ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Remember when Bryson DeChambeau, bulked up like the Incredible Hulk and hitting golf shots so far you needed a telescope to follow them, looked like he was going to take over the world of golf, eat the sport whole? 

Remember when he was the most polarizing and fascinating figure in golf? 

That guy has been missing for a while. 

Too long, actually. 

Golf is more interesting when the 29-year-old DeChambeau is at or near the top of big-tournament leaderboards. 

And that’s exactly where he is after Thursday’s eye-opening first-round 4-under 66 to start the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club that has him one shot out of the lead held by Eric Cole, who was 5-under through 14 holes of his first round before play was suspended due to darkness. 

It’s seemed like DeChambeau has been in witness protection for the past year and a half since he joined LIV Golf — not only because he’s no longer playing on the PGA Tour (which lessens his profile), but because he hasn’t been playing well on the Saudi-backed tour. 

Not only has DeChambeau not won a LIV tournament, but in his 12 starts on the new tour, he’s posted just two top-5s and four top-10s. While those numbers may not look that bad, consider that LIV events have only 48-player fields and he was one of the marquee stars lured to play on that tour. 

This season, DeChambeau has finished tied for 23rd, tied for 44th, tied for 16th, tied for 26th, tied for 19th and tied for fifth last week in Tulsa. 

In his last nine 72-hole (non-LIV) tournaments, he’s missed the cut or withdrawn due to injury seven times. One of those tournaments was last month’s Masters, where he missed the cut. 

All the while as he’s tried to find his balance, DeChambeau has reversed field on the bulking up he did in 2020 when it looked like he was going to burst out of his skin, drastically changing his diet and streamlining his physique. 

It’s been a queasy roller-coaster ride. 

“The emotions have definitely fluctuated pretty high and pretty low, thinking I have something and it fails and going back and forth,’’ DeChambeau said. “It’s humbling. Golf — and life — always has a good way of kicking you on your you-know-what when you are on your high horse. It’s nice to feel this today.’’ 

Thursday felt like a breakthrough for DeChambeau, who captured his only career major in the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, which many players this week have been comparing to Oak Hill. 

When he was asked what he learned about himself Thursday, DeChambeau said, “That I can do it again. There have been some times in the past few years where I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know if I can hold it together for four rounds like I did at Winged Foot.’ But after today, I feel like I can.’’ 

Keegan Bradley, who was grouped with DeChambeau on Thursday and shot 68, said he was “happy’’ for his playing partner. 

“Geez, he played great,’’ Bradley, the 2011 PGA Championship winner, said. “It looked like Bryson to me. He hit the ball great, putted great, drove it really nice. It was good to see him. He was smashing drives again, and he played pretty much flawless golf.’’ 

DeChambeau sounded like he’s gotten tired of trying to change what he’s perceived as his flaws, constantly searching for a perfection that simply doesn’t exist. 

“I want to be just stable now,’’ he said. “I’m tired of changing, trying different things.’’ 

A significant turning point for DeChambeau came at the November 2020 COVID Masters, when he suffered some dizzy spells. 

That precipitated the weight loss, a process that included reducing his caloric intake from 5,000 a day to fewer than 3,000, losing 18 pounds in 24 days. Along the way, he’s battled through a hand injury that he says now is 100 percent. 

“I could have easily been like, ‘You know what, I had a great career, I’m good,’ ’’ he said. “There were times I doubted myself — severe doubts — but never got to a point where I was done. 

When asked if there were times, when the results weren’t there for extended periods of time, that he “hated’’ golf, DeChambeau said, “I don’t know if hate is the right word. I was disappointed and frustrated, like, ‘I’ve achieved this, why can’t I just do it every day?’ 

“That’s what we all think out here, but it’s definitely a game you can’t conquer.’’ 

That last statement most encapsulates how far DeChambeau appears to have come, because when he was bulking and hulking, he sounded like a guy who was sure he had all the answers to the test. 

Now, humbled and more mature, he understands that, in golf as in life, no one does.