Connect with us

19th Hole

Bitter dispute erupts over Bryson DeChambeau’s slow play at The Northern Trust, resulting in personal insults, apologies and a review of the current pace-of-play policy

Published

on

The heated dispute concerning slow play over the weekend at The Northern Trust spilled over into Monday in what has been arguably the fiercest and most bitter debate on the subject that the sport has yet seen.

In case you missed it, on Friday at Liberty National, Bryson DeChambeau was caught on camera taking over three minutes to pace out and play a seemingly straight forward approach shot, and then taking over two minutes to hit a putt from inside 10-feet on the eight green – two incidents which sparked the furore which was to follow.

Embedded below is footage of DeChambeau on the eight green on Friday.

View this post on Instagram

I recently wrote a blog post (link in bio) about my experience at the #scottishopen and how surprised I was at the length of time some players (one in particular) took to play shots. It’s a funny old debate this. I get that these guys are playing for millions of £/€/$ and it’s their job but sometimes it just seems absolutely ridiculous the length of some pros take to play shots. The problem is, we usually only see the footage when the player is about to putt (on tele) and not so much of the time spent reading the green/chatting with caddies (thankfully), so they’re often taking far longer than we actually think or see. Annoyingly, I regularly see club members taking this length of time over shots (well, maybe not quite as long as @brysondechambeau, but still too long) and it’s most likely because they’re seeing the pros doing it and think it’s okay. Great to see some of his peers calling him out about this, even if he didn’t appreciate it. Can always rely on good old #eddiepepperell to speak his mind. #legend

A post shared by Andy Todd (@andysgolfblog) on

Both incidents went viral, with DeChambeau taking well over the 40 second time limit which the PGA Tour is said to allow players for each shot, and adding fuel to the fire, fellow professional Eddie Pepperrel took to social media to describe DeChambeau as a “single-minded twit.” A comment which the Englishman apologized for on Monday.

Pepperell wasn’t the only player to comment publicly on DeChambeau’s deliberate play, with fellow Brit, Tommy Fleetwood stating that “If we were on the clock he wouldn’t have taken that amount of time”, while Justin Thomas simply described DeChambeau as “a slow player”.

Following his round on Friday, and fully aware of the controversy brewing, DeChambeau launched an impassioned defense of the length of time he takes over shots on the course, bringing up the subject before a member of the press even had the chance to ask the 25-year-old a question.

Arguing that he strides quickly to his ball and as he usually outdrives his opponents, he can’t set up his shot until it is his turn, DeChambeau took aim at his critics, stating

“When people start talking to me about slow play and how I’m killing the game, I’m doing this and that to that game… that is complete and utter you-know what. That’s not fair.”

DeChambeau argued that although sometimes he takes over the allotted 40 seconds, those occasions are few and far between, before continuing his self-defence saying

“If it’s not an easy shot, I’m going to take a little bit longer because that’s my job. I’m trying to do my absolute best. I’m trying to provide entertainment, and I hope that people can realise that it takes more than just me playing a shot in 30 seconds or 40 seconds for us to call it slow play.”

When asked whether any player has confronted him to air any grievances they might have, DeChambeau explained that no player had ever approached him to discuss his pace of play, and urged his critics to “say it to my face” if they have a problem.

If you thought that might be the end of the matter, then you were sorely mistaken.

Over the weekend at Liberty National, DeChambeau approached Brooks Koepka’s caddie, and was then seen in deep conversation with the four-time major champion on the range.

Following that conversation, which DeChambeau described as “awesome” and “fantastic”, Koepka was quick to tell members of the press at Liberty National that the 25-year-old isn’t the only culprit and that DeChambeau feels that he is being unfairly singled out.

“It’s not just him. I know he feels singled out, especially when I’m speaking about it. But it’s like I told him, it’s not — I’ve mentioned his name once, and that’s it. There’s so many guys out here where it’s become an issue, and obviously him being probably the best player that’s relatively slow right now, he’s going to be on TV a lot more, so you’re going to catch a lot more of those type of instances. I mentioned his (DeChambeau’s) name once. So I don’t think I’ve come at him. I just talked about slow play, and obviously he feels I’m talking about him every time.”

