The Colab Brief - 124: Rory’s Fall From Grace & Bryson’s Rise To Fan Fame: A Lesson In Comms Comebacks

Lessons learned from the US Open last weekend: 

1. Once a poster child ≠ always a poster child 

2. There are a lot of poor sports in professional golf 

3. Everybody loves a comeback 

Read Time: Fore minutes

Biggest choke in history. 

That’s going to haunt Rory for the rest of his life. 

Rory McIlroy’s U.S. Open collapse calls to mind the legacy of one Great White Shark

Yikes. 

For those of you who missed it, PGA poster child Rory McIlroy completely shanked it in last weekend’s US Open. The famed golfer, who had made 496 of his last 496 putts within three feet before the tournament, hit three bogeys in the last four holes, ultimately paving the way for a W by LIV golfer Bryson DeChambeau. 

Since he was 17, Rory McIlroy has been the darling of professional golf. McIlroy has a total of 40 career victories. He has four major titles, 22 wins on the PGA Tour, 10 on the DP World Tour, one on the PGA Tour of Australasia, and three other global victories. He was also formerly number one in the Official World Golf Ranking and one of the most outspoken players against Saudi Arabia-backed LIV. 

For many years, from a PR perspective, Rory had done everything right. His age and golf score were setting records. He said all the right things to the camera. He stood up for the PGA when LIV came on the scene. And he was a PR person's dream when it came to reporters trying to corner him into saying something unsavory, stating things like “To be honest in golf, you can have a rival if you want, but at the end the day, your biggest rival is a golf course." (Insert PR swoon here).

Then you have Bryson DeChambeau. Bryson was originally known for all the wrong things—arrogance, his skewed approach to the game, and wearing metal spikes. He was often quoted talking about his 6,000-calorie-per-day diet, putting on an extra 50 lbs of weight, and calling Augusta National Golf Course a par 67 because of how far he could hit the ball (woof). 

PGA tour fans and fellow golfers loved to hate him, and he was easily the most disliked player on the tour. 

But somewhere between then and now, everything changed for Bryson DeChambeau. 

Fast forward to Sunday’s appearance on the US Open, and announcers couldn’t stop gushing about the energy he was bringing to the game and how they loved how much he interacted with fans, essentially saying this was the kind of personality professional golf needed. 

So what changed?

YouTube. 

Back in 2021, Bryson launched a YouTube channel that today has 752K followers and more than 83M views. 

Bryson’s YouTube channel is not your typical LIV highlight reel. Bryson has become a player for the fans, creating challenges and skits that allow viewers to relate to world-class talent in a way they haven’t before. 

He once tried to break par with a set of $100 starter clubs from Walmart and, at a separate time, challenged another YouTuber to a match using 100-year-old Hickory Golf Clubs. 

Bryson’s YouTube fame allows him to completely circumnavigate the media and everything they tend to say about him. It also positions him perfectly in front of a new, emerging golf audience, as opposed to the typical PGA fan who is 64 years old. 

But most importantly, it gives him complete and total control over his brand and, thus, his public image. 

Owned media inherently empowers complete control - of the message, of the delivery, and of the outcome. When you rely on traditional media, you’re beholden to their framing, their spin, and their intended outcome. 

This past weekend, if you were watching from home, you could practically feel the energy Bryson was bringing to the Tour. From high-fiving fans to talking to them between shots - it was the kind of entertainment and interaction that the PGA hadn’t seen in decades. All because he leveraged owned media, created his own content, and reformed his entire image by being personable and connecting directly with his audience in a way that was genuine to him. 

Meanwhile, Rory literally stormed off after his L to Bryson, not even sticking around to congratulate him and refusing any media interviews. Ick. We feel for his publicist. 

There’s another strong comms lesson here, and it’s one that we see time and time again. Darlings in the media fall from grace because of this indiscretion or that unfortunate circumstance. 

But more importantly, there’s always room for a comeback. 

Winning the US Open definitely didn’t hurt, but Bryson’s rise to fan fame didn’t necessarily happen on the course. It was everything he did in between to connect to his constituents that mattered. 

And Rory? Well, it seems he’s at the start of a very steep, uphill battle that will likely take years to rebuild.

Until next week,

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