MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 4, 2022

Bryson DeChambeau

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to welcome Bryson DeChambeau to the interview room.

Bryson, you've only been able to play a handful of events this year due to some lingering issues. How is your health and your game coming into this, your sixth Masters Tournament?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It's obviously an honor to be here, as always. Never ungrateful for this opportunity. I take it as an opportunity and privilege to play, first and foremost.

Secondly, going into the injuries, I mean, did not expect it to be that prevalent. Didn't think I would get to that place. But one of the things I didn't do is take care of my hands and my hip like I should have, and I went pretty hard. Albeit I wouldn't do anything else to change what happened because it's made me a better person because of it. I've learned a little bit more about my body and how to respond and how to recover in a better manner.

Proud of the fact that I've been able to get here in a short amount of time. Normally a bone fracture takes four months to probably fully heal; I'm back here in two. So, pleased with that. And hitting golf balls on the range today, was able to sustain practice for a good amount of time. So, happy.

Q. How close are you to being 100 percent?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I'm probably around 80, 80 percent right now. I can't go all-out. I can't do any speed training sessions. I can't practice for excessive hours like I have to figure stuff out.

It's also allowed me to become a little more -- I guess could you say a little smarter in how I practice. Like I've got to be careful with things and really be efficient and limit the amount of golf balls I can hit. Today was the first time I can just go and hit golf balls for a long period of time and just get really comfortable and dialed in, so I feel pretty nice and comfortable going into this week so far.

Q. For those of us who don't have the facts, want to make sure got it right. Can you take us back and tell us exactly when you got the two injuries and the extent of exactly what the injuries are?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, so there's two injuries. One was a torn left hip labrum, minor tear in that. And that was two years ago when I started speed training. I was on -- speed training on concrete, and I kind of slipped when I got over 200 miles an hour, and didn't really talk about it too much because it was fine. It's been fine for the past two years, until I had this recent incident that I'll talk about shortly.

I was then hitting a lot of golf balls. I've been hitting a lot of golf balls for a while, and that didn't help my hands. I didn't get my hands, like finger strength strong enough to hold the hand in the proper place and alignment compared to the rest of my body. My core has been really solid.

Got to a point around Torrey where it just started to continue to get aggravated. I felt something last November before I played up against Brooks. My hand, there was something on my hand that just kind of like popped, and was I like, Ah, that's not normal. That didn't feel really good at all either. It was tough hitting balls. I just stopped. The next day I came out, and I was fine. I was hitting golf balls, and it was like nothing happened. But that the day where I felt something happen in my left hand, and it got progressively worse.

I was able to push it off with MAT and protect the muscles as much as I possibly could -- protect the body with the muscles as much as I possibly could. But ultimately it got to a point where in Torrey just too many golf balls, too much stress. It was not good. Didn't feel good.

And then I went to Saudi, and I was playing ping-pong against Sergio and Joaquin Niemann. And we were on some marble floors, and they just wiped it. And me not paying attention, I Charlie Brown'd myself and went horizontal and then hit my left hip and my hand at the same time, and that really just took me out.

That's really when it just got to the point where I couldn't even grip the golf club. I tried to play that week, and it was impossible. I was not even gripping with my left hand that week. I was like, this is dumb, I have to go take care of my body first and get it right.

That's what happened. And went and got a CT scan, MRI, and we found out that -- and X-rays in my left hip, was kind of -- I had a torn labrum, a partial tear. And then in the hand I had a hairline fracture in the hamate bone, which a lot of baseball players get from excessive hitting. That's kind of how it all happened.

Q. You said dealing with the injuries made you a better person. In what way?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, taking six weeks off, realizing that golf isn't everything in life. And I've had a lot of things change behind the scenes, which has been awesome for me. Allowed me to do some pretty cool things on YouTube and hopefully create an audience that can see what's going on in my life and see what I want to do for -- just give back to the game of golf as much as I can and get back to the younger generation.

You know, my time is -- I'm not going to be here forever, so I might as well do my best to give back to the game of golf and give back to the kids as much as possible.

It's just a great opportunity to showcase what I want to do to give back and hopefully help grow the game a little bit. I don't want to say I can grow the game, but I want to give back as much as possible in that area.

That's really made me a different person, a better and -- I hope a better person, I think just a different person in general, have a different perspective on the game of golf as well.

