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Bryson DeChambeau has always been in the spotlight for his unusual approach to the game. But there was also a time when he received a lot of attention because of his heated feud with fellow LIV player Brooks Koepka.

Things went back and forth between the two; DeChambeau even began to face heckling, something he couldn’t stand. Then, things reached a tipping point during the 2021 Memorial (when they both used to play on the PGA Tour), where fans repeatedly shouted, “Hey Brooksie.”

But now? DeChambeau admits that it’s the same heckling that helped him become more focused and shut out noise.

Bryson DeChambeau put the heckling to good use

In a recent casual round with Martin Borgmeier, starring in a video titled, ‘Can I Beat Bryson DeChambeau If I Distract Him Every Shot?, DeChambeau opened up about how he now handles distractions on the course.

When Martin asked, “On a serious note, how is it out there, like on course when people yell stuff at you, and they’re sometimes trying to distract you… Like, how are you trying to cope with that?” Bryson DeChambeau instantly admitted, “I used to be really bad at it. Now I’m a lot better.”

Pressed further on what helped him improve, he explained that focusing more on his swing helped him block out all the noise from his surroundings. “It was just how do I get it down the middle of the fairway more… That was it,” he told Borgmeier.

Borgmeier also brought up the Brooksie heckling incident. And to his surprise, Bryson DeChambeau said, “It actually helped. It helped it helped me learn a lot. I don’t even treat it like anything. It’s just, I just don’t worry about it,” he said.

And, well, DeChambeau’s response was a stark contrast to how he had reacted during the feud.

When the incident took place, DeChambeau was visibly annoyed. Later on, Koepka only made things worse. Instead of asking fans to stop the heckling, he encouraged the teasing, offering free beer to fans who were ejected. Ultimately, Bryson DeChambeau took this up with PGA Tour officials, and Jay Monahan (then commissioner) took stringent measures.

In a meeting later that year, Monahan said that, “Fans who breach our code of conduct are subject to expulsion from the tournament and loss of their credential or ticket.” So, basically, yelling “Brooksie” or any other insults was basically banned.

But that wasn’t the only time DeChambeau has been visibly frustrated with heckling. In fact, even at the 2021 BMW Championship, when he was heckled, he went as far as yelling, “You know what? Get the f–k out!” to the fan.

Even this year, at the LIV UK event in July, when fans shouted “Miss it,” DeChambeau couldn’t let it go. “I love the banter up there, but they can’t be saying ‘miss it, miss it’…” was his response.

Timeline of Brooks Koepka-Bryson DeChambeau feud

While things were finally settled between the two players last year, we definitely cannot forget the time when they couldn’t stand being in the same room. The spark that lit the feud came in January 2019, when Koepka publicly vented his frustration about slow play during the Dubai Desert Classic.

Speaking on Golf Monthly’s podcast, he said, “I just don’t understand how it takes a minute and 20 seconds, a minute and 15 to hit a golf ball; it’s not that hard,” pointedly adding that it annoyed him even more “when it’s a long hitter”.

Everyone knew exactly who the jab was directed at. DeChambeau eventually fired back, insisting his process wasn’t as sluggish as it looked.

“It’s actually quite impressive that we’re able to get all that stuff done in 45 seconds,” he said. “People don’t realize that it’s very difficult to do everything we do in 45 seconds.” No names were used, but the message was loud and clear, and the Cold War had begun.

By August 2019, the tension resurfaced after a clip of DeChambeau taking over three minutes to hit a 70-yard pitch went viral. Instead of sniping online, Bryson and Brooks spoke it out on the range after the round at the Northern Trust, and things seemed fine between the two. But the peace was short-lived.

In January 2020, a bulked-up DeChambeau, fresh off months of intense training, took a playful jab at Koepka’s appearance during a Fortnite Twitch stream, questioning the authenticity of his “ESPN Body Issue” abs. That broke the truce.

Koepka fired back within 24 hours, and the rivalry entered a new phase, spilling into fitness comparisons and media chatter. The following month, DeChambeau landed a symbolic win when Sports Illustrated named him to its Fittest 50 list instead of Koepka. It was the kind of petty detail that fueled the feud’s momentum.

From there, the feud rolled into a full-blown circus. Koepka kept the jabs coming, whether through a perfectly timed Kenny Powers gif or a cheeky imitation of Bryson’s “fire-ant” moment at the 2020 FedEx St. Jude Invitational.

Meanwhile, DeChambeau continued to fuel the chatter with his fiery on-course moments. In fact, when Bryson DeChambeau won the 202 U.S. Open, Koepka said, “Yeah, I didn’t watch a shot of it. I didn’t see anything.”

But eventually, the rivalry lost its bite. By the 2021 Ryder Cup, the two found themselves on the same side, sharing laughs instead of barbs, and later agreeing to pair together in a light-hearted edition of The Match, which was the LIV vs PGA edition.