During the chaos in New Jersey, there was also criticism of the PGA Tour for not taking a harder stance on slow play in the game, with Sky Sports’ Rich Beem being one of those to slam the authorities, saying that he was “outraged” that the Tour tolerate the pace of play displayed by DeChambeau at the weekend.

The controversy at The Northern Trust seems to have awoken the PGA Tour from their slumber on the subject of slow play in the game, with the Tour releasing a lengthy statement on Sunday which mentioned that the organization would be reviewing it’s current pace-of-play policy.

“The TOUR’s current pace-of-play policy only addresses players whose groups have fallen out of position. The TOUR is now exploring whether to expand its policy to also address players whose groups are in position, but who take an excessive amount of time to hit a shot.”

As the bitter dispute began to defuse on Monday following Pepperell’s apology on social media, DeChambeau then took to his own social media account to issue an apology of his own, where he vowed to improve his pace of play in the future, putting an end to this particularly heated chapter on the sport’s current most controversial subject.

“Slow play affects the quality of the game for both players and our fans and I’ve always had the utmost respect for my playing partners, including JT and Tommy. I’m constantly trying to improve and I will do my very best to improve my pace. Golf is my passion and livelihood. It’s my responsibility to help improve the game to be more enjoyable for all. Pace of play has been an issue for golf at all levels for a long time, and I’m committed to being a part of the solution, not the problem. I want to be a good representative of the game and the @PGATour and I looking forward to working with the TOUR and fellow players to find a solution to slow play.”

 

 

Your Reaction?
  • 29
  • LEGIT5
  • WOW2
  • LOL13
  • IDHT3
  • FLOP7
  • OB3
  • SHANK55

Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at [email protected].

19th Hole

‘I still think it was his fault’ – Beau Hossler on the college incident with Scottie Scheffler that almost resulted in a physical fight

Published

on

Back in January, John Fields, who’s the head golf coach at the University of Texas told the story on the Subpar podcast of when his players Scottie Scheffler and Beau Hossler almost got in a physical fight while they were on the Longhorns golf team.

“That was an almost fight”, he said.

“Beau walks by this golf ball and he looks at it, and for whatever reason he thinks that he’s outdriven Scottie by 15 yards,” Fields said. “So, Scottie doesn’t think anything — we walked right past the ball and Beau look at the golf ball. Scottie hits his shot, we get up to the [other] ball, Beau’s turn now, and he looks down and goes, ‘This is not my ball.'”

Coach Fields shared that Scottie was livid at Beau.

“You would’ve thought Mount Vesuvius just went off, like we had a volcano 15 yards below us. Scheffler got so mad when he figured out that he’d hit the wrong ball, he ran up to the green, 260 yards on a dead sprint, picked up the ball, ran back, and threw it at Beau’s feet. Beau goes ahead and hits the right shot, and Scottie has lost the hole now. He’d just lost a hole, but it’s killing him. And now, they’re jawing against each other on the way up [to the green], and finally on the next hole, on the par-3, I told Beau, ‘We are not going another step farther until you apologize to Scottie for that.’”

Fast forward to 2024, and Beau Hossler was asked about whether or not Coach Fields exaggerated the story after his opening round at the Houston Open yesterday.

“No, it wasn’t inflated. He [Coach Fields] probably deflated it if anything. We were playing this mess-around tournament before the regional there. Basically we were both playing a match. I wasn’t playing him, I was playing a New Mexico kid and he was playing a New Mexico kid. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Lubbock, but it’s very, very, very windy.

“No. 2 is kind of this blind par 5 I think. We both hit it down the middle and whatever. I walked past the first ball, I walked to the second ball, it’s 10 yards in front. He hits the ball in the back and then I realized that that was not my ball that I was standing next to. We had different markings, but we both were playing a Titleist whatever, 3 with a Longhorn on it. One had a marking and mine didn’t. He wasn’t happy. I was like, well, listen, you’re the one who hit the wrong ball. I understand like it’s not a — but like you hit it, I didn’t.”

