Too many of the talking heads thought that last week’s WGC event in Memphis was Bryson DeChambeau’s to lose on Sunday.
Little did they know that The Great Bryson Meltdown was waiting there on the back nine at TPC Southwind. Little did they know that things would start going totally haywire for the distance-obsessed, vaccine-passing, slow-playing, driver-dissing Count Of Controversy, aka The Mad Scientist.
What transpired over those final nine holes was nothing short of pure ugliness as the play deteriorated to pure hackdom — a pair of doubles from poor Harris English looked pretty bad but those were trumped by Bryson’s triple-bogey at the par three 11th where he found the water for a second consecutive hole.
Bryson’s WGC victory hopes vanished faster than Tim Tucker at the Rocket Mortgage.
Then came the chants. Yes, the chants, the “Brooksie!” chants as the crowds got a bit ugly and bullied Bryson into submission.
You might recall those chants originated back at the PGA last May at Kiawah. DeChambeau shrugged them off, even calling them “flattering.” He added: “They can keep calling me that all day if they want to. I’ve got no issue with it.”
Bad move. All Bryson did with that move was encourage future hecklers — and they showed up strong in Memphis. Just call it the old “Tennessee Taunt.”
English heard it and he basically got sucked up into this latest DeChambeau Circus and the Sultan Of Slow play made English his latest victim. Harris had no pace of play issues all week at TPC Southwind, until he wound up in the final pairing with The Snail.
English and DeChambeau were put on the clock at the turn, they were losing ground quickly to the next-to-last group and eventually fell a hole behind.
By day’s end, English destroyed his hopes for a third win this season with those two doubles on the back nine par threes. His tee shot at the 14th was a veritable shank. And this from a guy who struck it with perfection for most of the week. The DeChambeau Show got to him, although he’d be the last guy to admit it. Harris, being the southern gentleman he is, even came to Bryson’s defense when the crowd turned on DeChambeau.
“It’s not real fair for them to call him ‘Brooksie’ a lot,” English said after he shot himself out of it. He was kind enough to speak to the media afterward, DeChambeau wasn’t. “It kind of sucks and obviously he hears it, and it affects him a little bit and he doesn’t like it, and I think that causes them to do it more. It just sucks that that’s out here right now, that they’re trying to irk people like that. It’s just unfortunate,” Harris added.
For the record, a testament to his gentlemanly ways, English is one of the very, very few players to defend DeChambeau.
Lately, DeChambeau has been tough to defend. He bad-mouthed his equipment company, he gave the impression there’s not enough COVID vaccine to go around, he’s disputed rules officials and all this on top of his pace of play or lack thereof.
On top of all that, outside of his win at Bay Hill, it hasn’t been a good year for Bryson on the course. He was miserable in the majors — T46 at The Masters, T38 at the PGA, T26 at the U.S. Open and T33 at the Open Championship.
His tee shots have been finding the wrong zip codes and his distance control with all those six-irons in his back has been lackluster at best.
Bryson’s been trying to make friends. He signs autographs, give golf balls to kids, acknowledges spectators when you don’t expect him to.
Once upon a time, Bryson went on the record to say: “I’m a good dude.”
There’s only one problem.
No one else is saying that.
6 Comments
AllanC
While Bryson certainly deserves criticism for some of his antics and what he has said, there is no excuse for the idiots who feel they have to taunt him. They belong with the other idiots who feel they have to shout “Get in the hole” when a golfer hits a tee shot on a par 4 or 5, or those numbskulls who shout “Mashed potatoes” or “Bababooie” after a tee shot. What ever happened to civility on a golf course?
Tom Edrington
Bryson encouraged it by saying he was “flattered” by the chants…..Bryson is a brilliant guy but sometimes says things that question common sense…..such as, Cobra is paying him millions to use their equipment then he blurts: “My driver sucks…” From the wild tee shots he’s been hitting lately, he’s been making a lot of swings that suck…..if he wants to silence the rabble, play good and win……
baxter cepeda
Typical Tom putting it all on Bryson and leaving his boy Brooksie off the hook.
I agree with both Allan C and Tom that Bryson says some dumb dumbs but Allan is completely right about the trolls needing to stop.
I will say the mash potatoes and those guys are annoying as heck but they aren’t malicious. Brooksies trolls are being malicious.
Bryson may have encouraged more brooksie calls but what he was really doing was trying to be tough-cool about the brooksie calls. And Yes it predictably backfired.
But it’s important to note It’s brooks, who seemingly started having issues with Bryson for a lack of civility, needs to show some himself. He needs to calm off his trolls.
Sure, a little rivalry is fine for golf (mostly if it’s from competing is major final groups) but brooksies trolls are truly interfering with the integrity of elite golf tournaments.
Trolls are not only affecting Bryson, which is bad enough, but also extremely civil gentlemen like Harris English.
Something has to give; and IMO brooksie needs to be put on the hook to make sure his troll don’t cross the line the way they have been.
Tom Edrington
Baxter, it all started when Koepka spoke up about Bryson’s snail-like pace of play and Bryson then goes and confronts Brooks’ caddie, didn’t have the nerve to confront Brooks personally, eventually did and KABOOM, its on….sorry but Bryson’s in over his head; Note, Brooks was not in the gallery at Memphis leading the chants….hmmmm the PGA Tour wants more fan interaction, is going heavily on the gambling aspect and you’re going to get some gamblers in the crowds and some just might try and affect the players…..if you want to blame someone, blame The Sheriff Of Nottingham (aka Jay M).
baxter cepeda
I saw on the tv the social media post with brooksie offering free beer to any trolls who gets booted for trolling Bryson. That imo is the most controversial thing I have ever seen in golf.
Tom Edrington
I’m wondering if he got a letter from “The Sheriff” about that, not much was said about it after the fact…