Bryson DeChambeau Expresses Regret Over Ryder Cup Snub
For a while, Bryson DeChambeau was at the center of the golf universe. As a major winner and a self-made phenomenon, he appeared to be the pioneer of a golf revolution. However, his time in the spotlight was cut short due to injury, his move to LIV Golf, and his legal battle against the PGA Tour. Despite this, DeChambeau has continued to compete on the LIV tour, achieving success by winning his second tournament in Chicago over the weekend.
DeChambeau was considered a long shot for a spot on the Ryder Cup team, but he didn’t even receive a phone call from team captain Zach Johnson. After his victory, DeChambeau shared his disappointment at being left in the dark. “It would have been nice to at least just have a call,” DeChambeau said during his champions’ media conference. “There’s numerous people that I think Zach should have called out here, and we didn’t get that.”
Although Johnson did select Brooks Koepka for the team after he narrowly missed qualifying automatically, DeChambeau expressed his disappointment, stating, “Brooks is obviously going to kill it for Team USA next week, but yeah, it definitely does sting a little bit.”
Following the June agreement between the PGA Tour and LIV’s Saudi investors, tensions may have eased between the golf establishment and the players who joined LIV. However, the wounds likely remain, especially for those players who actively filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. DeChambeau eventually withdrew from the suit just days before the agreement was announced, whereas Koepka never participated in it in the first place.
DeChambeau has won two of the three most recent LIV tournaments. In early August, he triumphed in the LIV Greenbrier tournament with remarkable closing rounds of 61 and 58. While he missed the cut at the Masters, he finished tied for fourth at the PGA Championship and tied for 20th at the U.S. Open.
Although most of Johnson’s Ryder Cup selections were predictable, his decision to choose Justin Thomas over Keegan Bradley sparked some controversy and heartbreak. Apart from Koepka, DeChambeau had the most compelling case among LIV players to be included in the team.
“I have no idea what it was or how it was like or who made that decision [not to contact LIV players],” DeChambeau expressed. “But it would have been nice for them to consider us more because we’re pretty damn good out here.”
The Ryder Cup, set to take place later this week in Rome, will undoubtedly be an exciting event. Meanwhile, LIV Golf still has two events left on its 2023 schedule, in Jeddah and Miami.
In the end, while DeChambeau may not have received the recognition he was hoping for from the Ryder Cup selection committee, he has continued to excel on the LIV tour, proving his worth as a formidable player. And as the golf world looks forward to future events and developments, it will be interesting to see how this saga unfolds and whether the wounds between the PGA Tour and the LIV players can be fully healed.