Mike Schy wants to be clear — he hated posting the news that the Central Valley Jon DeChambeau Memorial Junior Tour, “where champions play,” would be closing its doors due to a “lack of funding.” But from his perspective, he could no longer wait for his longtime pupil, Bryson DeChambeau, who he said reneged on underwriting the cost of the tour, to step up and do what he felt was the right thing.
“Bryson has decided this was not a priority to him, offering only to loan money to his father’s namesake,” Schy, 63, wrote in his official statement online. Reached via phone on Tuesday night as he walked his dogs, rescues from China and Turkey, he told Golfweek he stalled for three weeks before posting his official statement on social media.
“I had to post that. I’m a little pissed. I’m a little salty for a number of reasons, one of which is he made me look bad again,” Schy said.
DeChambeau, who often has referred to Schy as “a second father,” says he hasn’t worked with Schy since 2018 and paid him nearly $1 million for his prior services. He now called Schy a “disgruntled employee” and he and his agent have charged the coach with trying to extort $2 million after DeChambeau won the U.S. Open last month.
“It’s a complete and utter lie, all of it,” DeChambeau said in a phone conversation with Golfweek on Wednesday. “It’s a disgruntled former employee, unfortunately, and it is what it is. We’ve had numerous conversations and it hasn’t worked out from a business standpoint.
“It’s quite disappointing how he’s turned this and spun this. It’s a non-recourse loan that was going out. I gave him my dad’s name, image and likeness for free on the assumption we’d have a good business plan and it just hasn’t worked out. I’m going to be doing a lot for my community, just in a different fashion with a proper business plan and done correctly.”
What started as a story about a local junior tour closing up shop has evolved into something much more dramatic – the end of what had been a special player-coach relationship with a pair of non-conformists who seemed made for each other. It’s also a story that DeChambeau doesn’t want you to read.
“I’m at a high point right now and I’m a big character right now and I’m trying to do what’s right for the game of golf and you’re trying to bring my image down to hurt the game of golf essentially,” DeChambeau said. “This just ain’t a story, it’s a disgruntled employee, my friend.”
It’s a sad tale, but it must be told.
DeChambeau, Schy teamed up on events
A year and a half ago, Schy and DeChambeau were talking when Schy expressed his disappointment at how junior golf tournaments had priced many of his students out of competing. DeChambeau, who grew up in Clovis, California, and learned the game under Schy’s watchful eye at the Mike Schy Golf Performance Institute at what is now known as Dragonfly Golf Club in Madera, a suburb of Fresno, didn’t have the financial support to play a national schedule of junior tournaments. Schy figured there were about 14 affordable events for DeChambeau to choose from in the Fresno area that helped him cut his teeth.
“They are all gone,” Schy lamented. “The one or two we have charge entry fees in the neighborhood of $200.”
Schy suggested to DeChambeau that they team up to do something to fill the void. DeChambeau nodded in agreement and listened. Schy said he thought DeChambeau understood that it was the right thing to do for their community. When Schy proposed naming it the Bryson DeChambeau Junior Tour, DeChambeau had a better idea.
“Let’s name it after my dad,” he said.
Last summer, Schy did a test run at Madera Country Club, attracting 70 kids between the ages of 12 and 18 and charging $60. DeChambeau did a welcome video for the inaugural event. It worked well enough that Schy did a few more events at other local country clubs. In September, DeChambeau asked him how much he needed for the second year.
According to DeChambeau, Schy asked for $125,000 for two years to get the tour off the ground. (A draft of a line of credit document from DeChambeau’s camp indicates the actual amount was $130,000.) Schy described the amount for DeChambeau as being equivalent to his coach dipping into his wallet and giving $3.
“I know Bryson and I knew he didn’t really want to give the money and I certainly knew he didn’t want to give it for a long period of time,” Schy said.
At their next meeting, Schy said DeChambeau, who fronted the cost of creating the 501-C3 foundation, told him he isn’t a fan of non-profits and he needed to make money off the tour. Schy said DeChambeau agreed to give the money but as a non-recourse loan for the tour, adding he wouldn’t need to repay the loan.
“What does that even mean?” Schy asked. “It was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard.”
DeChambeau claims he was never presented a viable business plan, and DeChambeau’s agent, Brett Falkoff, a vice president in the golf division at GSE Worldwide, contends that the 501-C3 was set up incorrectly in the state of California and no official paperwork was ever signed.
“It is our understanding that initially, they had only filed the certificate of incorporation (not attached) with the California Secretary of State and had not prepared bylaws or any other organizational documents. After requesting copies of the bylaws, it appears they then prepared some form bylaws and sent the attached bylaws to Connor Olson [DeChambeau’s manager]. The bylaws provided were not consistent with the stated intent of the Tour and would not have been adequate to support the proposed Tour activities. At that point, Bryson authorized his personal attorney to prepare bylaws that were consistent with the stated purposes of the Tour and would permit the Tour to function as intended,” Falkoff wrote in an email.
“The new bylaws were prepared, at Bryson’s expense, and were completed sometime in June along with the Line of Credit Note that would have allowed Bryson to fund the Tour’s initial operations. Once the revised bylaws were approved and executed, there were a few additional resolutions that would have been prepared related to the makeup of the board of directors and authorizing the signing of the note.
“It did not appear that an attorney was consulted about the process for forming the new entity, which is why the cleanup was necessary. It would have been irresponsible for Bryson to advance money to the Tour entity prior to getting the proper documentation completed and signed.”
Receipt of the certificate to Olson was received on March 6. A month later, they requested bylaws and other required documents from Schy and his fellow board member Brandon McQueen. On June 5, DeChambeau’s lawyer reviewed and prepared the revised bylaws and six days before he won the U.S. Open, a line of credit to facilitate the funding was prepared.
Schy was planning on doing four or five junior tour events this year, but once DeChambeau started ignoring him he grew more concerned about how he could keep the tour afloat. He sought other means to do so but those fell through, too. Tournaments were scheduled to begin in mid-June and parents started wondering what was going on. Schy said he heard only from DeChambeau’s management.
Falkoff confirmed that was the case and offered an explanation for the delay. “Had Bryson not won the U.S. Open and a million things hadn’t come up that we’re trying to sort through maybe something would’ve gotten done a little quicker,” Falkoff said. “We still had all the documents. I told Mike to be patient and he decided not to be patient anymore. He decided to go nuclear.”
Schy, who said he was told “his bark was worse than his bite,” felt he had no choice but to close the doors and go public with the story. “It was looking…
