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Bryson DeChambeau has revealed he seriously considered QUITTING golf earlier this year.
In an interview with the New York Post, the 2020 US Open champion explained how a summer of negative publicity left him weighing up his future.
There was a point in time – I’m not kidding – where I just felt like I wanted to leave the game,” said DeChambeau during this week’s Hero World Challenge.
“I just felt like, ‘I don’t need any of this. Why? Why put myself though all this torture?’”
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The 28-year-old has found himself making headlines for all of the wrong reasons in 2021. From his ‘feud’ with fellow major champion Brooks Koepka, to the split from his caddie Tim Tucker, to his extraordinary fallout with equipment sponsors Cobra during The Open, to the controversy generated by his opposition to getting the COVID vaccine, DeChambeau has seldom been out of the news.
The vaccine stuff ended up being the final straw for the beleaguered Texan, who subsequently refused all media requests for several weeks.
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“People were damaging my character,” he added. “It was all the stuff that was going on in social media. I was like, ‘I really don’t need this. I can walk away and be totally fine the rest of my life, be happy and go and hit the long ball and call it a day.’”
In the end, he found support – and some answers – from the most unlikely of sources: Hollywood superstar Chris Pratt.
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“He told me, ‘Look, when I’m doing a movie and people are saying the movie’s terrible and I’m not a good actor, that doesn’t define me,’” DeChambeau added.
“I respect him, respect his opinion. He’s got a lot of great life advice from things he’s been through some troubling times.
“He told me when I’m out on the golf course, people are going to define you and relate you to the golf. What really defines you is the person you are outside the game of golf. You’ve got to look at it as an opportunity to show people who you truly are.”
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