Brooks Koepka recently came to Rory McIlroy’s defense on Dan Rapaport’s Dan on Golf show, addressing the Northern Irishman’s decision to avoid a conversation with Bryson DeChambeau during the final round of the 2025 Masters. Koepka argued that DeChambeau “lives in his own world” and suggested that “not many people want to talk to him.”
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DeChambeau has yet to respond to Koepka’s remarks. However, in a recent conversation with Raj Shamani on the Figuring Out with Raj Shamani podcast, the LIV Golf star opened up about his childhood abandonment issues. He revealed how a lack of acceptance from others, like in the Koepka and Rory McIlroy cases, affected him growing up.
“I had some abandonment issues,” DeChambeau said when asked about his biggest insecurity. “As a kid, I get told after winning a tournament, you cheated, and you’re not actually that good, there’s no way you won. So, I had this fear of people not accepting me, not being okay with staying around, walking away from me… “
As a child, DeChambeau faced his first-ever junior golf tournament at 9 years old. He shot an even-par score and defeated top local junior RJ Mott in a playoff. Because it was his very first competition and nobody knew him, community members and competitors accused him of cheating, refusing to believe a child could shoot even par in a debut tournament.
“For whatever reason, I had people always telling me, ‘You could never do it this way.’ You couldn’t achieve these goals, you couldn’t do it this way,” he added. “And so I always felt like nobody accepted me. They always thought I was weird, different, unique, and that I was never going to be accepted in the ecosystem. So, I had a fear of people just leaving me.”
Bryson DeChambeau added that even his friends sometimes distanced themselves from him because of his quirky personality and tendency to think differently. While he was always eager to explore new ideas and activities, his friends often preferred to stay indoors or stick to their own plans, leaving him feeling out of place.
“I feel like a lot of that made me insecure [about] myself and going, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ Rather than just realizing I wasn’t in the right crowd…,” he explained. “And it wasn’t until later in life, when I surrounded myself with people [who] were very unique thinkers and go-getters and passionate, that I had such a [sense of] relatability to them.
“… I just had a different mindset as a kid, and that’s where those insecurities came from because people wouldn’t accept me for asking those questions.”
In any case, this comes as uncertainty surrounds DeChambeau’s future in the sport. With LIV Golf filing for bankruptcy to restructure itself, many wondered what Bryson DeChambeau, whose contract with LIV will end in 2026, will do next season. ESPN previously reported that the two-time major winner was supporting the league in any way he could.
Now, speaking to Shamani, he admitted that LIV’s journey has not been perfect but remained optimistic about its future. “I think there’s a lot of potential moving forward,” DeChambeau said, describing the transition from LIV 1.0 to 2.0 as an opportunity for the league to evolve. He also admitted that there had been “tough moments” along the way, adding, “not everything was perfect.”
Although he didn’t confirm it, fans may get to see him again in LIV Golf if the league manages to survive. But it would be interesting to see whether he abandons LIV Golf like he feared everyone else would when he was a child.