Bryson DeChambeau Q&A: LIV Golf Star Discusses Majors, Equipment, Career Future

[Editor’s note: The following article comes from Athlon Sports’ 2026 Golf Annual magazine. Order your copy online now, or pick one up at newsstands and retail racks nationwide.]

Through talent, force of personality and a popular YouTube channel (2.6 million subscribers at press time), Bryson DeChambeau has weathered the storm of LIV controversy that has consumed professional golf since the upstart Saudi-backed league began in 2022. Instead of fading into obscurity like many of his LIV counterparts, DeChambeau has seen his popularity explode — despite the fact that most American fans only really see him a few times a year.

Athlon Sports had a chance to sit down with DeChambeau at the end of December — a busy time in DeChambeau’s life and career.

A lot was going on with LIV Golf: A format change from 54 to 72 holes was announced, teams changed personnel, and Smash GC team captain Brooks Koepka decided to leave the league after four years and return to the PGA Tour.

With all that swirling, DeChambeau, who is in the final year of his LIV contract, had a lot on his mind.

Athlon Sports: Obviously, there’s a lot going on with LIV, and you are in a contract year. How do you approach that?

Bryson DeChambeau: I think about it as an opportunity for us to get more aligned. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. But that’s really the way I think about that. It’s actually not much different than when you’re trying to get sponsors, or whatever, when a sponsorship is expiring or coming up, some people will do the same thing. They’ll shop around; they’ll do all that stuff. And that’s what normal sponsors do. But for me, it’s more like, can we get more aligned, and that’s the end of it. Does it make sense or does it not?

Athlon: Looking at it from a personal standpoint, what are you trying to accomplish? And do you see it as a positive or negative that Brooks Koepka has left? (Koepka returned to the PGA Tour for 2026, and on Christmas Day, Talor Gooch was named Koepka’s replacement as captain of Smash GC.)

DeChambeau: Oh, man, I don’t know. I’m not him, and he’s got his own beliefs and wants and needs, right? I’ve said this before, but he wants something different.

For me, I think it’s an opportunity, ultimately, for the league and for our teams. I think there’s an opportunity for Talor [Gooch] to come in there and run it differently. Anytime a door closes, another one opens, right? Sometimes the door closes harder, sometimes it closes soft, and it’s one of those situations that hopefully it’s better in the end.

Athlon: How do you feel about your team this year? (DeChambeau is captain of the Crushers GC team.) You didn’t make any changes.

DeChambeau: I’ve never made a change. Once Ban [Anirban Lahiri] got on board in Boston [in August 2022], it’s been the same, so they’re just great guys, they’re awesome, and they’re hard workers, and they care a lot. They want to be the best they could possibly be.

This past year really stung, with us losing, Jon [Rahm] beating us, and Tyrrell [Hatton]. [Rahm’s Legion XIII won the season-long team competition over Crushers GC.] It was frustrating because we were the better team. No doubt about it. It just didn’t happen at the end. It’s one day, one day of stroke play. That’s the beautiful part about the team championship: It’s so difficult.

Athlon: Are you comfortable with the change from 54 to 72 holes?

DeChambeau: I’ll decide that when I start getting into the season. I don’t know yet. We’ll see how it all plays out. I think there are pros and cons to it. You could obviously define the pros as being more screen time, more visibility, potentially more opportunity for ad space for Fox and whatnot. I think getting us ready for major championships, maybe a little bit more. And the cons are international travel. And how difficult it could be on that type of schedule, but those are just some of the pros and cons of it, and we’ll see. It is what it is. I just roll with the punches nowadays.

Athlon: When you left to go to LIV, were there certain things that they said they wanted to try to accomplish? Fifty-four holes was one of the things they were saying was a benefit and a positive. Now, all of a sudden, they seem to be morphing more and more towards what the PGA Tour looks like than what they were trying initially.

DeChambeau: Yeah, I’d say that there’s new management involved, and they view that as a better opportunity for the league in general, and we’ll see how it plays out. I don’t lead that ship, right? So that’s a question you’ll have to have for Scott [O’Neil]. I’m just here playing golf and trying to do my best to win major championships and win as many LIV Golf events as I possibly can.

[Editor’s Note – Scott O’Neil is the CEO of LIV Golf and started in the new role on Jan. 15, 2025, replacing Greg Norman.]

Athlon: All right, so let’s get back to your team. Where do you think you may have fallen down a little from a team aspect, and where did you personally fall as the captain? And what are you going to try to do differently in 2026 to make up for those shortcomings?

DeChambeau: It was more of me not having my A-game like I had when I shot 58 in 2023. I’m still trying to get back to that feeling that I had when I shot 58. I mean, golf was really easy. Those few days were the best golf I ever played. If I have that during a major, I really do feel like I can conquer any of the majors. And so that’s what I need to work on, personally, is getting back to the 58 feeling. I’ve been working on it with Dana [Dahlquist, swing coach] and my caddy, G Bo [Greg Bodine], and Sportsbox AI [which provides AI-powered motion analysis], and we figured out a couple of things recently that’ve made it super simple again. So it’s just about getting back to what I know I can do with my swing. And then [team members] Paul [Casey], Ban and Charles [Howell III] are all hard workers.

Athlon: One of the issues I know you’ve had is getting your equipment right. Where are you on that?

DeChambeau: You’ll see a full new bag starting this year.

Athlon: How much time have you had to work with the new equipment?

DeChambeau: I’m building it. So, it’s probably been three or four months now. That’s every club in the bag. Realistically, it’s been two months, but we’ve gotten to a really good place in the last couple of months. So, I’ll have stuff. You’ll start to see some stuff here soon.

