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19th Hole

Matthew Fitzpatrick accuses DeChambeau of ‘making a mockery of the game’; Bryson responds: ‘Hey man, I’d love to help out’

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They weren’t playing on the same tour or continent this week, but Matthew Fitzpatrick took time out while in contention at Wentworth GC to hit out at Bryson DeChambeau and his immense distance gains in 2020.

Speaking while at the European Tour’s BMW Championship, the Englishman, who averaged 28 yards less off the tee than DeChambeau in 2020, claimed that Bryson is ‘making a mockery of the game’, while also expressing his view that the ability to hit the ball a long way is not a skill.

“He’s in the rough and miles up, and he’s just hitting wedges everywhere. It just makes a bit of a mockery of the game, I think.

I really hope they do (governing bodies potentially curtailing distance) It’s not a skill to hit the ball a long way, in my opinion. I could put on 40 pounds. I could go and see a bio-mechanist and I could gain 40 yards; that’s actually a fact. I could put another two inches on my driver. I could gain that, but the skill in my opinion is to hit the ball straight. That’s the skill. He’s just taking the skill out of it, in my opinion. I’m sure lots will disagree. It’s just daft.

I don’t necessarily think people will try and copy him, putting all that weight on, but I think you’ll see people going harder at it.”

DeChambeau responded to the views of Fitzpatrick, choosing to take the comments as a compliment while stressing his opinion that the ability to hit the ball as far as he does is absolutely a skill.

“I appreciate that, it’s a compliment to me honestly. A year ago I wasn’t hitting in anywhere near as far as I am today. It took a lot of work, a lot of hours to work through the night to figure out a lot of this stuff.

I would say it actually takes more skill to do what I’m doing, and albeit my fairway percentages are a little bit down, I still believe I’m hitting it straighter than what I was last year with the distances that I was hitting back then.

So I actually appreciate those comments. I think he’s looking out for certain set of players, and I appreciate that. My whole goal is to play the best golf I possibly can, and this game has given me the opportunity to showcase something pretty special.

You know, I actually appreciate it, because I would love to have a conversation with him about it and say, ‘Hey, man, I would love to help out. Why couldn’t you do it, too?'”

Check out what our members have been saying about the exchange in our forums here.

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

19th Hole

Brandel Chamblee has a surprising new take on the PGA Tour-LIV stand-off

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One of the more outspoken analysts throughout the LIV Golf vs. PGA Tour saga has been Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee.

This week, Chamblee reversed course, saying he believes the PGA Tour should strike a deal with Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund (PIF).

“The PGA Tour is in this pickle like it or not, but, do you want to compete with someone who’s not going to go away, who can outspend you”.

“Every move they make that makes their tour better deletes your tour and causes more division within the tour. So the time is now, to Rory’s point about making a deal, I wouldn’t have said that a year ago… but it is the better end of the bargain.”

Chamblee’s new stance seems to be in line with that of Rory McIlroy, who reportedly wanted to rejoin the PGA Tour board with hopes of pushing a deal with the PIF closer to the finish line.

Chamblee will be in the booth for next week’s PGA Championship which has 16 LIV players in the field.

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19th Hole

Xander Schauffele explains free drop ruling during round one of Wells Fargo Championship

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During Thursday’s opening round of the Wells Fargo Championship, Xander Schauffele blasted his tee shot in the woods to the right of the fairway on the par-4 8th hole.

The ball was almost not found, but Xander’s group managed to track it down just before the three-minute time limit was reached.

When the ball was found, it was just beyond the penalty area close to a fence. In the moment, it seemed incredibly unlikely that Schauffele would be able to hit the ball through the trees towards the green.

However, through the woods and above the fairway, there was a hanging wire from a ShotLink tower that Xander claimed was in his way. He was then granted relief, and two club lengths from the spot positioned him all the way out of trouble. He played his ball onto the front of the green and two-putted for par.

Here is the full video of the interaction between Schauffele and the rules official.

After the round, Xander said he “got really lucky.”

“Got really lucky multiple times, on 1 with Wyndham finding it, 2, being able to move the rocks, and 3, the ShotLink tower being in like my only shot line possible. To walk out there with sort of a no breeze 4 with what I thought was almost out was a really good break.”

“Yeah, I hit it in the trees. My ball was probably like a foot, two feet from the fence. If I — ball was here, fence was kind of here, hitting back this direction.

“If I went towards the green, the fence kind of worked this way so I had what I could hit, a 4-iron or something low and just kind of run it through. If it gets stuck, I’ll just kind of hit my next one out. But I brought the rules official in there with me because I was like, you’ve got to be OK with this because this is literally the only shot I can hit.”

“So Austin [Kaiser] and I moved two massive rocks that weren’t embedded and then I got relief out of the junk and then hit a pretty good shot on the green from there. What was a very stressful moment turned into a pretty stressless par.”

Schauffele finished the round at seven under, which gives him a three-shot lead going into Friday’s second round.

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19th Hole

Report: Tiger Woods voted against Rory McIlroy returning to policy board; Will be the only player negotiating directly with Saudis

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According to a report from The Telegraph, the relationship between Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy has soured.

Last week, reports surfaced that McIlroy, who was a member of the PGA Tour policy board during most of the past few years, was looking to rejoin the board, presumably taking Webb Simpson’s seat.

However, on Wednesday, McIlroy revealed that he will not be rejoining the policy board, due to people on the board being “uncomfortable” with that “for some reason.”

The Telegraph has reported that Tiger Woods was among the players who voted against McIlroy returning to the policy board.

The divide is apparently due to McIlroy pushing for the game of golf to unify, whereas Woods, reportedly, believes the PGA Tour is in a fine position where it currently stands.

The Associated Press added another wrinkle to the situation, reporting that Woods is the only player who will be negotiating directly with the Saudis.

The other members of the committee are PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, board chairman Joe Gorder, John W. Henry of Fenway Sports Group, and Joe Ogilvie, who was a former PGA Tour player.

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