DeChambeau's comments were a major talking point from day one at The Open
How Social Media Reacted To DeChambeau’s “Driver Sucks” Comment
It was one of the big questions coming into The 149th Open: would Bryson DeChambeau’s “bomb and gouge” strategy pay dividends over a links layout.
Well, one round in and the answer is a resounding no. But wait. It wasn’t his fault.
That’s right, after a wild display off the tee resulted in the big-hitting American finding just four of 14 fairways, DeChambeau decided it was his equipment to blame, stating “the driver sucks” in his post-round interview.
The only positive to come from the day for the 27-year-old was that he managed to salvage a one-over 71 that has him seven behind overnight leader Louis Oosthuizen and by no means out of it.
As you can imagine, social media was quick to react and here are some of the best of them:
If you really wanna get USGA serious about equipment rollbacks, just start blabbering about how your equipment doesn't go straight enough on miss hits.. that should get the ball rolling on things🤦♂️
— Jason Dufner (@JasonDufner) July 15, 2021
Honest advertising pic.twitter.com/2w8MWfHbEg
— deepfriedegg (@deep_fried_egg) July 15, 2021
Imagine a pro complaining his mishits aren’t good…😂
— Steve Elkington (@elkpga) July 15, 2021
"Driver Appreciation Day" tweet coming from Koepka in the next 30?
— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) July 15, 2021
Here is the moment DeChambeau delivered the one-liner that sparked a riposte from his own equipment manufacturer:
"The driver SUCKS"
No holding back from @b_dechambeau on his golf today at #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/T39wWG17wb
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 15, 2021
Upon hearing this, Golfweek’s David Dusek was able to get a response from Cobra’s Tour Operations Manager Ben Schomin who fired back, saying: “Everybody is bending over backwards. We’ve got multiple guys in R&D who are CAD’ing this and CAD’ing that, trying to get this and that into the pipeline faster.
“Bryson knows it. It’s just really, really painful when he says something that stupid… it’s like an 8-year-old that gets mad at you. They might fly off the handle and say, ‘I hate you’.
“We know as adults that they really don’t mean that and I know that if I got him cornered right now and said, ‘What the hell did you say that for’, he would say he was mad and didn’t mean to say it that harshly.”
It appears that Schomin, who caddied for ‘the Golfing Scientist’ at the Rocket Mortgage Classic after long-time bagman Tim Tucker decided he’d had enough on the eve of the tournament, was right, as DeChambeau issued an apology as night fell in the UK.
Here it is:
DeChambeau will be hoping his driver sucks a lot less today as he looks to vault himself into contention heading into the weekend at the year’s final major.
He gets underway in round two at 2.26pm local time alongside Branden Grace and Jordan Spieth.