As anticipation builds for the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, one of golf’s most respected broadcast voices is rooting for a man who hasn’t always followed the script. “The sport needs a superhero,” he said—unprompted, unwavering, and fully in on the idea that Bryson DeChambeau might just be that larger-than-life figure. During a recent episode of The Smylie Show podcast, the longtime broadcaster laid out an impassioned case for why DeChambeau brings something to the game that even stars like Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas can’t replicate.

The voice belongs to Mike Tirico, the veteran NBC Sports anchor. Tirico used his moment at The Smylie Show not just to hype a favorite, but also to make a broader point: golf needs characters, and Bryson is one of the few players who can actually change the energy of a tournament just by showing up.

“Like, what—what would you say if you asked me, “What’s your takeaway from the last U.S. Open and Masters?” Tirico asked himself. “It’s how much I miss Bryson. I like him a lot.” That admiration, he said, grew from spending time with DeChambeau at Augusta National several years ago. “I love his brain, his purpose, all that stuff,” Tirico said. “And I’m so excited that the switch has flipped and he is now kind of man-of-the-people-ish, right?”

Tirico didn’t hesitate to draw comparisons between DeChambeau and some of golf’s most polarizing fan favorites. Phil Mickelson and John Daly. “There’s a little bit of the Mickelson–Daly-type love from fans for him,” he said. “And I think the sport needs that, right?” The comment wasn’t a criticism of golf’s current stars, but a reality check about what draws broader interest. DeChambeau has always played the game differently, from single-length irons to high-speed drives, but it’s his evolving persona that now resonates most. “The game needs personalities,” he said. “We’ve got guys who can hit it 320. We’ve got guys who can lead the Tour in strokes gained putting. We’ve got the short game wizards. We’ve got all of that, right?” Tirico continued. “What we need is personality.”

It’s not that the PGA TOUR lacks marketable names. “Scottie [Scheffler] is doing it because of his play,” Tirico noted. “Rory [McIlroy] does it—his play and a little bit of his style, the way he does it. JT [Justin Thomas] does as well. And [Jordan] Spieth—when he’s speeding all over the golf course and he’s making four from, you know, a hundred yards right, left of the fairway—that thrills people.” But even with their world-class games and occasional flashes of flair, they don’t always command the kind of unpredictable, must-watch energy that draws in casual fans. Tirico argues, few possess the same unpredictability and magnetism that defined Tiger Woods in his prime. “There aren’t many other guys who kind of hit that magnet and make you go, ‘Man, I can’t wait to see what he’s going to do next.’ That was the magic of Tiger, to me,” he said. “Why did, like, my mom care about when Tiger was playing? Because you might see something with every shot that you’ve never seen before. And that was, to me, the magnetic quality.”

And that’s where DeChambeau fits in today’s landscape: part scientist, part showman, and increasingly, part fan favorite. Someone who experiments with golf clubs and also has a big fan following because of a YouTube channel, which brings fans who are not even into the world of golf. “I’ve always wondered: if Bryson had like a Scheffler or a Rory run, would people start to say, ‘Maybe these one-length clubs make sense’?” Tirico said with a laugh.

And when it comes to growing the sport, Tirico was blunt. Because, as he put it, even the Masters’ peak audience of 17 million pales in comparison to the NFL or NBA.  “That Masters—the peak audience was 17 million. That’s a high number, right? Okay. That’s a below-average Sunday Night Football game,” he said. “The more people who come to the TV to see a personality, a star, that really helps the game. Because it keeps people attached.” That’s why Tirico believes golf doesn’t just need DeChambeau, it needs more like him. In Tirico’s view, golf doesn’t just need winners, it needs characters. It needs the unexpected. It needs someone who makes fans say, “I have no idea what he’s about to do—but I’m watching.” That’s the kind of player Tirico wants to see on the Ryder Cup stage. And that’s the kind of personality golf, quite simply, can’t afford to lose.

But not everyone in the golf world buys into DeChambeau’s superhero arc the way Mike Tirico does. While broadcasters and fans may be captivated by Bryson’s larger-than-life presence, some of his PGA Tour peers see the theatrics as more sideshow than substance.

PGA Tour stars push back on DeChambeau’s ‘superhero’ persona

And for many inside the ropes, it wasn’t just about Rory giving him the cold shoulder. It was another chapter in what they view as DeChambeau’s inconsistent and at times performative persona. Golf Channel analyst and former Tour pro Brandel Chamblee didn’t mince words. “Bryson is kind of mercurial,” he said. “He’s got a lot of Phil Mickelson in him.” Chamblee pointed to DeChambeau’s erratic image reinvention– from bulking up into a bomber, to retooling his swing, to softening his public tone post-LIV– but emphasized that none of it has truly moved the needle with his peers. “They don’t necessarily buy that,” Chamblee said. “Not his peer perception. They don’t look at him like that.”

The criticism stems partly from DeChambeau’s defection to LIV Golf in 2022 and the fallout that followed. “You can’t forget that Bryson went to LIV, and LIV sued the PGA Tour,” Chamblee noted. “They would love if the PGA Tour was destroyed and folded. They would in a minute do that.”

Even in victory, Rory McIlroy seemed to hold firm to that division. Sports psychologist Bob Rotella, who works closely with McIlroy, later said that Rory’s silence toward DeChambeau was intentional, not personal animosity, but a boundary.

As the Ryder Cup looms, with DeChambeau a serious candidate for selection, so too does the question: does the U.S. team need a showman, or do they need someone their stars can rally behind?