Q. You just mentioned giving back to the younger generation. I caught the Dude Perfect video yesterday. How did that come about, and what was the experience like? This is not really a place you would associate Dude Perfect with?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, I think that as times are changing with a new generation coming about, I think it's awesome that Dude Perfect was allowed to be out here and we were able to do that, to showcase a different side to the game of golf.

Sometimes, I guess, one of the things that I see from it all is the ability to reach a younger audience, to reach new people that maybe don't watch golf. Maybe they do just like watching trick shots, and, oh, that's cool, they are on a golf course. Like what is Augusta National? What is it? What's the Masters? Creating more exposure for the Masters is I think a really positive attribute that came about from that, and I was very pleased to be a part of it.

I was coming in about three weeks ago to play a practice round, and this is when I didn't know I was going to play THE PLAYERS, Arnold Palmer, around that time frame, I don't know the exact date, but I got an Instagram message. And they asked me if I was down to be in a video, and I said yeah.

They are like, Well, we are going to be at Augusta and heard you were going to be at Augusta. I was like, how did they find that out? I was not going to go because of my hand. And ultimately they said, We are going to be doing all different sports. I was like, okay, that's really cool, different. How can I be part of it with just one hand? They are like, Well, it's just going to be your right hand, besides baseball.

I was like, Okay, I can do that. So I decided to come out here a few weeks ago, and we got through those three holes pretty much just using my right hand, except the baseball bat, and we had a bunch of fun. Then I went and chipped and putted and got a little more comfortable around the greens and chipping around here.

That's how it came about. They are awesome guys, and I'm glad we were able to show the game of golf in a different light. Albeit some people don't think it's what should be done; I think it's a great thing for guys that have never seen the game of golf and to bring to the Masters into a different, positive light.

Q. Were you surprised Augusta okayed that?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Everybody was. And I think that's a pretty cool attribute of what Augusta is doing now, and I see it changing in a very cool way for a younger audience, new generation. Drive, Chip & Putt, it's a big deal, right? And the Augusta National Women's Amateur, right, that Anna Davis wins, 16-year-old. I love that it's starting to move towards the younger generation, which is amazing, and that's what I'm all about.

Q. At 80 percent, can you win around here? And if so, how do you win around here?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, at 80 percent, I'm still around 190 ball speed. So it's not bad from a speed perspective. From a chipping and putting perspective, I'm getting really close to having my A Game there. Close to an A Game there. Chris Como and I are working rigorously on it. We've been working hard for the past three weeks since I've come back.

And it's been a bit of unravelling this knot that I've had in my game for the past four years. We're finally in a moving in a direction that I feel is positive for me being able to win again, hopefully, regularly like I did in 2018.

I feel like I'm getting back to that place, with new speed. It's not easy to sustain speed -- have speed, create speed, and then sustain it and be able to hit it straight like I used to in 2018. It's a very difficult feat. So this is the latter part of it where, okay, I'm stabilizing and getting my golf swing to a place where it's really repeatable at those speeds.

I knew this was going to be a long process. But how am I going to win out here? It's going to be a lot of hitting fairways, hitting greens and rolling the putter really well. You have to roll it well and read greens well.

And that's what my caddie is doing a great job of, reading the greens better. He's got a fresh set of eyes. He is very experienced in green reading and has been rolling a lot of golf balls out there, getting really comfortable, which has been nice. So I think he'll be a great asset out there for me.

So I think those few factors coming in, having a golf swing that's more repeatable with the speed and being able to read greens better, may allow me to have a chance to win.

Q. I want to wish you well in your continued recovery and only good things. How frustrating has it been at its most challenging for you, and what would you say you've learned about yourself along the way?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: The past few weeks have been very, very difficult on me, not playing well and not hitting it anywhere near where I know I should be hitting it in regards to straight; yelling "Fore" off the tee every time is just not fun. It's very difficult on your mental psyche as well.

It's one of those things that everybody has a tough stretch in their career, and especially with coming off an injury, swinging one-handed for, you know, three or four weeks with your right hand only, it messed my normal golf swing up.

It's a learning experience. Every time, like I've always said, your lowest moments are your best -- your worst failures are your best teachers.

