Read GOLF’s Tour Confidential for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the hottest topics in the sport. This week, with the PGA Championship at Aronimink, we’ll hit one key topic every night.
Bryson DeChambeau shot 76-71 at the PGA Championship and missed the cut, making it the first time in his career he missed the weekend at both the Masters and PGA in the same season. What’s going on with Bryson? And any reason to think the uncertainty of his current league, LIV Golf, played into this latest performance?
Sean Zak, senior writer (@sean_zak): It really is puzzling, especially when you consider his form from March, winning consecutive LIV events. I think what I see from Bryson at this point is increased volatility. When he’s on, he’s ON. But when he’s off, he’s WAY off — mostly at majors, where the pressure is greater and the tests are more difficult. I think back to the Open Championship last summer at Portrush, where he played his worst golf in the toughest wind of the week and shot 78. Then, as the conditions eased up, he was the best golfer in the tournament, shooting 65-68-64. I think LIV’s uncertainty has added a lot to his mental plate, but I don’t really expect that to linger for too long. I think this particular eight-week stretch of a disappointing Masters, some wildly unexpected LIV news, additional off-course drama and very difficult golf courses has him not-so-centered. In one month, he’ll find a firm, fast, brutal U.S. Open test, and that has seemed to really pull something out of his golfing ability over the years.
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Josh Sens, senior writer (@joshsens): There’s not much going right with DeChambeau’s game of late. Inconsistent driving. Poor distance control on approaches. Indifferent play around the greens. It was surprising at the Masters, especially given how well he had been performing in majors and the form he showed on LIV earlier in the year. But less shocking this week, as he was clearly searching in his pre-tournament range sessions. Hard to put up a good score on a major-championship setup when you’re out of sync throughout your bag. LIV uncertainty? The recent tumult can’t have helped his mindset. Of course, it’s also tempting to ask whether all the energy he’s been devoting to YouTube golf is great for his tournament game. Then again, to Sean’s point, it wouldn’t be a shock to see him find his form again in time for Shinnecock.
Josh Berhow, managing editor (@Josh_Berhow): Golf is unpredictable and I think Sean’s right when he says that when things go wrong for Bryson they can snowball. You can see it in his demeanor. It was a tough couple of days for most of the field, so while it’s easy to say he’s lost after this missed cut, he’s really just three shots off from making the weekend, putting together a decent couple of rounds and not having this become a discussion at all. I do think he puts added pressure on himself to play well these weeks and positively represent LIV. And in a way, he could become somewhat of the ultimate free agent this offseason. Maybe he’s putting too much pressure on himself to prove it. Although doesn’t everyone put more pressure on themselves during major weeks?
Nick Piastowski, senior editor (@nickpia): Oh, I definitely think the happenings around LIV had a good deal to do with DeChambeau’s play. But golf is also weird. Good one week, not good the next. I think he’ll contend at the U.S. Open. There may be some injury issues at play too. At last week’s LIV event, DeChambeau said this after his first round: “[The body is] struggling a bit unfortunately. The wrist is feeling better. I’ve had some shoulder stuff since, shoot, the Ryder Cup. I don’t know what happened. It’s been trained. It’s been treated. We’ve worked on it. We’ve done a bunch of stuff, MRIs. It’s all been fine. It’s been eking at me for quite a while. When I won those two events [on LIV], I was waking up every day, uh-oh, is it going to hurt today? It’s a little bit of overuse. I’m grinding to figure it out.”
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