It has been a rough week for LIV players. During the Masters, only one made the cut, and he wasn’t even one of the favorites. The PIF is tightening its budget, putting the league’s funding on the chopping block. Now, problems are extending into the events, as Bryson DeChambeau has discovered during the Mexico City event at the Club de Golf Chapultepec.
Bryson DeChambeau On The Course
While playing, DeChambeau made no secret of how appalled he was by the course conditions. It came in stark contrast to the Augusta National with its precisely manicured fairways. What happened was that during the first round of the event, DeChambeau had to take a bunker shot. He got it out of the bunker, but it sailed over the green and landed in the rough. It was rough, too; the grass was patchy, and bare dirt was visible. He even requested a rules official to see if there was anything that could address it, with maybe preferred lies or something. When cameras were on him, DeChambeau was expressing his frustrations.
“You’ve got destroyed grass…Oh, this is rough? Definitely. Good to see,” DeChambeau said. “Guys, this is what we’re playing on, apparently.”
This wasn’t the first time DeChambeau has had problems with this course, either. Last year, at the same event, DeChambeau expressed his frustration with the bunkers’ condition. He called them “the worst f***ing bunkers ever,” and that someone could easily break their wrist with the wrong hit. Needless to say, DeChambeau’s running issues with this course continue. This wasn’t even the first issue this tournament has seen, as streaming cut out during the first round suddenly.
Fan Response
Watching DeChambeau’s frustrations, fans were not too sympathetic. This is coming off the news of the PIF cutting the budget, so plenty are speculating that the frustration is more with that. Others are labeling DeChambeau as a bit of a diva, and that he should just play it as it lies, no question. The reasoning being that those sorts of patches are pretty coming on, say, the local golf course, one might spend an afternoon on with some friends. Most of those say that DeChambeau should be able to play on those conditions just fine and that he needs to break out of a bubble of perfectly maintained courses, since those mostly exist only on the professional circuits. Other comments were calling out DeChambeau for being disrespectful towards the host. Calling out his behavior as plain rude and inappropriate for a professional setting like a golf tournament.
DeChambeau At Mexico City
Club de Golf Chapultepec has hosted a few PGA events in the past before LIV Golf came on the scene. Should they have better maintained the course? For a professional tournament, there is a level of expectation, so perhaps some more care should be put into the field ahead of an event. However, the consensus is that DeChambeau should have just adapted and taken the course in stride. These are conditions that amateurs face all the time, and a pro should be able to work around them with ease.
Main Photo Credit: © Katie Goodale-Imagn Images