Bryson DeChambeau silently ends (another) turbulent week in Memphis at WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational

MEMPHIS – Bryson DeChambeau notched his first top-10 on the PGA Tour since May when he finished in a tie for eighth Sunday in the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational at sizzling TPC Southwind.

Don’t expect him to pop champagne in celebration.

It was another turbulent week for the polarizing world No. 7, who landed in the Home of the Blues feeling a bit down on his game and saying he had low expectations for the coming 72 holes after dealing with the aftermath of testing positive for COVID-19.

Then on Tuesday, his week started going sideways – well, except on the golf course – when he was discussing with three reporters the aftermath of his recovery. He had lost 8-10 pounds and about 5 mph of his swing speed, and he had battled fatigue.

He said he had not been vaccinated, adding that he was young, healthy, working on his health and he didn’t want to take a dose of the vaccine away from others who need it.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes there are no vaccine shortages in the U.S., and his comments received backlash.

On Thursday, DeChambeau was taken to task by three players, who were not in the tournament but were watching the telecast, for not yelling “Fore!” when one of his errant drives headed toward the gallery. DeChambeau has dealt with this issue before: At the British Open last month, he was asked why he doesn’t shout fore when one of his shots heads toward the gallery and chastised the reporter for “bringing up a very controversial thing, which is unfortunate.”

Back in Memphis, DeChambeau was exceeding expectations with rounds of 65-66-63 and started the final round two shots out of the lead and playing in the final group with Harris English. But he refused to talk to the print media after the first three rounds, so whatever he was feeling was unknown.

It isn’t like DeChambeau to refuse to talk, but then again, he’s had a rough go of late. He’s had an ongoing spat with Brooks Koepka since the PGA Championship. He held the lead in the final round of the U.S. Open in June before shooting 44 on the back nine. He and longtime caddie Tim Tucker split on the eve of the Rocket Mortgage Classic in July. Two weeks later at the British Open, he created a firestorm with his equipment company when he said his driver “sucks.” DeChambeau eventually apologized.

And then he had to withdraw from the Olympics after testing positive for COVID two days before he was set to leave for Tokyo.

But there he was in the hunt for his ninth PGA Tour title with 18 holes to go.

Then he was tied for the lead after a birdie on the first while English bogeyed. The two birdied the third. DeChambeau fell back with a bogey on the fourth but regained a share of the lead with a chip-in birdie from 52 feet on the fifth.

After a brush with disaster on the sixth – his drive ended up under the bottom of a mesh fence but was inbounds by a hair – he and English were told by rules officials on the seventh hole they were out of position.

On the 12^th, they were timed.

English was thrown by the news on the seventh. DeChambeau was unavailable after the round, so we don’t exactly know what went about in his head.

“It wasn’t Bryson’s fault, he hit it near the fence, and they told us on 5 they were timing the group ahead of us, so I knew you better be on your toes. And then he had the ruling on 6 and that took a while,” English said. “Then we were kind of behind the 8‑ball and we didn’t play great golf coming in. We’re putting for a lot of pars and scrambling a lot, so it’s hard to catch up and then you just get behind and then you have to start running.

“I don’t feel like I’m a slow player, but it makes me feel like I’ve got to rush and you kind of have that in the back of your head. That’s something I’ve told my caddie I’ve got to get better at.”

DeChambeau’s round started going southward when he hit consecutive tee shots into water hazards, first on the par-4 10^th and another on the par-3 11^th. He bogeyed the 10^th and tripled the 11^th to fall four shots out of the lead.

And when chaos broke out all over the course and the leaderboard, with more than a handful of players in position to win – Abraham Ancer finally did so on the second playoff hole – DeChambeau was silent. He bogeyed the 15^th, didn’t birdie the par-5 16^th that played as the second easiest hole in the final round, bogeyed the 18^th and signed for a 74.

But it was a tie for eighth – so there was some good news this week to take home to Texas. And before he stopped talking with print reporters, DeChambeau said it won’t be hard for him to get back to full strength when he gets home to Dallas.

He’ll start preparing for the FedEx Cup Playoffs and then the Ryder Cup. Four huge weeks in a five-week stretch. For his sake – and for those of us in print – let them not be turbulent.