U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2021

June 18, 2021

Bryson DeChambeau

Torrey Pines Golf Course

Flash Interview

Q. Bryson, what was the difference between yesterday and today?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I think I caught a couple more breaks today. I drove it pretty well for the most part, and I capitalized in certain areas. Made a great eagle on 18, great shot on 16, and then when I missed it, I was able to get up-and-down a few more times than yesterday. That's what it was. It wasn't anything crazy.

Still I feel like I got my C, C-plus game with my irons, and my driving is like B, putting is A. I'm putting really well. But I feel like if I can clean up my iron play and get a little more comfortable with the irons and the drivers, I'll have a good chance for this weekend.

Q. You've done this before; what did you find last night in the darkness?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I didn't find anything. I found something this morning. I walked off pretty frustrated yesterday. It's one of those things that -- I was sleeping and it came to me in the middle of the night, woke up and I was like, hmm, I'm going to try this, and I went out, and my intuition is pretty good, so I went out and tried it and it worked, just keeping the right wrist bent for a lot longer through impact.

For me it's all about stabilizing the face, and so I was able to find that, and it worked out there for the most part. Irons it didn't work, but driver it worked.

Q. You talked in the past about trying to minimize the variables, that that's what this is all about. Are there more variables in a major championship?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Oh, a bunch of variables. You've got to take into account, you can't miss fairways like normal, and if you do miss them, miss them pretty big because usually the gallery will be walking down, trampling it down. That's what I did on 9.

But it's just with my speed I'm going to miss it pretty far off line. But major championships are pretty difficult, especially with poa annua. That brings up a big difficulty factor because you're not going to make every putt you look at. Even if you hit it perfect with a perfect read it may bounce and bump off line so you've got to be okay with that. I think staying patient is one of the most difficult things in a major championship. That's one of the most difficult variables.

Q. When a thought comes to you in the middle of the night, what's the process? Do you write it down or just keep it in your mind?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I remember it for the most part. I'm pretty good -- it's one simple thought. It's usually not a complex series of things. It's more just my intuition telling me there's something weird here, what's going on, and I couldn't figure it out for an hour and a half last night, an hour last night, and going back and just sitting down, eating dinner and just thinking about it, thinking about it, I literally won't talk to anybody for like an hour, just thinking, thinking, thinking, and sure enough, I went to bed and I found a little something that worked for my driver. It didn't work for my irons, so hopefully going to fix that this afternoon.

Q. Do you remember what time it was?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: No, I don't. You kind of wake up in a daze and you're like, okay, I'm going to try that and go right back to sleep. It's all about making myself feel comfortable. If I can do that -- again, I feel like I've never won with my "A" game in all areas. I've won with certain parts of my game being in the "A" game area, but for the most part my whole game hasn't been that way, and I want to see the day that I can have everything flowing on all cylinders.

Q. You were just standing over to the side with Richard over there. Can you speak to what 48 years old, 477 tournaments without a win, gets here because of that win, could you just speak to maybe the inspiration of that?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Well, it's incredibly inspiring. You look at what Phil did, right, winning a major, it gives him hope, and it also gives me hope to play for a long, long time, and I think that's really inspirational. I love that about the game, that anybody, any age group can play this great game and compete and contend. If you've got the skill set to get the ball in the hole in the quickest amount of shots, least amount of shots, you can be up there with the young guns.

It has trended more towards a younger generation, but it's awesome to see a little resurgence of people of that age competing in major championships. It's great.

Q. What time did you eventually leave last night?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: It was like 9:15, 9:20, something like that.

Q. Did you just decide that you weren't going to be able to figure it out on the range?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah, I couldn't see very well, and it obviously being very dark, they shut the lights off, which is fine. I've hit golf balls in the dark plenty of times. But at a certain point I was getting so frustrated with myself, I was just like, I can't -- I've got to take some time and sit back and try and understand and listen to my intuition because I wasn't, I was just trying a bunch of different things, and I just got fed up with it and I said, let's go back, sit back and just think of what has got you here and what makes you feel comfortable.

Q. Is the whole goal for you -- everyone talks about it's this mad scientist kind of complicated -- is it trying to simplify everything?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: A hundred percent.

Q. Hit it far, short shots to the green, and hopefully give myself putts to make?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah, I've always said, complexity creates simplicity in the end. So complexity inititally creates simplicity in the end. If you try and make it simple in the beginning, there's a lot of variables you're trying to understand, and it can get pretty messy down the road if you try and make it too simple in the beginning.

So for me, this isn't a mad scientist, and it's more about trying to understand as many variables beforehand, and then when I go out I'm painting a picture, I'm trying to be an artist and sense and feel and get a good gauge of like the wind and what's going on, and I try and mold the science a little bit with it, but mainly an art for me.

I think a part of that art is utilizing the science, which is cool.

Q. Every time you get down for a little short putt, kind of closing your eyes, are you kind of visualizing what you're doing?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: So I'm closing one eye and lining it up, like the sight on something, like a laser or something like that. I really don't visualize it too much. The only time I visualize is literally when I'm over the putt. I just kind of see the whole golf ball tracking and tracing right into the hole, and that's what's worked really well for me over the course of my years, especially the past three years or four years of my arm lock. It's just worked really well.

Q. Just back to the range in the dark, practicing in the dark, it was dark as we saw you last night out there, can you find stuff when it's that dark? Can you feel it?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah, sometimes -- when I was younger, I would close my eyes and I would just hit golf balls in the dark and just -- obviously with my eyes closed trying to feel and sense my body, get a better perception of what's going on with my body biomechanically, and there would be times where I would be like, oh, that feels way more consistent or vice versa, so I've gotten quite used to closing my eyes or being in the dark trying to go deep into my body and into my nervous system and try and get more comfortable with my golf swing.

Q. So you don't need the feedback of seeing where the ball goes?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I've got radar, I've got FlightScope, so I can see in the dark, so I do need that feedback. Normally it's light out and I'm closing my eyes doing it, but for the most part it gives me a really good perceptual understanding of what's going on, even though I figure it out, I can sense my body parts a lot better.