It’s tough to find two bigger, or more different, golf stars than Rory McIlory and Bryson DeChambeau. McIlroy is the PGA Tour posted child. DeChambeau is LIV’s great hope. McIlroy is private and polices his boundaries closely. DeChambeau is an open book, living much of his life on social media. These contrasts fueled a cold war of words between the pair in 2025, with DeChambeau alleging McIlroy didn’t speak to him the entire final round at the Masters and McIlroy saying that DeChambeau only mentions him when he wants attention.
With the 2026 Masters now approaching, the pair’s differences have been cast in stark relief once again. In a new teaser for ‘The Masters Wait,’ Amazon Prime’s upcoming documentary on Rory McIlroy‘s 2025 Masters triumph, McIlroy explained a situation that occurred during the final round last April that perfectly illustrates why the pair may never see eye to eye.
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According to McIlroy, the pair weren’t sure who was away after their approach shots, at which point DeChambeau allegedly offered to flip a tee to decide who would putt first. McIlroy was not having it.
“Both of us want to putt first, because if you can hole that putt before your opponent, it puts pressure on them” McIlroy explains. “He [DeChambeau] goes ‘so why don’t we just throw a tee up for it to see who goes first?’ I’m like ‘no, this is the final round of the Masters, this isn’t some game on a Tuesday afternoon somewhere!’ I wasn’t going to wilt in that situation, I was going to stand firm.”
McIlroy says he offered to call over a rules official, but DeChambeau relented and allowed McIlroy to putt first. McIIroy made his, DeChambeau missed his, and the rest is history.
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There’s not necessarily a right or wrong in this scenario. Just two contrasting approaches to the game of golf. In all likelihood, DeChambeau wasn’t trying to pull one over on McIlroy, he was just doing what he would do in an episode of ‘Break 50.’ McIlory, meanwhile, was well within his rights to say no, and in the end that proved to be the smart tactical decision. The situation does raise one interesting question though:
If McIlroy “didn’t talk to me once all day,” as DeChambeau alleged about last year’ final round, then what was this? Food for thought …
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