DeChambeau’s Petulance is Unwatchable

It is often that you turn on a PGA Tour tournament and see Bryson DeChambeau throwing a tantrum over something that he did wrong and refuses to believe. In the beginning, it was easy to brush off as a one-off reaction that came out of frustration but as time goes on, DeChambeau has become unwatchable.

His newfound distance off the tee is completely lost behind a thick curtain of immaturity that shows up in nearly every one of his tournaments. Oftentimes players who consistently score well become arrogant and take a few jabs here and there at their opponents which is understandable. You have to believe you are the best at what you do when your livelihood is on the line.

That is not the case with DeChambeau.

During the third round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic, he put a ball in a greenside bunker. When he blasted the ball out of the sand, he slammed his club down in the sand because he was not satisfied. Next to him filming his bunker shot and following him out of the bunker and to the green was the lens of the Golf Channel cameraman. After DeChambeau made a bogey on the hole, he walked over to the cameraman and started to berate him for filming him — or doing his job. Bryson made a bogey and just had to blame someone.

DeChambeau has been criticized numerous times for how slowly he plays and at the Northern Trust Open, it came to a head. On one of the holes he hit an errant shot left of the green then spent three full minutes sizing up a 70-yard shot before hitting it. Even worse, later in the tournament he spent over two minutes reading an eight-foot putt. An eight-foot putt. Which he missed by nearly two cups.

At the Memorial Tournament he hit a drive that landed on the other side of someone’s backyard fence and out of bounds. The ball was clearly out of bounds but Bryson called a rules official over to see if he could climb over the fence and hit the ball. The official said no, the ball is out of bounds. DeChambeau’s response was, “I don’t believe it. Can I get a second ruling?” He did not get the answer he wanted so like a child, he tried to go to the other parent. He did not get to hit the ball and made a double-bogey.

To round out this year so far, of the incidents that we know about, at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, Bryson drove a tee shot left into some trees. When he got to his ball he called a rules official over and said that his ball was on a fire ant hill and he should get free relief. The official said no because he did not see an ant hill or any danger to DeChambeau which the rule stipulates. Not accepting the answer, Bryson spent three minutes trying to convince the official that there was an ant hill, animal holes, or anything so that he could move his ball where he wanted. He was denied, again.

The man is 26 years old and has the maturity level of someone at least 10 years younger. He blames other people for his bad shots, tries to convince officials to break rules so that he can get what he wants and purposefully plays as slowly as possible because he knows that it bothers people. That is in no way respecting the game and the other Tour players around you. For that reason, Bryson DeChambeau is completely unwatchable and does not deserve to win any major tournaments or have lasting success until he grows up.

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