Something that Bryson DeChambeau has just said about the Ryder Cup may well have got under Keegan Bradley’s skin.
Keegan Bradley has confirmed that DeChambeau will be part of the US Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black later this year.
DeChambeau will be playing in his third Ryder Cup in September, which doesn’t seem like that much considering his talent and experience at the highest level of the game.
The 31-year-old is widely considered to be one of the best golfers in the world now, despite the fact that he doesn’t compete regularly against the likes of Scottie Scheffler and McIlroy.
DeChambeau joined LIV Golf at its inception back in 2022, and his game has improved greatly ever since then.
Characters like the long-hitting American are needed at the Ryder Cup. However, there is an argument to be had that he has already made a huge mistake.
Keegan Bradley won’t be happy with Bryson DeChambeau ahead of the Ryder Cup
The key to winning Ryder Cups is to compete fiercely to the very best of your ability, whilst showing respect to your opposition.
Unfortunately DeChambeau has already fallen foul of the second part of that blueprint to success.
On Monday, DeChambeau said he will be ‘chirping’ in Rory McIlroy’s ear at the Ryder Cup, if the two players face off against each other.
Those comments would surely have angered Bradley behind the scenes.
The last thing the American team should be doing is offering Team Europe extra motivation ahead of the showdown at Bethpage Black.
Luke Donald and his players will already be pumped up to the maximum to defend their trophy and to bring it back with them across the Atlantic Ocean.
You can guarantee that McIlroy would have seen those comments from DeChambeau, and Donald will be missing a trick if he doesn’t have DeChambeau’s comments plastered all over the walls in the European dressing room at the Ryder Cup.
Previous cocksure comments like Bryson DeChambeau’s have ended badly
Who could forget the huge mistake that Wyndham Clark made just before the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy.
Clark suggested that he was a better player than McIlroy.
He said: “I have the utmost respect for Rory – he is one of our great ambassadors of our game. He is obviously one of the best of all time and he is still going so he can be that. I have tons of respect for Rory and because of that respect, I also want to beat him. I like to think I am better than him and I want to prove that.
“I would love to play Rory, I think that would be really fun for the fans too. Long-ball hitters. We have similar games in that respect. It would be a little bit of David and Goliath. I am hoping to get that chance. Regardless of who I play, I am really excited. But that one would be a lot of fun.”
While Clark didn’t meet McIlroy head-to-head, Europe did comfortably beat the Americans by a score of 16.5 to 11.5.
Now let’s go back to 2006 when Stephen Ames was drawn to play against Tiger Woods in the first round of the 2006 World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play.
Six years before that tournament began in 2000, Ames laid into Woods, in an astonishing character assassination on the then world number one.
Ames said: “He doesn’t look like he has enough respect for other players. Tiger’s coming across as bigger than the game.
“He’s a spoiled 24-year-old. If I was in his position I’d be more considerate. If I was beating the spit out of [other players], I wouldn’t have to beat them in that way too. He made $11million [in 1999], endorsed more than $50m – what’s he got to be unhappy about?”
Woods’ bided his time for revenge and went on to deliver a serious beating to Ames in 2006. He beat the man from Trinidad and Tobago by a score of 9&8.
Historically, the golfing gods have a way of biting cocksure players on the backside. Having confidence and a certain amount of swagger is obviously needed at the highest level.
But there is a fine line between that and sheer arrogance, and DeChambeau may well have crossed that line with his comments about McIlroy ahead of the 45th Ryder Cup.
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