The Ryder Cup is a friendly, nonpolitical competition of golf rivals, a gathering where the focus is entirely on what happens inside the ropes, regardless of what happened before or how every player arrived at the course.
And if you believe that, well, you’d probably believe Keegan Bradley’s holding a spot open on the team for you.
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The early Main Character of this year’s Ryder Cup: Bryson DeChambeau, the two-time U.S. Open winner, social media superstar, lone U.S. LIV Golf representative and chatty lightning rod. DeChambeau attracts, and generates, attention wherever he goes, often even before he arrives.
Earlier this summer, DeChambeau in Rory McIlroy’s ear during the Ryder Cup. (This came during a “Happy Gilmore 2” press tour, naturally.) In response, McIlroy , saying of DeChambeau, “I think the only way he gets attention is by mentioning other people. That is basically what I think of that. To get attention he will mention me or Scottie [Scheffler] or others.”
Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee, a longtime LIV Golf critic, took McIlroy’s comments and ran with them, ripping both DeChambeau and LIV on Monday. “Nobody watches [LIV], he doesn’t get any attention,” Chamblee said. “So, when he does come out, there’s a bit of a circus-barker element to it to drum up some interest for himself.”
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But Chamblee didn’t stop there, attacking DeChambeau’s love of the YouTube view as a sign of his awkward fit with the rest of the U.S. team.
“He’s going to be such a difficult person to get paired with,” Chamblee said. “No doubt he’s one hell of a golfer, no doubt he has his moments and generosity with fans, I’ve heard about it. But he’s an odd duck when he’s trying to blend in with the team. And he has so many potential bulletin board mistakes, and I think he would be a captain’s nightmare.”
No gray area there. DeChambeau is scheduled to speak Wednesday morning, where he’ll undoubtedly respond in his own way to the jabs. He’s played his practice rounds on Monday and Tuesday with Justin Thomas, Cameron Young and Ben Griffin.
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In an indirect response to Chamblee’s criticism of DeChambeau’s fit, several other members of the United States team had nothing but praise for DeChambeau on Tuesday morning.
“Bryson is a tremendous competitor,” Scheffler said. “He’s a great partner as well. I partnered with him in 2021 at Whistling Straits and he was a tremendous guy to be out [on the] golf course with. He’s a great guy and a good friend and he’s been great in our team room.”
“I feel like Bryson could be like the difference for us in a strange way from the standpoint of feeding into these fans, the style of golf he plays,” Xander Schauffele said. “This is his arena. If he views himself as a gladiator golfer, this is as good as it gets.”
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