Who Is Pro Golfer Bryson DeChambeau's Girlfriend, Lilia Schneider?
Bryson DeChambeau isn't just garnering attention for his golf game. The 2020 U.S. Open champ made the career-altering decision to join the controversial LIV Golf series, which touts tournaments with hefty purses and huge signing bonuses. According to the New York Post, DeChambeau is being paid around $100 million to bring his star power to the series.
Per The New York Times, LIV Golf has faced some criticism because it's financed by Saudi Arabia, a country known for its abysmal human rights record. But in addition to DeChambeau, it has attracted talent such as Phil Mickelson, Sergio García, and Dustin Johnson. Players who signed on for the series were suspended from the PGA Tour, and DeChambeau also lost his Rocket Mortgage sponsorship over the move, per Yahoo! Sport Australia.
But DeChambeau did get plenty of love from LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman, who said of the star player, "Bryson DeChambeau is an exciting addition to LIV Golf's supercharged style of play ... The power and energy he brings to the course will deliver added electricity to our competition in Portland and beyond" (via Yahoo! Sport Australia). However, DeChambeau's performance at the LIV Golf Invitational-Chicago in September 2022 almost got overshadowed by the presence of the golfer's girlfriend, social media influencer Lilia Schneider.
Bryson DeChambeau's ex speaks up after suffering a case of mistaken identity
When Bryson DeChambeau hit the links in Chicago, he made the New York Post, but the headline was not about his golf game. Instead, it read, "Mystery woman appears with Bryson DeChambeau at LIV Golf event." The outlet published a photo of the woman in question seated beside DeChambeau in a golf cart. She was wearing what appeared to be a black tank dress, white sneakers, and a pair of dark sunglasses that helped make her harder to identify.
According to OutKick, a photo agency erroneously identified DeChambeau's blond golf cart companion as his ex, UTSA golfer Hunter Nugent. But Nugent reached out to the outlet to clear up the mix-up, saying that she and DeChambeau were no longer dating. She was also able to share the identity of his new girlfriend: Lilia Schneider, another college golfer with blond hair.
As of this writing, Schneider is a sophomore at Marian University in Indianapolis. As a freshman, she competed in the UPike Fall Invite and came in 24th place, per her profile on the school's website. It was her only tournament that year. As a sophomore, she finished with a 45th-place tie at the Music City Invitational in Tennessee. So she doesn't quite possess her boyfriend's prowess on the golf course — but her social media game is strong.
Could Lilia Schneider be the next Paige Spiranac?
Lilia Schneider is active on social media, with OutKick likening her content to that of retired pro golfer Paige Spiranac, who has amassed a large number of followers by blurring the lines between her sport and modeling, often rocking revealing outfits while showing off her golf swing.
Schneider, who hails from Michigan, has just over 45,000 followers on Instagram as of this writing, so she has a way to go before catching up to Spiranac; the "OG Insta golf girl" boasts over 3.6 million fans on the platform. Many of Schneider's posts are your typical Instagram influencer fare, such as bikini pics and shots of her posing in different stylish outfits. She occasionally tags clothing brands, including Revolve and ARO Swim, which could indicate that she's getting paid to promote the companies' products. However, her posts lack the sponsored content designation.
Like Spiranac, Schneider also shares golf content on Instagram, and she gets similar reactions from her followers. "When did golf start looking so good?" one admirer wrote in response to a video of Schneider practicing her drive. But we're guessing Schneider won't publicly poke fun at Bryson DeChambeau the way Spiranac has. At the same tournament where Schneider was misidentified as his ex, DeChambeau ran face-first into a spectator rope — and got mercilessly roasted by Spiranac on Twitter. In a video, she joked about how he came dangerously close to being decapitated and blinded by the partition.
Lilia Schneider showed off her dramatic transformation on TikTok
Lilia Schneider is also active on TikTok, where she shares a mixture of comedic clips, golf content, and lip-sync videos. As of this writing, she's more popular on there than she is on Instagram, with over 156,000 fans following her account.
Like Bryson DeChambeau, who packed on 40 pounds of muscle to improve his golf game, per The New York Times, Schneider also underwent a dramatic transformation, and she shared it on TikTok. One of her videos begins with a still photo of Schneider with brunette hair. It's followed by shots of the influencer posing like a model in skimpy bikinis while rocking blonde hair and a tan. She also looks slimmer, and she references her weight loss in another video. "I used to be very insecure and hate my body," she writes. "So I decided to do something about it."
Other fast facts Schneider's fans have learned from her social media accounts include that she has a look-alike sister and an adorable pet pooch named Birdie. She also revealed that she played volleyball for 10 years before switching to golf — a decision she does not regret.