by Two years ago on the weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Bryson DeChambeau grabbed the attention of the golf world, and arguably the larger sports world. After hinting that he would attempt to carry the entire lake on Bay Hill’s par-5 6th hole, the beefy five-layer DeChambeau stepped up and did the damn thing, blasting his tee shot 370 yards. He did it again during the final round and went on to win the event by one stroke over Lee Westwood.
Injury prevented Bryson from playing in the 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational and his jump to LIV in the summer of 2022 means that he may never return to Bay Hill in competition. While he’s undoubtedly one of professional golf’s most frustrating irritants, he drives interest, for better and worse. There is no one who can fill the Bryson shaped content hole besides the man himself.
DeChambeau was noticeably less present in the 2022 golf conversation after jumping ship to LIV Golf – he was injured and relatively inconsequential in competition, both in LIV and at the majors. Unless something drastically changes in the pro game, it seems possible that we won’t see a lot of him on the biggest stages moving forward. With his future nebulous, I was compelled to look back at all that’s gone down with Bryson in the relatively short time since his iconic (even NFT-iconic) tee shots at Bay Hill.
March 7, 2021 – Bryson DeChambeau wins the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
March 23, 2021 – Bryson created his own line of NFTs, remember those? The only one that gained any traction was, ironically, the item with him raising his arms after carrying the lake at Bay Hill.
March 28, 2021 – One of the guys that lives (lived?) in Bryson’s TikTok house released this unsettling video of DeChambeau doing leg extensions with the U.S. Open trophy.
April 6, 2021 – He brags about how he can carry the bunkers on No. 5 at Augusta National, even with the length added to the beefy par 4.
April 11, 2021 – Bryson finishes T-46 at The Masters.
April 12, 2021 – Bryson withdraws from the RBC Heritage. The event had brought out cranes to hold up extra netting on the Harbour Town range after Bryson had previously yolo-d balls over the standard netting and into an adjacent hole and homes.
May 7-8, 2021 – Bryson thinks he missed the cut at the Wells Fargo Championship so he charters a private plane from Charlotte to Dallas on Friday night. He did not miss the cut and took another private plane back to Charlotte early the next morning.
May 24, 2021 – Following the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, footage leaks of Bryson walking behind Brooks Koepka during an interview with Golf Channel. The video was immediately scrubbed from the internet.
June 4, 2021 – Bryson DeChambeau reportedly has fans kicked out of the Memorial Tournament after they yelled “Brooksy” at him. Koepka makes a social video egging on the “Brooksy” chants and offers free beer.
June 20, 2021 – Bryson heads to the 13th tee at Torrey Pines with the U.S. Open lead. He finished T-26.
July 1, 2021 – Tim Tucker, Bryson’s longtime caddie, quits or “amicably parts ways,” before the first round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
July 15, 2021 – Following the first round of the Open Championship at Royal St. Georges, Bryson says his Cobra driver “sucks.”
July 25, 2021 – Bryson tests positive for COVID-19 and withdraws from the Tokyo Olympics. Patrick Reed replaces him. Bryson later says that he “didn’t want to take a vaccine away from someone who needed it.”
August 29, 2021 – Patrick Cantlay defeats Bryson in a wild finish at the BMW Championship. As Kevin Van Valkenburg wrote for ESPN, it felt like Bryson was also battling the crowds at Caves Valley and has to be separated from a hostile heckler after the playoff.
September 24-26, 2021 – Bryson hits a 417-yard drive on the par-5 5th hole at Whistling Straits during the Ryder Cup and then drives the par-4 1st hole later in the weekend.
September 30, 2021 – Bryson makes it to the final eight of the 2021 Long Drive Championship in Nevada.
November 26, 2021 – Brooks Koepka easily defeats Bryson in a 12-hole edition of The Match in Las Vegas.
January 19, 2022 – The Saudi International sent out a press release to announce they’ve built a fence on the Royal Greens driving range because of Bryson’s “monster warm-up tee shots.”
January 27, 2022 – Bryson balls allegedly broke the windshields of multiple caddies’ cars at Torrey Pines because he kept hitting it over the range net.
February 5, 2022 – Bryson withdraws from the Saudi International after one round due to injury.
February 14, 2022 – Bryson denied reporting from No Laying Up that he was leaving the PGA Tour.
February 20, 2022 – Bryson sends out a statement that pledges his loyalty to the PGA Tour.
March 23, 2022 – Bryson returns after two months off with a poor performance at the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play.
April 2, 2022 – Bryson competes alongside Dude Perfect in an “All-Sport Challenge” at Augusta National.
April 14, 2022 – Bryson has surgery on his left wrist.
June 8, 2022 – The Telegraph reports that Bryson DeChambeau is joining LIV Golf.
July 2, 2022 – Bryson plays his first LIV Golf event in Portland.
July 17, 2022 – Bryson finishes T-8 at the Open Championship at St. Andrews.
August 3, 2022 – Bryson is among a group of 11 LIV players who sue the PGA Tour. Just three players — Bryson, Peter Uihilein, and Matt Jones — remain listed on the suit.
September 18, 2022 – A rope viciously attacks Bryson during a LIV event. He survives.
October 1, 2022 – Bryson finishes runner up at the 2022 Long Drive Championship.
November 22, 2022 – Bryson admits that his dramatic weight gain in order to add club head speed wasn’t the best idea.
February 10, 2023 – Cobra and Bryson part ways and Golfweek has an article with some pointed quotes from Cobra representatives.
February 26, 2023 – Bryson’s LIV team, The Crushers, win for the first time. DeChambeau is yet to finish better than T-10 in any LIV event.
