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Bryson DeChambeau and his parents, Jon and Jan DeChambeau, have been through a lot. Bryson’s father spent years waiting for a kidney transplant and finally found a match in 2017.
“Donating a kidney is something that every person can do, but not every person will,” Jon told Golf Week.
Jon connected with an old high school friend who was a perfect match. Since the surgery, Jon is able to watch his son play golf again. Like his son, Jon spent time in the golf business. Bryson’s dad had a brief stint playing professionally and also worked as an assistant golf pro. Jon recently worked for Verishot, a golf social media company.
Learn more about the DeChambeau family.
1. Bryson’s Dad Received a New Kidney in 2017 After Waiting For Nearly 3 Years
According to Golf Week, Bryson’s father had both of his kidneys fail in 2014 as a result of a long battle with diabetes. After a long wait, Jon received a kidney in 2017 from a high school friend. At the time of the surgery, Bryson was going through a bit of a slump on the course, but the good news put everything in perspective.
“Despite the fact that all this stuff is going on, it’s more important that my dad is getting a kidney today,” Bryson told Golf Week in 2017. “It’s been a long time coming, and I’m just happy that he’s going to be healthy and going to be able to come out and watch me play, because he hasn’t been able to these past two to three years.”
Golf Week detailed Jon’s health challenges prior to the surgery.
Jon DeChambeau, 57, had needed a kidney since both of his failed in 2014 as a result of a lengthy battle with diabetes. He started dialysis shortly after, but after losing part of his right foot because of his diabetes, DeChambeau put on 35 pounds of toxin and fluid weight, forcing doctors to switch him to hemodialysis.
He initially had an emergency port installed in his chest for the dialysis machine, which essentially serves as a mechanical kidney, in order to attend last year’s Masters, where Bryson competed as an amateur. Soon after, Jon had a fistula (a connection between an artery and a vein) built in his arm to hook up to his dialysis machine.
2. Bryson Calls His Mother a “Saint”
While Jon was battling health issues, his mother was his main support. Bryson noted that his mom ended up with a lot of the care-taking responsibilities prior to his surgery.
“My mom was a saint through it all, helping him get to certain places and do certain things,” Bryson explained to Golf Week. “There were times he couldn’t drive because his eyes got bad; his system wasn’t flushing out the bad stuff. It was just staying in his system and creating high blood pressure and other stuff. It was just bad.”
According to Golf Channel, Jon had to have one of his legs amputated as the result of diabetes.
3. Bryson’s Dad Connected With His Eventual Kidney Donor at a Charity Golf Tournament
According to Fresno Bee, the family organized a charity golf tournament to raise money for the Fresno Nephrology Kidney Foundation. At the tournament, Jon reconnected with an old high school friend, Ron Bankofier. It turns out the two had the same O-positive blood type, making a kidney donation possible. Ron ended up donating his kidney to Jon once they found out the good news.
“Our blood tests were so close the doctor asked if we were related in some way,” Jon explained to Fresno Bee. “I said, ‘We’re both from Winnemucca. Does that count?’…The kidney is working just fine, I’m making my own urine and cleaning out toxins, and my buddy is doing good, too. We talk every day.”
4. Bryson’s Family Helped Him Lean on His Christian Faith When He Was Battling Depression
Bryson was not always playing at a PGA level. During his early years at SMU, Bryson struggled with depression when he was not playing as well as he wanted on the golf course.
“There were times, that Bryson would call home after a tournament he didn’t do well in and wonder, ‘Why is God doing this to me? I practice harder than everyone else,'” Jan told Golf Digest.
Bryson explained that he had become obsessed with golf, and it was impacting his entire life.
“I was severely depressed,” Bryson admitted to Golf Digest. “I was shooting 75s and 76s and becoming just a terrible, awful person to be around. I saw that I had made my golf score the center of my life. That was my problem…People think Christianity is this kind of medication that makes things easier, when in fact it’s the toughest route you could ever go down. Because it holds you to a high, high standard—which is doing your best at every moment.”
5. Bryson Re-Wrote His High School Physics Text Book to Save His Parents Money
Bryson’s unorthodox approach to golf has been well-documented, but the golfer also approaches his life in much the same way. When he found out the cost of his high school physics textbook, he decided to copy it by hand as a way to save his parents money. According to Golf Digest, the book was 180 pages, and Bryson borrowed the book from the library until he finished writing it in his own notebook.
“My parents could have bought one for me, but they had done so much for me in golf that I didn’t want to bother them in asking for a $200 book,” Bryson explained to Golf Digest. “… By writing it down myself I was able to understand things on a whole comprehensive level.”
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Bryson DeChambeau’s Family: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know