The Gunslinger
When Bryson De Chambeau won his second US Open at Pinehurst in 2024, he often found himself in some uncompromising terrain. He is a box office gunslinger and no round of golf is mundane. The strength of his short game that week offered a masterclass in escapology. It was pure theatre in the North Carolina sunshine.
That tournament was not far from my mind when I took Bryson high up into the mountains of Colorado in January. I wanted to film him as a Final Frontier outlaw using the Durango to Silverton steam train as a prop. I know the track well and have often worked at one bend of the track in the early morning when the sun pops its head over the mountain to the east and backlights the whole amphitheatre. It’s almost too good a location to be real, rather like a Red Dead Redemption mood board.
If any golfer were to find his ball here on the cliff face and then get down in two, it probably would be Bryson. I am not sure which one of us was more concerned about the precipitous drop from where we were standing, but he certainly is game for most things.
The result is an extraordinary picture full of vitality and depth. His personality is well suited to this narrative; he is full of good energy and then there is material substance behind it.
Bryson was so excited to see the result of our adventure and that made me happy; it is rare to work with someone that is so emotionally invested in the final product.
I may be a European and have some team loyalties, but what a guy.