Bryson DeChambeau won LIV Golf South Africa this Sunday, but the most striking thing was not just the victory, but the emotion with which he celebrated it. Some assumed that reaction was due solely to the hard-fought win against Jon Rahm in the play-off, but of course, for someone who has won the US Open twice and who already has five wins on LIV, it really didn’t add up. The American was seen especially moved after sealing the victory and he later explained that behind those tears there is an important personal reason, although he did not want to reveal it.
“I wish I could tell you. A lot has happened in the past week“, DeChambeau said as soon as he was asked why he was so emotional. He gave no further details, but made it clear that what happened off the course had been significant. Something has happened personally. “Some things happened to me in my time off this week, and I was praying all day, praying to be given the perseverance to carry on and keep looking ahead“, he explained.
It was a brief confession, but explicit enough to understand that it wasn’t just about golf. DeChambeau, in fact, elaborated on that idea by putting the very meaning of the victory into perspective. “It’s funny, golf is a capricious game, you work incredibly hard all your life and you realise that golf is just golf and that there’s much more to life than golf“, he said.
The leader of Crushers also had words of thanks for his close circle and for the South African crowd, which he pointed to as one of the emotional keys of the week. “I just have to say that I love you all. Thank you for the support. South Africa has been incredible. This must have been the best LIV event we’ve ever had“, he said.
Beyond the emotion, DeChambeau also made it clear that his mind is already on what comes next. The Masters looms on the horizon and his message was very clear: there are things he still wants to fine-tune, especially with the driver. “This is my fifth individual win on LIV. I’m still pulling that damn driver. I have to fix that“, he admitted after missing his tee shots left on both occasions he played the 18th hole.
That comment ties in with one of the American’s great obsessions: regaining his best tee-to-green form. He won in South Africa, yes, but by no means does he consider his game to be fully where he wants it ahead of Augusta.
The other big scene of the day came in the play-off against Jon Rahm. There, DeChambeau explained in detail how he experienced the tournament’s decisive shot, starting from a very clear idea: he pretty much assumed Rahm was going to leave the ball practically given. We’re talking, of course, about Bryson’s second shot from the left rough in the play-off. “It had to be done. Jon… I thought there was a good chance he’d leave it pretty much given. With that 3-wood, I thought he’d leave it pretty much given“, he recounted.
From there, Bryson described an action that mixed intuition, luck and execution. “I was lucky to have a good lie. There was mud, so I was trying to aim over there as a worst case, and I hit it left again, but I knew it would be ok and that at least I’d have some chance“, he explained.
The shot ended up coming out as he needed at the most delicate moment. “I had a very good position, I dropped it, and I was able to place it, luckily, and then I had a perfect lie and I hit it to the centre of the green, and it rolled down to about four metres“, he recounted.
DeChambeau also valued the weight this victory has for Crushers, both for his individual triumph and for the collective boost. “It’s enormous. It’s enormous for our dynamic. I said earlier this week that we only needed a little time and we’d start to show our true colours, and today they went out there and played extraordinarily, and I held my own“, he noted.
The victory, therefore, had several layers. There’s the title, there’s the play-off against Rahm, there’s the confidence it can give him ahead of The Masters and there’s, above all, that personal background he didn’t want to share, but which turned the celebration into something much deeper than a simple competitive outburst.
