He has been a tinkerer, savant, enigma, star, agent of change, pariah, ambassador, influencer and, now, inexorably, Bryson DeChambeau is a two-time United States Open champion. Less than a decade into his professional career, DeChambeau has produced the most unlikely in a series of reinventions: jovial fan favorite who is shaping the game in his own image. He didn’t just win the 124th U.S. Open, he overwhelmed it with a persona as outsized as his drives. The fist-pumping, mean-mugging, baby-kissing DeChambeau did the unthinkable, stealing the crowd from perennial fan favorite Rory McIlroy.

With his vaunted driver misbehaving during a taut final round, DeChambeau, 30, tamed fearsome Pinehurst No. 2 with his too-long wedges and weird putting stance and things that can’t be measured on a Trackman—heart, guts, cojones. The game’s king of content is engaging a new generation of fans while taking his place alongside the all-time greats – the World Golf Hall of Fame recently moved to Pinehurst and DeChambeau might as well have walked across the street after the trophy ceremony to claim his locker. He now has two U.S. Opens, a U.S. Amateur and NCAA championship, nine PGA Tour and two LIV Golf wins (insert winking emoji), to say nothing of 705K YouTube subscribers. Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods are the only other players to have won a U.S. Amateur and multiple U.S. Opens.

On Sunday, with huge crowds in a frenzy and Pinehurst teetering on the edge and the entire sports world mesmerized by a thrilling duel between two of the game’s biggest personalities, DeChambeau looked like he was actually having fun. He plays with a newfound lightness of being that allowed him to shake off a missed four-footer on the 15th hole, a gaffe that could have crushed a lesser man.

Indeed, McIlroy played far superior golf to DeChambeau for most of the final round. When Rory birdied the 13th hole, he was two clear of the field and four-under on the day. Over his last decade of vexing futility in the major championships, McIlroy has often been shaky with the putter in crunch time but, to that point, he was pouring in 25-footers like it was his birthright. On the 16th hole, still nursing a one-shot lead, he missed a 30-inch putt—until then, he was 496-for-496 inside of three feet this season—and something broke loose inside of McIlroy. He made a series of nervous swings coming home and then, on the final green, his putter turned into an anvil as he bricked a 3-foot-9-inch putt for par. That will take its place among the most ignominious short misses in golf history, alongside the screwups of Doug Sanders (Old Course), Scott Hoch (Augusta), Davis Love (Oakland Hills), Stewart Cink (Southern Hills) and Dustin Johnson (Chambers Bay).

Hard on the heels of McIlroy’s bogey, DeChambeau went from the native area to a bunker 55 yards short of a back flag but produced what he called “the shot of my life,” leaving just under four feet for glory.

Unlike McIlroy, he met the moment.

So now the golf world must reckon with the fact that DeChambeau is its biggest star and potentially most dominant force. He was one of the behind-the-scenes founders of LIV Golf and thus he and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler have played in the same tournament only three times this year; DeChambeau has beaten him twice, including his runner-up finish at last month’s PGA Championship. “I have no doubt that Bryson is the best player in the world,” says Charles Howell III, admittedly a little biased as one of DeChambeau’s teammates on LIV Golf.

In America, there are few things more powerful than winning and DeChambeau’s victory completes a remarkable redemptive arc. Money helped lure every player to LIV but DeChambeau, a nonconformist and a contrarian, also hungered for a fresh start after feeling estranged from his peers on the PGA Tour. “A lot of my time out there was difficult,” he told me. “I was trying to get on the [Player Advisory Committee] for six years and it never happened. You get voted onto it by the other players and nobody liked the way I thought. I felt I had an interesting perspective on a lot of issues. I’d love to have been part of it but they didn’t want me.”

As one of LIV’s key signees, he took plenty of abuse on social media and in the press but no one has been happier on the renegade tour. DeChambeau was given a team to captain and the cohesive atmosphere he worked so hard to create led to the Crushers winning LIV’s team title in 2023. “The PGA Tour is by definition a lonely place,” says Howell. “On LIV, Bryson found a family. Now he has a support system and we’ve been there to help him grow and mature. We’ve all watched him become more comfortable in his skin.”