“It was a bad deal. It didn’t mean anything, but it was just — we’re really competitive, both of us,” Hossler said. “That was the really cool part about our golf team at Texas, it was like every player on the team was like either a very good player or a pretty good player that was very competitive. We wanted to kick each other’s ass all the time.”

“That was obviously a penalty and he wasn’t happy about it. I don’t blame him for not being happy about it. I still think it was his fault, he’s the only one who hit the wrong ball. I agree I should have checked closer that it was — that that was actually my ball, but one way or the other it’s a good story.”

Luckily, the two remained friends and the feud didn’t last very long. “That’s the good part of being friends. Once we got on the plane home, it was OK.”

More from the 19th Hole

Your Reaction?
  • 0
  • LEGIT0
  • WOW0
  • LOL0
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK0

Continue Reading

19th Hole

3-time PGA Tour winner calls for LIV to buy Champions Tour to fix ‘joke’ purses

Published

on

While speaking on the Subpar podcast, former PGA Tour winner and current PGA Tour Champions player Chris DiMarco said he hopes LIV buys the Champions Tour.

“We’re kind of hoping that LIV buys the Champions Tour,” he said.

“Let’s play for a little real money out here. I mean this is kind of a joke when we’re getting $2 million. There were like seven guys last week from TPC (Sawgrass, at the $25 million PLAYERS Championship) that made more money than our purses.”

In 2024, the Champions Tour had a total of $67 million in prize money over the course of 24 events.

DiMarco also defended LIV players for taking the money and said he would take it also.

“They wanted to play for a lot of money, and they deserve it. They have had some great careers, why not go and get some money?”

DiMarco also offered insight on Graeme McDowell’s move to LIV.

“I saw Graeme McDowell at the Old Memorial Pro Member, and he goes, ‘Listen, I went up to Jay Monahan and said I love the tour but I am struggling to keep my card and these guys are offering me all this money and less golf. I’m sorry, I’m going.’ And I do not blame him one bit, and I said I would have too.”

DiMarco was ranked as high as 6th in the world in 2006.

More from the 19th Hole

 

Your Reaction?
  • 70
  • LEGIT8
  • WOW4
  • LOL7
  • IDHT2
  • FLOP14
  • OB9
  • SHANK119

Continue Reading

19th Hole

‘It won’t win you golf tournaments’ – Golf analyst rips Charley Hull’s course management

Published

on

Charley Hull came just short of her third LPGA Tour victory over the weekend at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship when she played her last two holes at 3 over to slip all the way to 10th on the leaderboard.

After the round, Hull was blasted by Sky Sports commentator and former LPGA Tour player Trish Johnson for her lack of golf course management.

While speaking on the Sky Sports Golf podcast, Johnson spoke harshly of Hull.

“I’m probably her harshest critic, because I know how good she is. She doesn’t win anywhere near enough for her talent, and she doesn’t get involved enough, in all honestly.

“The thing with Charley is that you’re never going to change her. I read something the other day that said how much she loves the game and it’s her love of the game [that costs her]. She’s never going to change and she’s just going to go for every pin.

“In theory that’s great, but it won’t win you golf tournaments, it just won’t because she’s not that much better than anybody else. If you put Charley against Nelly Korda, then I’m picking Nelly every single day of the week.”

Johnson also made a fascinating comparison between Hull and a famous male golfer, John Daly.

“Golf-wise that’s the way she plays the game and it’s a little bit like watching John Daly I suppose.”

“There’s something that John Daly had that made him a major winner and a winner, but Charley is kind of lacking that. Her talent is not in question, but maybe her application is. Maybe it’s just the case of her never changing and that will cost her golf tournaments, there’s no two ways about it. You cannot go for every pin because that’s the way you play and it being fun, as other players are better than that and you have to have course management.”

Hull is still only 27, and therefore has plenty of time to work on her flaws to achieve the success her talent should allow.

More from the 19th Hole

Your Reaction?
  • 49
  • LEGIT14
  • WOW8
  • LOL3
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB1
  • SHANK30

Continue Reading

WITB

Facebook

Trending