So for me, my greatest failures have been my best moments of learning, and so this is just another one of those. And I know I probably said that a lot, and it continues to be the same thing. I keep learning, I keep learning, and I eventually get to a point where I know my baseline fundamental. And what's made me really good, what's made me a really good ball-striker as I keep gaining speed.

It's been very frustrating the past few weeks. When I had time off, I was just healing, and it was nice to get other things done, working on the house, YouTube, create more Instagram content, YouTube content, and hopefully give back to the game a little bit. Been doing a lot of giveaways as well and will continue to do that, and my charity is coming up as well.

I'm doing a lot of things in the background, more than just golf now, which is a lot of fun for me.

Q. Give us your take on Tiger's potential return to the sport.

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: He's here, right? It's kind of already a return, right? But it's great to see his face.

I mean, I was walking down -- I was teeing off on 3, and he was walking down 17. He just, like, jumped up and raised up, and we were both kind of air high-fiving, like saying, "What's up." It's just great to see him in a positive frame of mind.

I haven't spoken to him much, but I have seen him, and we've said "hi" a little bit. And it seems likes he's in a really great frame of mind and he wants to win. Obviously he's determined to win. He wants to come back here and win. And he's got a lot of players that have had a lot of time to kind of catch up, albeit Tiger is Tiger and you can never count him out.

He is one that may shock a lot of people if he does tee it up this week. Very, very excited to have him back. Creates a lot of hype and whatnot. And, shoot, from the driving range, we could hear the loud roar when he came out of the clubhouse up to that first tee, and that was pretty special to see or hear at least.

Couldn't be more happy for him in the place he's at right now, coming back, and proud of him, too. Shoot, coming back off that injury, we've had some conversations, and man, I don't know how he's done it. It's very impressive.

Q. How sobering have the pair of injuries been, not only you might have missed this tournament, but long term and in terms of how you've gone about your game and the speed and the intensive training, does it cause any kind of a rethink on your part?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, it's not necessarily -- it's more of a finding a better route. So not necessarily like a total re-vamping, oh, I'm going to change everything. It's more of finding a route to game speed and still make sure everything is healthy and I'm still hitting it straight.

I've always talked about in order to achieve this feat, you have to be able to get stronger without injuring yourself, learn how to swing it faster without injuring yourself and learn how to hit it straight again without injuring yourself and then go play golf. There's four or five steps there, and it's a lot, all requiring you not to get injured as well.

So it's a bit of rerouting how I'm doing it. I am not 21, 22 anymore, right, so I've got to be careful with how I do things now. I'm not saying I'm anywhere near some of the veterans out here, whatnot, but again, putting a lot of stress on the body is not a great thing, and I've got to learn how to rest better. So that's part of the new strategy.

Q. With Tiger, can that be a dynamic that that takes pressure off of some of the other top players, like yourself, where there maybe is a super amount of attention, and maybe that lets a guy like Rory who is going for the Grand Slam again, things like that, is there a dynamic that can help you guys to some degree?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I think there definitely is when you don't have everybody, or a lot of people yelling your name or chanting, whatnot. Kind of can be, I would say, almost relaxing in a sense.

I remember when I just won in 2020 the U.S. Open and then coming here in the fall for the Masters, it was definitely different, a lot of eyes were on me and it was a different expectation level and definitely uncomfortable for me because I had never experienced that.

I know I talked about that before, and coming off an injury, not being really fully ready or not having won recently or whatnot, it's kind of been nice going into this year's Masters just peacefully going about my business.

Q. With the hand injury, you said it was a four-month recovery. Curious, how much risk of reinjury has there been over the past three weeks, and did any part of you strongly consider just sitting out for four months and missing the heart of the major season?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I definitely did consider sitting out for four months, but like I said, I came out about two months, and when I started hitting golf balls, there was a few days where I was like, oh, my gosh, I don't know if this is going to be doable.

And then the next day, I'd wake up and it was not hurting that bad at all and I would go out and hit a couple more balls and it didn't hurt anymore. So it was a day-by-day process. Kind of like, I mean, different situation than Tiger, obviously, but it was definitely a day-by-day process of figuring out if I could do this.

Because if it was going to hurt more and more over the next -- over the consecutive days that were coming a couple weeks ago, I would have stopped and not played, and I would have taken the rest of those two months off.

