BOLINGBROOK, Ill. — Bryson DeChambeau is doing a lot right now. In the last month his various interests have taken him from Spain to Northern Ireland to New York to England to the Mediterranean coast to Washington D.C. and, now, a week in Chicagoland, where in just a few minutes Wednesday he was practicing putting and texting with Roger Goodell and getting his hands on a new Titleist golf ball, all in advance of a late-afternoon meeting for the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, which he has selected to chair.
The 30-year-old pro golfer does indeed get tired, he says, but he feels “called” right now to do more than just play competitive golf and has been committing 15 to 20% of his days, by his estimate, to this newfound public service for the last few months. The council was officially announced by an executive order President Trump signed at the end of July.
DeChambeau is clearly one of the council’s most involved recruiters. That’s why he is texting Goodell, commissioner of the NFL and one of the most powerful people in sport. DeChambeau and another individual he declined to mention brought numerous ideas to Trump early in 2025 to reform the council. They saw, as DeChambeau called it, “a health epidemic that’s going on” and wanted to get very involved.
Initiative No. 1, he says, is “reestablish the Presidential Fitness Test and get kids into a curriculum that’s a little more dynamic for today’s health standards. What I mean by that is giving them attainable goals. A lot of the problems that we saw in the past were that the goals were too steep and the athletic kids would always win, right?
“So how do you give the kids that can never do a pull-up that incentive to do a pull-up? And when they do it, what does that mean for them, right? So I think that’s the goal we’re looking for is to give those kids more hope, empower them to be a better person, healthier person, and live a healthier lifestyle.”
DeChambeau himself is launching a multi-sport complex in his hometown, Clovis, Calif., that he thinks can promote youth sports and also build community. As much as any pro golfer, DeChambeau has publicly expounded on his interest in fitness and nutrition — which, it should be noted, hasn’t always worked out perfectly — but he will comfortably rattle off information about body degradation for people who don’t commit to a healthy lifestyle early in life.
The council is housed in the Department of Education, which has DeChambeau interfacing with the likes of Linda McMahon and working alongside Paul “Triple H” Levesque, a longtime professional wrestler. Hall of Fame golfer Annika Sorenstam is also part of the council and has been in conversations with DeChambeau about projects that pertain to junior golf and women’s golf. Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Nelly Korda were all listed as members of council, according to the White House, but DeChambeau insisted the totality of it is still being finalized.
One element he’s keen to see would be “more tax-incentivized possibilities for community complex centers to be built. Health and fitness community centers to be built across the nation.”
In a way, DeChambeau is talking about modernized YMCAs that might be more financially replicable country-wide. “Right now, it doesn’t make sense for private equity to invest in those things,” DeChambeau said. ”They’re pretty neutral, and we want to incentivize and create a program that allows people to make money while having a better, healthier lifestyle in that area.”
In the meantime, his vision starts with the Presidential Fitness Test, which is part of a curriculum DeChambeau sees taking root in schools in all 50 states by the end of the upcoming school year. Much of the details, he insists, are still being hammered out, but a rollout plan is expected to be released within the next month. The following is not necessarily locked in, but DeChambeau described a certification system that awards positive progress from whichever standard deviation of fitness an individual begins at.
“Every single tier that we have, you’ll have an award associated to it,” DeChambeau said. “So if they’re going from zero to one, they’ve got an ability to get an award. If you’re the top — if you’re in the first standard deviation, second standard deviation, and then the third — if you’re the top performer in all the state, you’re going to get something really, really cool.”
For some individuals “that have really amazing stories that have changed their whole health, lifestyle,” a White House visit might even be in the cards.
More ideas were certainly discussed on that 4:30 p.m. call DeChambeau took Wednesday, but Thursday brought him back to golf. He teed off in a pro-am alongside prospective business partners, no doubt intrigued by the man who will be a main draw for any fans driving to Bolingbrook for LIV’s weekend event. A natural question those golf fans might have — particularly if they were surprised to see a suited DeChambeau speaking from a dais in the White House’s Roosevelt Room last week — is why does one of the best golfers in the world want to get so involved in public service?
“When I was 15, I felt called,” DeChambeau said. “I felt called to do something really cool in the game of golf, and I’ve had that passion ever since. And when I won tournaments, it wasn’t ultimately fulfilling to me. Nor is anything in life truly fulfilling. I have faith, so I believe in something greater than me, how I’m called and what I believe in. But I always listen to what I feel called to do. And every time I’ve succeeded in a certain avenue — that’s great, but another door opens. Another door opens and I feel called to do that as well.”
Sean Zak
Sean Zak is a senior writer and author of Searching in St. Andrews, which followed his travels in Scotland during the most pivotal summer in the game’s history.
