[Essay]
The Soft Power American
Bryson DeChambeau has a lot of power. If you’re unfamiliar with him, then, as The Dude says: “obviously you are not a golfer.” He has won two US Opens, famously the hardest test in golf, but is most known for being able to hit a golf ball farther than just about anyone on the planet and for his YouTube channel which has nearly 3 million followers. He plays on the LIV Golf tour — a breakaway league bankrolled by the Saudi Public Investment Fund and thought by many to be an attempt by the Saudi government to “sportswash” the country’s image and poor record on human rights — where he is far and away the most popular player. He is also close with President Trump, and was appointed chair of the president’s fitness council. Just last week, DeChambeau was competing in a push-up contest on the White House lawn and joined the president in the Oval Office to announce the reinstatement of the Presidential Fitness Test — an event that occurred coincidentally only a few days after the Saudis announced they would no longer be funding LIV Golf.
If Trump, who famously eschews physical exercise because he believes in the battery theory of the body, seems an unusual champion for the Presidential Fitness Test, that’s because fitness is unlikely to be where he is focused. Tellingly, in his first term he signed an executive order to move “sports” ahead of “fitness” in the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition — the administrative body charged with promoting healthy lifestyles and, until Obama retired it, administering the fitness test. Few know better than Trump what connections in the sports world can do to bolster your reputation and expand your business opportunities. And while Trump’s dalliance with the UFC might have helped put him back in the White House, his true love has always been golf. In DeChambeau, he may have found the perfect playing partner.
Known early in his career as a mad scientist for playing the game according to calculations that broke with golf’s orthodoxies, DeChambeau’s approach to the game both intrigued fans and players and rubbed them the wrong way. Unable to break through in the biggest tournaments due to what he saw as a lack of distance, he radically transformed his body and swing to become the longest hitter in the game. These changes drew increased attention and helped him win the US Open in 2020. However, while more people were certainly watching, he didn’t seem to be winning many of them over. Speaking with reporters after his US Open win, he seemed unable to articulate what the achievement meant to him and instead took the time to thank his many sponsors. When a reporter asked what the word was on his father’s shirt, DeChambeau said, “volition”, which appeared to be a profound moment until he went on to explain that it was part of Puma’s Freedom line.
After his US Open win, DeChambeau was the biggest name in golf. He was like a real life Happy Gilmore who had all the shots — and could putt. But unlike Happy Gilmore, the huge crowds that followed him seemed more interested in taunting him than cheering for him. Frustrated with his life and image on the PGA Tour, DeChambeau started posting behind-the-scenes content to YouTube — a move that apparently ruffled the feathers of some of the Tour’s higher-ups. When it was announced that Saudi Arabia would be bankrolling a new tour designed to highlight the more fun aspects of the game over stiff country club traditions (“Golf, but louder”), DeChambeau was among the first big name players to leave the PGA tour and join — reportedly signing a contract worth $125 million.
Players who left for LIV became pariahs to the PGA Tour and were questioned by the media about the morality of accepting such enormous sums of money from a country known for its human rights abuses. Most players would avoid the subject, instead repeating the litany on the importance of “growing the game.” DeChambeau did his best to defend his employer. In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlin Collins, he called reports implicating Saudi Arabia in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi “unfortunate.” He went on to make the case that the Saudis are trying to be better allies and ended by suggesting that “nobody is perfect.” For DeChambeau, the partnership with the Saudis was working. He was allowed to focus on his YouTube channel where he promoted LIV Golf and had started building a large following by leaning into the tactics used by popular social media influencers. When he won the US Open again in 2024, he was the crowd favorite.
After the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, Trump too found himself a pariah in the world of traditional golf. And like DeChambeau, he found a home in LIV. When the board of the PGA Championship voted to move the 2022 tournament away from Trump’s Bedminster golf club, he invited the upstart LIV to host a tournament there instead. Trump has since been a vocal proponent of the league, helping them break into the American market by hosting and attending a number of tournaments at his golf courses along the East Coast. It is somewhat ironic, then, that the financial impact of the Iran war Trump started might have been a factor in Saudi Arabia finally deciding to pull the plug on the league.
It’s estimated that the country has already sunk $6 billion dollars into the league and profitability, if that was ever the goal, is nowhere on the horizon. Despite this, DeChambeau was rumored to be seeking a contract extension in the ballpark of $500 million dollars. While preparing for last week’s LIV event at Trump National Golf Club in D.C., DeChambeau told ESPN reporter Mark Schlabach that he was “shocked” by Saudi Arabia’s decision. When Schlabach asked DeChambeau what he would do if LIV folded, he said he would focus on growing his YouTube channel rather than try to rejoin the PGA tour.
To get a sense of what it might look like for one of the top golfers in the world to forsake his legacy to pursue a career as a content creator, you can go to DeChambeau’s YouTube page. His top video is one he filmed last year with President Trump at Bedminster. It’s part of a series where he and a guest play a round of team golf, each hitting a shot from the same place and taking the better of the two shots until the hole is finished. In the video, Trump proves himself a capable golfer. DeChambeau regularly commends the president for his drives and approach shots, while, with a few notable exceptions, the pair decide to take DeChambeau’s shot on nearly every occasion. Riding around in a presidential golf cart, the two talk about Elvis, trees, and their love of golf. On the 18th hole, after Trump sinks a long birdie putt to tie the all-time series record, DeChambeau falls on his back smiling up at the unexpected result. He can’t believe what just happened. He’s just hoping that you can.
