Bryson DeChambeau details the alternate career path he ditched to become a pro golfer
Bryson DeChambeau is the talk of the town at the moment. The 30-year-old won the US Open on Sunday (June 16) and made headlines. However, the two-time Major champion has now revealed that he might not have started playing golf at all and he was initially interested in ping pong.
Speaking on the latest episode of The Scoop, DeChambeau said that he used to play ping pong “every day in high school.” The golfer added that he had a robot he played against for practice. Furthermore, the LIV Golf star claimed that he was good enough to “be one of the top juniors” in his area at the time.
However, he never turned pro in the sport as he couldn’t get his name into the ranking system that allowed participation in the local pro events. The former PGA Tour star, who made multi-million dollar move to LIV, reiterated he was “really good” in ping pong.
Replaying to host Claire Rogers’ query on what he would’ve been if it wasn’t for golf, Bryson DeChambeau said on The Scoop (at 9:31):
“I'd be a ping pong player. I used to play every day in high school. I had a robot that we just play against and it was one of the most fun times in my life.”
DeChambeau noted that he had a friendly art teacher who he played ping pong with during school hours.
He added:
“Just being able to go in every day at lunch and play with the art teacher… Every day at lunch we'd go in there and play ping pong against each other and then my freshman year we got a robot and we started practicing. We got legitimately really good. I felt like I could have been one of the top juniors in my area, pretty easily and if not played in a couple small professional events…
"Unfortunately, we couldn't enter (pro events) because there was a ranking system that we had to be in. It was like, you had to be invited or something or ranked and we're like ‘we don't have the time for that’ but we were really good.”
Bryson DeChambeau followed his father's golf career path
Bryson DeChambeau’s skillset in golf seems to be much bigger. The golfer says his interest for sport came from his father, Jon DeChambeau. According to the LIV star, his dad gave up on his professional career and took up a job to look after his family.
In the interview with Claire Rogers, the golfer stated that his father wished to see his son become a great golfer. Bryson noted that his first-ever win in golf came when he was nine years old and that ‘drove him to madness ever since.’
For the unversed, Bryson grew up in Clovis, California. He played collegiate at Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas. He broke out on to the scene in 2015, when he became the fifth player in history to win both the NCAA Division I championship and the US Amateur in the same year.
With his US Open win, Bryson DeChambeau also became only the third player to have won these three championships after legends Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
Bryson DeChambeau made his PGA Tour debut as an amateur at the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis that same year. He recorded eight wins on the PGA Tour, before joining LIV Golf in 2022. He has two wins on the Saudi-backed circuit so far.