Rex Hoggard has revealed what one equipment rep told him about Bryson DeChambeau when they spoke on the range ahead of the PGA Championship.
DeChambeau has now missed successive cuts in majors for the first time since 2017, with the LIV Golf star reaching the halfway mark at Aronimink at seven over par.
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There was an opportunity for the two-time US Open champion to bring himself back into the tournament after opening up with a 76 on Thursday. By the time he teed off for his second round, the cut line seemed to be within touching distance.
However, DeChambeau fell to 10 over par at one stage. And while he did rally late on, his hopes of winning a third major title were dashed in emphatic fashion.
Why Bryson DeChambeau’s missed cut at the PGA Championship did not come as a surprise
Speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard explained why he did not see DeChambeau’s struggles in Philadelphia as any sort of surprise.
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“It is cool to see Jon Rahm back in the mix because I think major championships are better when Rahm is playing in them. And I’m talking about the Rahm who won major championships, the one who contended on a regular basis, but the headline that I saw yesterday was the LIV uncertainty, talking about the Public Investment Fund withdrawing its funding at the end of this year of LIV Golf and the argument was that Bryson was distracted. Oh, Jon Rahm was not distracted. If anything, I would say, he’s sort of reached an epiphany that, you know what? I’m under contract. Whatever’s going to happen. And I don’t know if maybe that is a distraction,” he said.
Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images
“I think this goes more to the idea that if you were to ask me right now who am I most shocked about missing the cut, I went to Tommy Fleetwood when we were having this conversation. I thought Tommy was going to have a great week. This golf course seemed to set up perfectly for him and yet he missed the cut.
“I’m more surprised Tommy missed the cut than Bryson because watching Bryson on the range earlier this week, I was talking with one equipment rep who said he is in meltdown mode. He was clearly searching for something all week long and it doesn’t add up for the reasons that you just pointed out, he’s been playing well on LIV, just can’t seem to pull that over to the major championships.”
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Bryson DeChambeau likely to persevere with one-length irons
DeChambeau clearly has an incredible amount of self-belief in the way he plays the game. Single-length irons have not taken over the game over the last decade.
Of course, he is a phenomenal talent. It was not too long ago that he had seemingly found a way to ensure that he peaked at the major championships.
However, he has now missed the cut in three of his last four major starts. With that, some may be hoping that DeChambeau makes some notable changes to his game.
Hoggard, however, does not believe that he will move away from the irons he has used throughout his career.
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“He didn’t talk to the media after round one or round two. I would have loved to ask Bryson a lot of different questions. He didn’t talk with the media pre-round as well. So I think there is clearly a lot going on in his world, including his game,” he said.
“And I think when it comes to his iron play, which we can go back to last year’s Masters, and this has been building for a while, if you look at this objectively, you have to question, is the one length experiment coming to an end? And my guess is absolutely not, because he seems committed to it. But certainly, there has to be something there in the back of his mind that’s starting to guess some of these things that he’s doing, because he’s simply not getting the results.”
Much like LIV Golf itself, DeChambeau’s momentum has completely stalled. He appears to be struggling to work out how to move forward again.
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