But as time has gone on, it hasn't been that bad. It was a huge risk for me to go out there a couple weeks ago and play. The first few rounds, I was not comfortable with my golf swing. I didn't know where things were really going, and I wanted to get back into a playing mode just to see what I could do, and the match play was the best play to do it. It would not have been good to go to Valero. Even though I would have had a week more, I don't know if a week more would have really helped at that point.

But getting the muscle stronger around it for a couple of weeks, leading up to today where I feel like, okay, I can hit balls for a decent amount of time and feel like I'm not going to do anything to it is very comforting.

But it was a huge risk a couple weeks ago. It was probably not one that my doctors recommended, but I decided to do so because I wanted to give this tournament a run.

Q. You've had some good rounds, but you've yet to put together four consecutive days. What's kept you from contending?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: My golf swing. I haven't had my golf swing like all four rounds of consecutive good control like I used to. Yeah, I've had more distance. I've had maybe a good wedge day; I've had a good putting day; I've had maybe good iron play day, a good driving day one day.

But never consecutive every single day where I get up here and feel super comfortable and ready to hit every shot and go out and play my best golf like I know I can, like I've done at the U.S. Open in 2020 or Arnold Palmer or numerous other events or even Caves Valley last year.

If I have my game like that, I feel like I have a very good chance to do well out here. Just haven't done it yet.

Q. You talked about this learning process. Have your expectations changed as far as winning and looking ahead to what you think you can accomplish in your career?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Have my expectations changed in regards to just wining? From my perspective, no, I think I can win every time I tee it up. It's just about, do I have my game, do I have my golf swing, do I have my chipping, do I have my putting all in the right place to set myself up to have a chance to win.

I know I've talked to Tiger about all that matters is that back nine. You have to get yourself to that back nine, close to the lead. That's all that matters. I haven't really done that recently. I have to work on getting back there with all facets of my game better than where they have been.

Q. Are you still planning on doing the upcoming Long Drive Contest?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I'm reconsidering. I'm trying, but it may not be the smartest thing. But I'll definitely be there for sure no matter what supporting either way.

If it continues to get stronger, next week I try and hit a couple golf balls hard and it doesn't feel worse, I might consider it. But as of right now, we're really taking it easy, just making sure I'm healing up properly. We'll see. It's a day-by-day thing as well.

Q. Could that be another thing the doctors wouldn't advise you to do?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah. I usually -- I mean, you know me, guys, I always like kind of going against the grain a bit. I think that's another one we'll have to take day-by-day.

Q. From against the grain and having a somewhat full plate in life, where do you see yourself in five years? What would you like to accomplish, and where is Bryson going to be five years from now?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I would love to win a few more majors. That would be a fantastic goal in my life. I hope that I can continue to give back to the younger generation, give back to charity, whether it's the Shriners Hospital, St. Jude or the Kidney Foundation, or creating an education facility at some point for underprivileged kids. I think those are all lofty goals that I want to achieve.

But first and foremost, I definitely want to play golf at the highest level and get to No. 1. That's a huge goal.

Q. Do you need to be playing tournament golf to achieve some of the goals outside of goals?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: To achieve some of the goals outside golf, yes, absolutely, there's a huge play on that. You have to be playing well. You have to be contending, competing.

But it's tough. It's tough to manage both sides of it, right. You've got a huge task in trying to play the best golf you can possibly play, and there's only so many hours in the day and you have to go do other things, and it's tough.

That's why you have to put a really solid team around yourself. That's what matters most. You have to have a good team doing this. It's not all me. I couldn't do it all. There's no way.

I have got a great manager; I have got a great agent; I have got a great caddie; I have got a great coach; and I've got a lot of great people around me and great friends that help me be successful outside of just the game of golf.

Q. Did the doctors tell you not to come back?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: They recommended that I don't come back for a while. They said if you go out and hit golf balls and you feel somewhat comfortable, you consider it, and they are like, you should really let it heal.

And even Chris has told me, you probably shouldn't play, even though he wants me to play obviously, right. But he's really looking out for my best interests for the future. I'm like, man, this only comes around once a year, and I've got to give this a go.

Q. You're pretty close with Phil. Since none of us have heard from Phil, we don't even know where he is, have you had any communications with him since the hubbub happened?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I've tried to reach out, but he's gone dark. There's no contact.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks for your time today and best of luck this week.