Bryson DeChambeau! The name that has impressed everyone this year with his remarkable game at golf’s grandest stages. Even though he joined LIV Golf and had to face scathing backlash from the community, no one can deny his extensive range of skills. In the first two majors, he finished T6 at Augusta and T2 at Valhalla, and he and his family must have been very happy! But there would have been someone that DeChambeau might have missed. His father, Jon.

Jon DeChambeau passed away in November 2022, at the age of 63. Although no information regarding his cause of death is out in public, his son confirmed one thing: his long sufferings before he left the world. What was it that the elder DeChambeau was diagnosed with?

Bryson DeChambeau’s father’s prolonged sufferings

It was back in the 1990s when Jon DeChambeau was diagnosed with diabetes. He continued to feel its effects at their peak for almost three decades, and exactly ten years ago, DeChambeau witnessed both his kidneys failing him. A year later, when his son, Bryson DeChambeau, won the 2015 US Amateur, Jon was blessed by an old connection with whom he played high school golf, Ron Bankofier, who gave his friend one of his kidneys in 2017.

According to NBC Sports, “A year prior to the donation from Ron Bankofier, who hadn’t talked to Jon in 27 years before a two-hour phone conversation in the summer of 2015 eventually led to the gift of life, Jon’s health was failing. He said in 2016 that he put on 35 pounds of toxin and fluid weight as the peritoneal dialysis he was on stopped working.”

Jon DeChambeau had to go through hemodialysis very frequently. He also had foot surgery, which ultimately resulted in getting his left leg amputated. Still, he dealt with his debilitating disease while cheering on his son from afar. But what events did Jon DeChambeau attend in person?

Jon DeChambeau’s presence in his son’s games

DeChambeau’s father was a golf teacher in Fresno, California. Although it was he who encouraged Bryson DeChambeau to move forward in golf, he barely had any chances to be present in his son’s tournaments.

In his post on his X handle when Bryson DeChambeau announced his father’s demise, he also wrote, “Love you, Dad. I’m sad to see you go, but you’ve been through way too much pain in this life. I’m so happy you are at peace. Now you get to be with me and watch me at every event I play. Thank you for being an amazing Dad and I’ll see you in the next life.”

During his 2015 US Amateurs, Jon DeChambeau flew in the suburbs of Chicago at the Olympia Fields Country Club, just for a day. This was the very first time when Bryson DeChambeau’s father saw him play in person. He later suggested during his Masters week in 2016, “Before that [2015 US Amateurs], he hasn’t been able to see me play, quite honestly, at all, through college or nothing. But for him to be here for this moment, it’s special. And it chokes me up.”

Bryson DeChambeau also revealed at his Masters debut that his father had not attended any of his tournaments after the U.S. Amateur either. Yet he was bestowed with his father’s presence that very week. According to NBC Sports, “Jon managed to attend his son’s Masters debut in April 2016, undergoing rounds of hemodialysis between his son’s rounds at Augusta National.” However due to his foot surgery, when he went to see his son play in the Masters, he was riding a motorized wheelchair.

A few years ago, the golfer shared a special Father’s Day message: “Happy Father’s Day to my dad who has always pushed me further than I thought I could go and believed in me to see it through.” This Father’s Day, Bryson DeChambeau will certainly find a subtle emptiness with his father gone. But as he believes that his father will be present with him at all times, do you think he can win yet another major by winning this year’s US Open? Let us know in the comments below.