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In any other sport, calling a player with the wrong handle wouldn’t result in the top 100 insults being thrown in his path. Call out, “Hey Max, Max Muncy!” at Freddie Freeman’s, and he’d break a rib with laughter. But in an address to the media in East Lake on Tuesday, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said that there is no place in his sport for such malicious false names and that doing so is against the tour’s code of conduct.
“The barometer we all use is the word ‘respect’. began the commissioner. “It’s been like that for a long time. For me this is currently disrespectful and we will not tolerate such behavior in the future. “
When you have a man who walks the fine line between fascination and idiot, these are the types of problems you will face. Then add the fact that he owns an 800 pound game of golf and that makes DeChambeau the headliner at the start of this week’s Tour Championship.
It’s only natural that DeChambeau should get so much attention, and it’s actually beneficial in some ways. Because golf needs that kind of irritation, like an oyster needs a grain of sand to make a pearl.
The whole “Brooksie” thing came to a head on Sunday after DeChambeau lost an excruciating six-hole playoff to Patrick Cantlay in Baltimore, and when he was leaving he was hit by the phone call that annoyed him. DeChambeau reportedly hooked up the heckler, threw an “F” bomb in his path and ordered authorities to remove someone who was about to leave.
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Bryson DeChambeau reacts after missing a putt on the 17th green, the third playoff hole against Patrick Cantlay during the final round of the BMW Championship golf tournament on Sunday, August 29, 2021, at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Md. (Julio Cortez / AP)
Photo credit: Julio Cortez
Photo credit: Julio Cortez
Granted, this probably wasn’t the first time in this particular fan’s life that he deserved a bloody nose. But a professional athlete the stature of DeChambeau – no less than a US Open winner – should be able to walk past such an unimportant encounter easily.
As Stewart Cink of Atlanta, another of the adorable 30 players in the Tour Championship, put it so aptly on Tuesday: “When we expect to be one of the big sports and gamble for the kind of money we play for and if the sponsors and fans have to attract, then you have to be ready to appear in front of fans of the big league. “
And some big league fans are idiots.
There is just so much that stands in the way of DeChambeau’s gripping game. To be a polarizing golfer you have to work very hard, and he’s up to the task.
DeChambeau came to the game with the intent to rock it to the core with his one-size-fits-all rackets and his promise to overwhelm the game. Trying to be the smartest guy in the room doesn’t always go well with the room.
When things went wrong, he seemed too quick to blame anyone and everything but himself when he recently tore up his driver and drew a reprimand from the company that pays him to use it. Or when he slammed a club into a bunker in anger and then went after the cameraman who was capturing the moment because he dared to hurt his image.
Then he really got in after missing the Olympics due to COVID-19. He said he was unvaccinated because he was young and healthy and wanted to keep the vaccine for those who really needed it. Smart people can sound pretty stupid at times, and social media had great fun making that remark.
What DeChambeau has to say about this, well, you have to deliver your own soundtrack. The man with third FedEx Cup points and a very real chance of winning the Tour Championship is in the midst of a personal boycott of the press conference. Oh, that golf media, second only to the White House press corps when it comes to the awkward question.
Officially, the tour envelops DeChambeau in a warm blanket of understanding.
Commissioner Monahan said: “Bryson is a star. Since our return to golf, it has fascinated golf and sports fans all over the world. He’s also a young man who is growing and developing, not just on the golf course but off the golf course as well. … I don’t think this will be the case for a long time. … But he is working on some things and he will have my and our support as he continues to do so. “
In the meantime, don’t call him Brooks Koepka. But feel free to give me a call anytime. Koepka looks like a movie star, has a game of golf that was kissed by the gods, and made nearly $ 37 million from a game. Yes, I was called worse.