It wasn’t all that long ago that Bryson DeChambeau was on the path to revolutionizing golf.
He bulked up and looked more bodybuilder than golfer. He trained his body to hit 350-yard drives. He overpowered the ferocious Winged Foot Golf Club on his way to a U.S. Open title. For a moment, DeChambeau’s blueprint looked like the future of golf.
The fad didn’t last.
Injuries soon caught up to DeChambeau. A broken bone in the hand. A torn labrum in the hip. His play dropped off not long after, and then he bolted for the lucrative LIV Golf league. His play in the upstart league didn’t inspire much confidence. He finished no better than 10th in the inaugural season, and he dropped out of the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
The golfer who was destined to change the sport had all but disappeared.
As DeChambeau continued to toil on the LIV circuit, he revealed that he regretted bulking up over the past several years. Not long after, many noticed changes to his physique. The beefy golfer who made countless headlines transformed into a leaner, skinnier version of himself.
“I lost 18 pounds in 24 days,” DeChambeau said after finishing his first round in the PGA Championship Thursday. “It was crazy.”
The man who once downed 5,000 calories like he was an Olympic swimmer totally reversed course. He reduced his daily caloric intake by 2,100 calories and took a deep dive into his optimal nutrition.
“I took a Zoomer peptide test, which essentially tells what you inflames your blood when you eat it,” DeChambeau said. “I was allergic to corn, wheat, gluten, dairy. Pretty much everything I liked, I couldn’t eat. I took that out. Started taking it out in August and over the course of time I’ve lost all this inflammation, lost a lot of fat and slimmed down like crazy.”
The slimmed down DeChambeau arrived this week at Oak Hill looking to reverse a trend of lackluster showings at majors. Since his U.S. Open title, he’s recorded just one top 10 at a major. Through 18 holes, the results are promising.
DeChambeau fired an opening-round 66 at Oak Hill, carding six birdies and two bogeys to take the early lead at the year’s second major.
“It’s a fantastic round of golf,” he said. “I was able to play some really good golf, hit a lot of fairways, did my job and made some putts.”
With a revamped body and healthier lifestyle, DeChambeau has found it easier to commit time to becoming better on the course. One of the benefits of a new body is increased energy to hone his craft.
But even as he’s lost some body mass, he’s not lost the swing speed that became his calling card.
“The fast twitch stuff is still there,” DeChambeau said. “I don’t really have to do much to get to 200 ball speed.”
