Bryson DeChambeau said his viral YouTube challenge with the former president Donald Trump that it only took three days to coordinate everything and that he is already looking forward to the next video with other influential figures.
DeChambeau’s breaking-50 shoot with Trump – in which he and his partner team up in a scramble format to try to hit a sub-50 score from the forward tees – has amassed nearly 7 million views on YouTube as of this writing. It’s by far DeChambeau’s most popular view to date, and has pushed his subscriber count past 1.15 million.
DeChambeau said the videotaped footage took place on July 6 — between the presidential debate with Trump and Joe Biden, and Trump’s July 13 campaign rally in Pennsylvania that ended with an attempted assassination of the former president.
DeChambeau pledged to donate to the Wounded Warrior Project for every shot they hit under par. The day was about “golf and giving back to our country’s veterans, not politics.” He said he also reached out to the “other side” to set up a round.
“First of all, it’s an honor to play with someone of that type of influence, regardless of who it is on whatever political side,” DeChambeau said Thursday at the LIV event in England. “We wanted to showcase the golfing skills of an influential person, and he was definitely on a list that I wanted to showcase. We were able to call him up and ask him to play, and he said, Yes absolutely. We also asked the other side, and anyone who wants to play. …
“He’s obviously a viewer, and we thought it would be great to show off his golfing skills, and he’s a pretty good golfer. It was a lot of fun to do, and it took a little while, but we got it approved and it was fun to shoot. It happened in three days… so it took a couple of weeks to get it all done, and it was a great time. We had a blast, and I’m looking forward to doing a lot more stuff like that with other influential people.”
DeChambeau has a longstanding relationship with the former president and earlier in his career sported the Trump Organization logo on his staff briefcase. Trump’s son also threw DeChambeau a party following his 2020 US Open victory.
“Politicians are definitely divisive figures,” DeChambeau said, “and I respect that and understand that. I think showing the substantive side of it, creating content, was the main thing we were trying to accomplish there and raising a lot of money for charity. Those two things combined, that’s what we focused on. We tried to take the politics out of it completely and just go, Let’s create some awesome, fun content so people can see some cool, fun, and entertaining shots.”
