Bryson DeChambeau in the U.S. team room at the Walker Cup
USGA
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Bryson DeChambeau is everywhere. Not virtual Bryson DeChambeau, who lives so large on your favorite social media channels. The actual Bryson DeChambeau, former U.S. Amateur champion, former Walker Cupper, two-time U.S. Open winner. He was here at this 50th Walker Cup, at the Cypress Point Club. He was in the team room — that is, the U.S. team room — on Saturday. He was on the course all day Sunday.
“I just want to do whatever I can to support this great game of golf,” DeChambeau said Saturday afternoon. He stopped for a brief chat while walking down the first fairway, among the spectators. He was accompanied by Seth Waugh, the former CEO of the PGA of America. “For the rest of my life, that’s what I want to do.”
DeChambeau, frontman of LIV’s Crushers Golf Club, was a vision in blue and with his baseball hat low on his forehead he wasn’t immediately recognizable. Still, when fans asked for an autograph or a photo, he was happy to oblige.
He was asked about his experience in his one and only Walker Cup appearance, in 2015. Ten fast years ago. DeChambeau, then the reigning U.S. Amateur and NCAA champion, was by far the most decorated golfer among the 20 American and GB&I players. He didn’t play Saturday morning; he halved Ashley Chesters in Saturday afternoon’s singles; he and Robby Shelton won in Sunday morning’s alternate shot and, batting 10th, defeated Gavin Moynihan, 6 and 5, Sunday afternoon.
“We were at Royal Lytham,” DeChambeau said. “My first time playing links golf. Our captain was Spider Miller. I played great. We lost. But what an experience.”
GB&I 16.5, U.S. 9.5.
“Tiger played in one Walker Cup, and his team lost, too,” DeChambeau was told. That was in 1995, at Royal Porthcawl.
“Yeah,” DeChambeau said. He knew.
WATCH “CYPRESS POINT’S HIDDEN SECRETS” HERE:
Spider Miller — owner of Best Beers of Indianapolis, proud distributors of Budweiser and other sudsy products — was a good friend of Arnold Palmer’s. DeChambeau talked about the trip the U.S. team, led by Miller, made to see Palmer, in his lifelong home, Latrobe, Pa., before the trip to England.
“It was the last time I saw Arnold,” DeChambeau said. Palmer died a year later, shortly after the 2016 Ryder Cup. DeChambeau won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 2021. Afterward, he was asked to name his dream foursome. He came up with five: Bryson and his father, Ben Hogan, Moe Norman — and Palmer.
Palmer won the 1954 U.S. Amateur but never played on a Walker Cup team. Most, but not all, American winners of the U.S. Amateur do. Ricky Barnes, for instance, did not. Neither did John Cook. But Jack Nicklaus, like Phil Mickelson and other Hall of Famers, did.
DeChambeau said that Cypress Point “is my favorite course in the world.” (Nicklaus has often said that its neighbor, Pebble Beach, is his favorite course in the world.) He also said he loves team competition. He will be the only LIV player on the American team at the Ryder Cup later this month. DeChambeau grew up in Clovis, Calif., about three hours by car from here.
Nathan Smith, the American captain, saw DeChambeau on the 18th hole on Saturday. He said later, “That was the first time I’d seen him [in person] in years and my first thought was, ‘He’s gotten a lot bigger!’” Smith clearly was not at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in 2020, because DeChambeau has lost about a quarter of himself since then!
Later, DeChambeau offered a pep talk in the players’ room. This was on Saturday night.
“I didn’t see him until we were sitting on the couch in the team room and he just walked in,” the American golfer Preston Stout said. “Definitely wasn’t expecting that. That was kind of cool. He gave us a little pep talk, which was pretty sweet.”
Stout, the fourth-ranked amateur in the world and a star golfer at Oklahoma State, then offered this kicker to whole scene:
“Hopefully this gives him a little motivation and fires him up for the Ryder Cup in a few weeks.”
Kids.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.
Michael Bamberger writes for GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. Before that, he spent nearly 23 years as senior writer for Sports Illustrated. After college, he worked as a newspaper reporter, first for the (Martha’s) Vineyard Gazette, later for The Philadelphia Inquirer. He has written a variety of books about golf and other subjects, the most recent of which is The Second Life of Tiger Woods. His magazine work has been featured in multiple editions of The Best American Sports Writing. He holds a U.S. patent on The E-Club, a utility golf club. In 2016, he was given the Donald Ross Award by the American Society of Golf Course Architects, the organization’s highest honor.
