Much of the focus after Richard McEvoy won the 2018 Porsche European Open was on the ‘classless’ actions of Bryson DeChambeau as he departed the 18th green.
DeChambeau threw away a golden opportunity to secure his first victory on the European Tour in Germany. The American was 11 under par with four holes to play. He was looking to become the third player from his country to lift the title, after Bobby Wadkins and Tom Kite.
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However, DeChambeau fell apart over the final stages. He was five over par for the last four holes, with a triple bogey coming on the last to really add insult to injury.
That meant that when Richard McEvoy made a birdie on the 72nd hole, he was able to celebrate his first ever victory on the European Tour.
Bryson DeChambeau was no stranger to having to issue an apology
Remarkably, he had won on the Challenge Tour – the second tier of European golf – just the previous week. It was the first time since 2010 that a player had achieved the feat of winning on both tours in successive weeks.
Nevertheless, DeChambeau was in no mood to celebrate with the journeyman. The pair exchanged the briefest of handshakes before DeChambeau swiftly stormed off the green, clearly frustrated with his own performance as he ended up in a tie for 13th.
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He would have found himself in a playoff with McEvoy had he played the last four holes in level par.
Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images
DeChambeau had already come in for criticism for a previous mistake in a European Tour event. As an amateur at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in 2016, DeChambeau decided against helping Andy Sullivan look for his ball in a group that also included Rory McIlroy.
Unfortunately, the search party was unable to find Sullivan’s ball, so he had to go back to the tee.
DeChambeau would later apologise, as reported by Sky Sports, insisting that he had assumed that the Englishman’s ball had gone straight into the water.
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So perhaps that helps explain why some were not impressed by his conduct two years later in Germany.
Eddie Pepperell took to X to label the handshake ‘classless’.
And it seems that DeChambeau would agree, as he soon issued an apology on Instagram.
He wrote: ‘I apologize to Richard McEvoy and the fans for my brevity on 18. He is a class act, worthy champion and I enjoyed playing with him the past two days.’
What Richard McEvoy really thought of playing alongside Bryson DeChambeau at the 2018 European Open
McEvoy was 39 at the time of his victory. Unfortunately, the 2018 season would prove to be the final year he made more than half of his cuts on the European Tour.
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His best finish after that week came at the 2022 Catalunya Championship as he finished tied for third, alongside Laurie Canter and Adrian Meronk. Both men would subsequently join Bryson DeChambeau on LIV Golf.
Interestingly, one person who was not offended by DeChambeau that day was McEvoy himself.
As he told National Club Golfer later on in 2018, he felt that it was very much a storm in a teacup.
“He got a lot of stick for it but there was no need for it,” he said.
“At the end of the day he shook my hand and said congratulations. I didn’t actually take anything of it in as I was in my own zone having won my first event. Then I saw that he was getting a lot of stick, people thought he hadn’t even shaken my hand but it was just a camera angle.”
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McEvoy also suggested that he enjoyed the experience of playing alongside DeChambeau over the weekend.
“We chatted a lot on the Saturday and got on really well, just about how the tours worked and life in general. On Sunday there was a bit less chat but I liked him, he’s a very different individual but a really nice guy,” he added.
DeChambeau is never going to be a player that everyone in the game likes. He has such a unique style in how he plays and how he conducts himself that it is never going to be for everyone.
But he deserves credit for often holding his hands up when he makes a mistake. Clearly, McEvoy did not even feel that his apology eight years ago was necessary.
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