Athlon: I think the last time that I saw you play competitively was at the 2025 Ryder Cup at the end of September. So, you’ve taken what has basically been the last three months off. What do you spend your time doing if you’re not playing competitive golf?

DeChambeau: I’m filming a bunch of YouTube content, so that’s actually keeping my game quite sharp. Funny enough, people don’t think that, but I was telling somebody the other day, it’s G Bo actually, we’re doing a course record series, and he’s always thought, oh, YouTube’s fun. It’s just a hit and giggle sort of thing. And then we’re doing a course record series, which will be unveiled here in the next couple of weeks or so, which will be fine to talk about. And it was really cool because he, for the first time, was like, whoa. I feel so much pressure right now because I had to make a few putts to get to where I was going for the course record video, and he’s like, this is the middle of a round in the middle of December, and I’m nervous right now. He’s like, ‘How is this possible?’

This is what gets me ready for tournament golf. It’s not gambling, it’s not going out and playing with buddies. Like, this is the purest form of golf, because you’re trying to accomplish something that’s nearly impossible, and so you create that internal pressure yourself. So, for me, that’s kind of what I do, to keep ready, and then I’m also building something on the side that’s quite exciting. It’s more business-related.

Athlon: Obviously, you’ve done well financially. Does that level of success make it easier for you to be able to get involved in business deals? Because you have more control than you would have if you were going to somebody and trying to get the money?

DeChambeau: Yeah, there is that aspect. I’m very diversified. Let’s say that we’re not over-diversified, but we’re making different bets, right? And so for me, it’s nice to have that extra currency, I guess you could say, but again, it’s more of, what good do you do with it? You can talk about creating wealth and creating value in different capacities, but what do you do with that?

And I think in the next couple of months, you’ll be seeing what’s going on and how much value we will be providing towards golfers, lowering the barriers to entry in golf. I mean, that’s what I’m very excited about. You’ve probably heard about some AI stuff, and there are some really exciting revelations that we’ve been able to build this offseason and help lower that barrier to entry.

Athlon: So, is it fair to say — Bryson DeChambeau, golfer-slash-entrepreneur? Is that where you are?

DeChambeau: Yeah, content creator as well. Content creator, entrepreneur, professional golfer.

Athlon: The majors this year are Augusta, Aronimink, Shinnecock and Royal Birkdale. What are your feelings on those four venues?

DeChambeau: The Masters, obviously, is something I’m very excited for. We’ve got a couple of good things in the fire with that.

[Editor’s Note: After this interview, DeChambeau made his first 2026 trip to Augusta. We asked him what he hoped to accomplish in January: “Getting my mindset focused on the goal,” he said. DeChambeau confirmed that he would make one or two more trips to Augusta before the Masters.]

Athlon: When you say a couple of good things, can you share some?

DeChambeau: Yeah, just a better understanding of wind, a better understanding of my equipment and lies. I’ll be practicing for a lot of different lies this year, and how the wind affects them off the different lies. So I’ll be better at judging slope. It is my goal to go into it, and iron play is the most important besides the putting. Iron play is the next most important thing at the Masters, so focus on that with the new equipment.

Then, you have Aronimink, which is exciting. I played there after I won the two FedEx Cup events in a row. I didn’t actually play that well, but it was wet that week, and I was struggling with the wet golf ball stuff in the past. So that’s gonna be a fun test of golf, but I like the golf course itself. I think it fits me really well, much like a Ridgewood almost kind of feel.

Then you have Shinnecock, which is a great test of golf. I think again, it comes down to iron play this year. Whoever’s gonna be the best putter and iron player this year, I think they’re going to do great in the majors.

And Birkdale is the same sort of thing, putting is key. And then iron play is huge at places like that. So I really think iron play is the story of the year, and I feel like it actually sets up really well for Scottie [Scheffler], but that’s something that I’m looking to be a heavy contender as well.

Athlon: Are you comfortable with where the ball is?

DeChambeau: I have to be. I can’t do much about it. All these companies own all the patents to it, so it’s kind of tough to make your own golf ball.

Athlon: We talked briefly one time about compression differences. All the balls have different compressions. Have you spent much time looking into that?

DeChambeau: Oh, yeah. I mean, that’s a huge factor. I’ve talked to everybody about different compressions, different aerodynamic packages, spin rate packages, and launch packages. So we’ve gone over every single component of it. It’s to a place where it’s continually being worked on, but I think that you just have to work with what you have, especially with players with fast swing speed.

It’s difficult; we don’t have the luxuries of knowing what golf balls do. It has super-fast speeds, and that’s always been a struggle of mine. But luckily, I got a robot now with testing and doing some fun stuff around it, so hopefully we’ll figure something out here this year, but I don’t know yet. We’re not certain. We’re just testing golf clubs right now.

Athlon: A lot of people have said a lot of complimentary things about you coming out of the Ryder Cup. I’m sure you’ve seen them or heard about them. Can you just talk a little bit about the Ryder Cup, looking back on it?

DeChambeau: I can tell you I cared, and I really cared for us doing as well as we could. And, although we didn’t do our best and we didn’t win, it’s an honor. Is it frustrating? Obviously. Could I have done better? Yes. I felt like we just drew a tough hand, and they made all the putts. And sometimes that’s how the game goes. We saw them making a lot of putts early, and we’re like, ‘Oh, crap, this is not good.’ We knew we would be OK. And then it just started to get out of hand from how many points they were winning early on, like, ‘Uh-oh, this is not the right avenue.’ And we finally started to get our feet underneath us on Sunday. And I can tell you, they wouldn’t have wanted to play us the next day.