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THE PRESIDENTS CUP

December 10, 2019

Bryson DeChambeau

Melbourne, Australia

Q. What's your first impressions of the experience here, the Presidents Cup so far this week?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It's been great. Captain Woods has been an in credible asset I'd say to the team, as well as a player. He has directed us beautifully. We know exactly what to expect. He knows what to say at the right moments in time. Keeps it short. Keeps it simple. We need to go do our jobs.

So last year, being a rookie, team events on a professional level, I didn't really know what to say or do. This year, I feel a little more comfortable in what to say and what to do and who I think would fit me best, and I'm comfortable with saying my peace. Compared to last year, I didn't know what to do yet.

This year, very excited and looking forward to a great week. Maybe a different week than last year.

Q. What's your first impressions of Royal Melbourne?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I've played here before. I played here as an amateur, finished third. It wasn't the same composite golf course we played this year. The par 3s, the seventh and fifth hole, possibly one of my favorite par 3s in the world. Those are some amazing holes. Just visually, it's intimidating, but it's fair. I love the golf course through and through. Played really well here.

Q. Going to Hazeltine and watching the American Team, how exciting it is it to be part of this week?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It's obviously an incredible honor to be able to represent your country. That's what I was able to do for the Walker Cup, the Palmer Cup and World Amateur. Came over here to Australia to play for Team USA. I had a great time. I loved competing in any team events, and I'm very competitive. I've done really well in match play, although Ryder Cup doesn't show what really happened. Unfortunately last year, I have a losing record every single match, which sucks, but it's okay. It's not a big deal. You're going to win some and lose some. Unfortunately I had a bad streak last year and hopefully I do better this year.

Q. Did you talk about the flight over?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It was definitely fun. I'm not going to give too much away because obviously privacy reasons, but at the same point in time, it was very comfortable. We had some tables up front that we can go sit in, give ourselves a break which was nice. Didn't have to sit in that chair the whole time. We had food. Everybody was on point with getting us food whenever we needed it.

Q. Did you talk strategy or anything?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: No. We were just trying to sleep. I mean, I got eight and a half hours are sleep that night, which was good for me. I tried to sleep.

I looked at the clock in Melbourne and tried to figure out how long I had to stay up until it was like 8:30 or 9:00 and I did that. So when I woke up on the plane, it was 8:00 a.m. I'm like, okay, perfect. I have a couple more hours to do whatever till we landed and it felt like a normal day. I was able to go to sleep at ten o'clock last night and woke up at 6:30. Just trying to figure out how to acclimate the best way possible.

Q. Wonder if you heard about the new slow play policy next year?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I have no idea what it's about. I'm honestly way past that. I don't even think about it.

Last week, I think everybody finished under the TV requirements. We were all fine. I was playing not too great, so I was always in the first group leading off and there was nobody waiting in the group behind us. I didn't play terrible, but just acclimating to this new body.

Q. Is it that hard?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It's a little weird. (Laughter).

I'm getting comfortable with it really quickly. Today was the first day where I felt like, wow, I'm okay, I'm back to where I was a year and a half ago in regards to ball-striking. Figured something out Saturday night after play. I went out to hit balls on the driving range and was talking to some people, what do I had to do to get it back to that form that I had.

Been through many iterations and literally gone in circles this past year and a half. Finally, I think we stumbled upon, okay, I was doing this a year and a half ago, I stopped doing it because of injury, so let's try and get back to that, stronger, bigger, so I could tolerate more. I did it today for the first time and in this wind, I had incredible control of my golf ball off the tee.

Q. What was the biggest change you had to make in your swing pattern, biggest thing you had to get used to?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: My wrist condition because I was able to turn the ball a lot faster and move a lot faster, my legs were stronger, too, my wrists couldn't support that. I actually had to get my wrists stronger. I had to train, do farmer walks, 70 pounds in each hand and move them like that when I'm walk to go get my grip strength up. Did a lot of pull ups with just the fingers, holding on with the palm, just doing a couple other things, inflexion, flexion stuff, internal, external rotation of the wrist. There were times where I would like -- it felt really weird and I hit a weird shot because my hands aren't strong enough.

I'm just trying to get strong is what I'm trying to be. I want to be able to tolerate any force that comes my way. The cool part, the best part is whenever I do feel something a little weird, I can actually go to the gym to fix it, whereas most people are okay to take a day off. That's a whole different philosophy that not many people take that approach because they are afraid of injuring. When you have knowledge and you know how to utilize it, it's very powerful and you can actually work out how to fix things in the right setting at the right moment in time. That's something that has been to me, I'm very blessed to be able to have it and have a guy like Greg Rothschild that can give me that information.

Q. How big is controlling the golf ball around this golf course?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: That's a great question. I mean, it's all it's about. It's an Alister Mackenzie design and you have to be on point with your ball-striking no matter what. It's why I like the golf course personally. It's why I like Augusta. You have to be strategic with it and play to the right side of the green, and if you don't execute your shots, you can get panelized heavily for it. That's the beauty about Mackenzie designs.

Q. How much time do you need to get comfortable?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, thanks to my caddie, Tim, and all the other caddies, they do a really, really good job of making sure we know starting lines and edges of fairways, run-outs, how much it's running out, if it's this much downwind, because we see other players that are playing and they are out there right now working, trying to figure it out. At least some of them are. I really have to rely on them a lot to get comfortable with the golf course. And then it takes me two rounds for me to truly be okay, I've got a good idea of what's going on. Now, the wind, we all know, two days, if it switches or whatever or it doesn't switch and then it switches for tournament days, we won't know what to do too much, but we'll figure it out. We're professionals.

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