DeChambeau’s sunny attitude was helped greatly by a return to good health after a broken hand and the subsequent rebuilding of his golf swing. “I dug myself out of a pretty deep hole,” he says. With his restless mind, DeChambeau has been eager to pick the brains of his veteran teammates, including Paul Casey and Anirban Lahiri. “They’re wise individuals—a lot wiser than me. They’ve taught me how to play certain shots, how to think through certain situations, little tricks on the greens. Nuances I never knew about.” At LIV Hong Kong, in March, DeChambeau found Howell in the practice area and confided that he was unhappy with his bunker play. They spent the next hour and a half working side by side, including on awkward 50-yarders that were pretty much the exact shot DeChambeau conquered on the 72nd hole at Pinehurst.

DeChambeau has also been buoyed by his embrace of social media, particularly his fun-loving videos on YouTube, where he has displayed a winning goofiness and ability to laugh at himself. DeChambeau’s videos (such as when he tries to break 50 from the forward tees) have attracted such a wide audience that Taylor Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce recently rang about making content together. Bryson blurred the line between competition and entertainment even at the august U.S. Open, shamelessly playing to the crowd. He used the roars like rocket fuel during his Saturday 67, during which he bullied young phenom Ludvig Åberg off the tee. DeChambeau took a three-shot lead that gave him a crucial cushion. He credited his showmanship at Pinehurst to having learned to be himself on camera. “For whatever reason, YouTube just brought it all out of me,” he says.

The pyrotechnics of Saturday and craftiness on Sunday were a testament to DeChambeau’s range. Across four days at the U.S. Open, he gained more strokes with his putting than his driving. “When Bryson first came out on Tour, he was not a very good putter and he will tell you that,” says Howell. “The fact that he has been able to transform himself into one of the best in the world is the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. He takes a weakness and makes it a strength, all across the board. It’s a testament to his work ethic and his belief in himself.”

Conviction seemed to be the biggest difference between the champion and the nearly-man who left Pinehurst with his 21st top-10 finish at a major since his last victory(!). McIlroy was self-contained and largely emotionless even when things were going his way on Sunday, as if girding for the worst. As soon as he grabbed the lead on the back nine, he looked like he began playing not to lose. In the Pinehurst parking lot, six-time major champion Nick Faldo diagnosed the problem. In 1996, at 38, Faldo had a chance to steal a Masters from Greg Norman but he hadn’t contended in the cauldron of a major championship in years. “The mental demands were exhausting,” Faldo said. “On every shot I had to have these conversations with myself. ‘The wheels are falling off.’ No, they aren’t. ‘You can’t hit this shot.’ Yes, I can.‘ When I watch Rory trying to win these majors now, I know he is hearing the same voices. When he looks down at the ball, how much doubt is there inside? One percent? Five percent? It doesn’t take much to be the difference between and losing.”

The brutal denouement will certainly leave a bruise. McIlroy peeled out of Pinehurst without speaking to reporters, which was a tactical mistake. From Norman at Augusta to Phil Mickelson at Winged Foot to Tom Watson at Turnberry, the gruesome losses are leavened by the humanity of the vanquished. It won’t help McIlroy (or golf fans) if he turns to stone.

Meanwhile, on Sunday night DeChambeau was relishing his new role as the prince of Pinehurst. It was past 11 p.m. when he stood on the lawn of a stately home belonging to Bob Dedman, the owner of the Pinehurst Resort. DeChambeau was being toasted by USGA President Fred Perpall, Pinehurst President Tom Pashley and other members of golf’s ruling class. The new champ soaked it all in while wearing a perma-grin. Finally, he said his goodbyes and slid into the passenger seat of his courtesy car. I said to DeChambeau, “I feel like you’re going to enjoy this one a lot more than the first one.”

“Oh, yeah,” he said, cradling the trophy on his lap. “The fun is just beginning.”

Top Photo Caption: Bryson DeChambeau stole the show at the U.S. Open. (GETTY IMAGES/Jared C. Tilton)

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