Xander Schauffele, it was DeChambeau who had the majority of the support with his big-hitting and excitable celebrations. This comes just a year after he was surprisingly booed by some spectators at Oak Hill in the 2023 PGA Championship. It's some turnaround.

Much of that will be down to his YouTube channel, where he has over 600,000 subscribers and more than 67m video views, as well as his continued good play in both LIV Golf and the men's Majors.

He's finished inside the top-20 in four of the last five Majors and inside the top-six in three of them. He also shot 58 last year to win LIV's event at the Greenbrier and followed it up with another win in Chicago before taking his team, Crushers GC, to victory in LIV's Team Championship.

"I've worked really hard to have people help hopefully understand who I am a little bit better. YouTube has been a great platform to help that out," he said.

"The Break 50 series are a lot of fun. I love doing it. It's a lot of fun. It's a challenge that's never been done nor accomplished without any strokes. So it just keeps my brain fresh and in an entertainment mode, and realizing what the game is all about, not just for myself and winning money or winning trophies but entertaining, as well. 

"Obviously we all want to win trophies. But being able to entertain the fans is what we're all here to do, and I think that's what's the most important thing."

Two years on, and his move to the 54-hole circuit looks to have been the perfect one for him.

The PGA Tour's strict media policies essentially meant he couldn't film inside the ropes, but his move to LIV has allowed him to film challenge matches against other big names as well as fewer tournaments and more time to film collaborations outside of tournament weeks with huge YouTube channels like Rick Shiels, Good Good, Paige Spiranac and Grant Horvat.

Reading between the lines, it seems that he credits his move to LIV Golf with his new-found fanfare and once again world class golf game.

"A lot more time. As funny as sounds, as weird as it sounds, having a lot more time back at home to work on my game, to work on content creation with my team that I have back at home allows me to plan and strategize a little bit better than what I have," he said.

"And like he said, I empty the tank when I'm at tournaments. So sometimes when I'm on a two-, three-week stretch I get pretty drained, and having that time to rest and recover is super important for me and it's given me a lot of time to reflect on what's most important outside of golf as well."

He is 22-under-par for the first two Majors this year and well back inside the world's top 50 after a huge jump following his 2nd-place at Valhalla. He'll be among the favorites to win his second US Open next month at Pinehurst, where he'll surely once again be a big hit with the crowd.