On Tuesday morning, Bryson DeChambeau posted a video of him playing a two-man scramble with former President Donald Trump.
Less than 24 hours later, the video had gone viral on a trajectory to be the most-watched round of golf in YouTube’s history. Here is where it stood roughly one day after posting:
- Around 4.7 million views
- More than 25,000 comments
- DeChambeau had gained more than 350,000 channel subscribers, eclipsing 1.1 million total
- More than $23,000 had been raised by the general public for the Wounded Warrior Project
By Friday morning, it had eclipsed 7.6 million views and 33,000 comments. Bryson was approaching 1.2 million subscribers.
The most-watched full round of golf on YouTube I could find is the replay of Tiger Woods’ 2019 Masters victory. That has about 10 million views in more than four years.
The most-watched golf event of all-time belongs to the final round of the 1997 Masters when Woods won in historic fashion. An estimated 44 million people around the world watched the broadcast. It’s also worth noting that 4.5 million people have watched the final round on YouTube since it was posted in 2018.
DeChambeau’s video with Trump may not eclipse those gargantuan 1997 Masters numbers, but the YouTube record will inevitably fall. And given the on-demand nature of it, maybe it could approach that 50 million mark in the future.
In my mind, this makes DeChambeau’s video significant. These are massive numbers, and I think it’s indicative of how people want to consume golf these days.
Consider that the final round of last Sunday’s Open Championship—featuring the oldest, most prestigious major in all of golf—just saw its worst ratings in a decade. Only 3.39 million viewers watched NBC and Peacock to see Xander Schauffele win his second major. In fairness, the Open is shown to the American audience during the morning and early afternoon, which naturally brings lower ratings than the afternoon/evening. Still, it’s jarring that Bryson’s YouTube channel has one video getting more U.S. viewers than a major championship.
YouTube golf’s presence is arguably becoming more influential than traditional professional golf. At the very least it’s worth a debate.
But is the video any good?
While the views for this video are driven by a political figure, the quality of the content itself is superb.
It has me wishing I could include the 56-minute round in my recent story about DeChambeau’s top five videos.
The premise would have been hard to believe just a few years ago. The recent U.S. Open victor said he reached out to both political parties hoping to shoot a video that would raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project, a non-profit that supports military veterans. Trump returned the call, hosting DeChambeau at Trump Bedminster in northern New Jersey.
Putting aside all political beliefs for a moment, how impressive is it that a professional golfer had this type of access to record a full round with a living president? With Secret Service surrounding them, Trump chauffeurs DeChambeau around his course while they talk about everything from golf to music to celebrity encounters.
The video is based around a “Breaking 50” challenge where DeChambeau tries to break 50 while playing a scramble with someone else. They played this version from the red tees, racking up eagles and birdies as DeChambeau set up his two-man team with eagle putts on par-4s and wedge approaches in par-5s.
Trump is, to my surprise, a better golfer than I assumed. Despite the fact that his, uh, “unorthodox” putting stroke (using a glove, no less) has gained a lot of attention on Twitter, he can definitely play. Trump has a solo birdie and a solo eagle in this round. He also likes to drive his cart inches away from tee boxes and greens—but, hey, owning courses has its privileges.
What I really appreciate most about this video is that it’s purely about two people playing golf.
You have one guy at the peak of his powers—watching him decimate a course like this is akin to seeing someone play a video game on rookie mode. DeChambeau can do just about anything he wants with a golf ball.
And then you have another guy who is just a fan of DeChambeau. Trump does what any of us would do if we were in the same situation: He insists DeChambeau offer him short game advice, admires his prodigious length and asks him why he hits a draw when most pros opt for a fade. Golf nerd talk.
It’s also interesting when you have a 30-year-old star playing golf with a 78-year-old. It’s a reminder of why the game is so special. DeChambeau can do things that an older player physically can’t even imagine doing—but then Trump hits a wedge inside of him from 100 yards. That’s golf.
DeChambeau and Trump call each other “partner” on repeat—at one point, DeChambeu calls Trump “dude.” Several times, one of them goes for a fist bump while the other goes for a high-five. Even the high and mighty among us are painfully awkward.
They are just two guys playing golf and talking about golf in a highly entertaining way. We typically don’t get that type of perspective with professional golf.
I don’t know about you, but I just want to see the game played and discussed in detail by interesting characters.
DeChambeau definitely has something cooking with this channel, which is only three years old. I think it’s only a matter of time before more players start making similar videos.
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