Rickie Fowler Earns Unexpected Nod from Bryson DeChambeau Amid Career Struggles: ‘Really Stuck With Me’

“You’re not afraid. That’s the beauty of ‌great athletes, they’re not afraid.” That was the praise earned by Bryson DeChambeau from Jason Kidd. But on the inside, he knew the struggling phase and how Rickie Fowler helped him with that. In a recent video on DeChambeau’s YouTube channel, the golfer shared his high school memory that still stays at the top of his mind. In fact, Fowler’s lesson changed his declining journey.

The video features the NBA Champion and the coach of the Dallas Mavericks, Jason Kidd. The duo, while attempting “Break 50,” talked about the journey. Interestingly, talking about the journey, DeChambeau said, “I remember a story about him (Rickie Fowler), how he was just fearless. Everything he did, he was fearless. And that really stuck with me because I’m like, man, if he’s fearless, why am I not being fearless in a lot of situations? Why can’t I just go ahead and attack it and learn from it?” Fowler, as a freshman in 2004, won the CIF-SCGA regional championship with a record-setting 10-under par 62. He also became the youngest since Tiger Woods in 1991. The performance left an impact on the 11-year-old DeChambeau, who became fearless after that.

Talking further about the learning, the LIV golfer shared, “That was like my biggest thing that I learned from that comment, and when I was struggling in high school, whatnot, it was more about how do I just be okay with failure and how do I iterate off of that?” The lesson of life helped the golfer in achieving success on the course. In fact, it started showing with his performance incline at the California State Junior Championship at age 16 in 2010, when he won the tournament.

Further, he graduated in 2012 and continued the splendid performance graph to earn numerous titles, including the 2015 NCAA individual championship and the 2015 US Amateur title. Well, the journey of DeChambeau has been somewhat similar to Fowler’s, as during the collegiate years, Fowler, too, had some notable victories. The list includes the University of Illinois and the Western Junior.

That win marked the turning point—a moment when his “learn-from-failure” approach flipped into consistent results. From there, he surged: winning the 2015 NCAA individual championship and the 2015 U.S. Amateur. Those achievements echoed the head-turning progression Fowler experienced in his own college career—winning the Western Junior and leading the University of Illinois to NCAA team success.

Eventually, Fowler turned professional and joined the PGA Tour in 2010, while DeChambeau joined in 2016. However, now, despite the struggle for Fowler, he is still earning praise from his fellows. Rickie’s last win was the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic, and he has been struggling since to win. Even the declining performance has affected his results in 2025, as he could only achieve T6 as the best performance at the FedEx Cup St. Jude Championship.

But, except for the fact of his declining performance, the young days’ admiration has turned into a great friendship between the two as they are seen sharing some significant moments together. One of the most iconic was in 2021, when DeChambeau dressed up like Fowler for Halloween and went in to take an autograph, saying, “I am such a big fan. I wore orange just for you. Can you sign my hat?” The incident left everyone laughing, even Fowler. However, away from the relationship and learning, the two have always shared and admired the impressive performance.

As DeChambeau, with his recent revelation, shared in 2025, but earlier Fowler also praised the fellow for his performance.

Rickie Fowler on “impressive” Bryson DeChambeau

A few years back, Rickie Fowler praised his fellow PGA Tour pro for the transformation. During the Full Send podcast, when Fowler was asked about the friendship, he agreeingly started praising the journey. Fowler said, “Bryson obviously goes about things differently than most guys, probably. I mean, it’s impressive.” As shared by DeChambeau about the learning, his journey has been filled with praise and titles. He has achieved 14 professional wins, including 9 on the PGA Tour, 3 on LIV Golf, and two at the US Open.

In fact, he talked about the transformation shared, “It’s been impressive to see what like what he’s done to go from if you look especially if you look at like pictures of him in high school and college and then first couple of years on tour. I mean, he was thin, not very big, and then to see like the kind of transformation because ultimately he wanted to start hitting it harder and further.” DeChambeau, who was a slim guy during his college days, has a great athletic structure, weighing 220 lbs with his 6 ft 1 inch height.

In fact, Bryson DeChambeau has been very active with his fitness regime as he keeps working on improving power and agility for his on-course performance. Some of that can be seen with his videos on YouTube, which he started with the intent to showcase the inside of a golfer’s life.