ATLANTA – Bryson DeChambeau hasn’t talked to the print media for nearly a month, opting only to speak with PGA Tour broadcast partners.
He wouldn’t even talk to print media after nearly shooting 59 in the second round of last week’s BMW Championship, which he eventually lost in a six-hole playoff to Patrick Cantlay.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan is hoping DeChambeau ends his boycott and right quick. In his annual address with the media at East Lake Golf Club ahead of this week’s Tour Championship, the FedEx Cup Playoffs finale, Monahan touched on the DeChambeau rift with the print media.
“Bryson is a star. He has fascinated golf and sport fans around the world since our return to golf. He’s also a young man that’s growing and evolving, not just on the golf course, but off the golf course,” Monahan said. “And I would just say to you that I look at this as a point in time. I don’t think this is the way things are going to be for a long period of time. I’m hopeful that we’ll get back to a steady cadence of communication that he’ll have with the media. But he’s working through some things and he’s going to have my and our support as he continues to do so.”
DeChambeau’s silence began in Memphis at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational after his controversial comments concerning not taking the COVID-19 vaccine caused a storm. It just continued his turbulent summer in which he split with his longtime caddie, Tim Tucker; didn’t talk to the media at the Rocket Mortgage Classic despite being the defending champion and being sponsored by Rocket Mortgage; shot 44 on the back nine in the final round of the U.S. Open and fell from the lead to a tie for 26th; created a firestorm with his equipment company when he said his driver “sucks” at the British Open; was forced to withdraw from the Tokyo Summer Games after testing positive for COVID-19; and dealing with a feud with Brooks Koepka.
“I’ve talked to Bryson about a lot of things and obviously our preference would be to have him talking to the media on a regular basis, and certainly in that instance when he has a historic performance,” Monahan said. “I’m hopeful that that will not be the case on a long-term basis, and I think that sometimes as hard as it is to contemplate and understand, I think human beings and individuals need some space, and I think that’s what’s going on right now.
“When we look at this over the long run, I think that this is something that he’ll get through. He’ll get to the other side of and he’ll be better for it. But that’s my perspective on it. It’s not binary, you know, he’s working through it in a way that he feels is best for him and he knows he has my and our support.”
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