When it comes to Bryson DeChambeau, there’s rarely a dull moment.
The 2020 U.S. Open champion made headlines at the Open Championship on Thursday, but it wasn’t because of his play, or because of Brooks Koepka.
It was what he had to say about his equipment company — Cobra — following a 1-over 71 that had him seven shots off the lead at Royal St. George’s.
“If I can hit it down the middle of the fairway, that’s great, but with the driver right now, the driver sucks,” DeChambeau said. “It’s not a good face for me, and we’re still trying to figure out how to make it good on the mis-hits. I’m living on the razor’s edge, like I’ve told people for a long time.”
RELATED: Tour caddies react to news of caddie Tim Tucker, Bryson DeChambeau parting ways
It’s rare — almost unheard of — for a player to publicly call out their respective club manufacturer.
Cobra responded swiftly.
Cobra’s tour operations manager Ben Schomin — the same man who stepped in to caddie for DeChambeau two weeks ago when he and longtime caddie Tim Tucker parted ways the night before the first round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit — spoke to Golfweek’s David Dusek and was less than thrilled with DeChambeau’s criticism.
“Everybody is bending over backwards. We’ve got multiple guys in R&D who are CAD’ing (computer-aided design) this and CAD-ing that, trying to get this and that into the pipeline faster. (Bryson) knows it,” Schomin, who is one of the people who designs and builds DeChambeau’s clubs, told Dusek. “It’s just really, really painful when he says something that stupid.”
According to Dusek, DeChambeau is currently using a Cobra Radspeed driver that is 46 inches long and has 5 degrees of loft specifically for DeChambeau.
“He has never really been happy, ever. Like, it’s very rare where he’s happy,” Schomin continued. “Now he’s in a place where he’s swinging a 5-degree driver with 200 mph of ball speed. Everybody is looking for a magic bullet. Well, the magic bullet becomes harder and harder to find the faster you swing and the lower your loft gets.”
Schomin believes DeChambeau’s words came out harsher than the world No. 6 may have intended.
“It’s like an 8-year-old that gets mad at you,” Schomin said. “They might fly off the handle and say, ‘I hate you.’ But then you go. ‘Whoa, no you don’t.’
“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 that he was mad. He didn’t really mean to say it that harshly. He knows how much everyone bends over backwards for him, but it’s still not cool.”
UPDATE — Hours after DeChambeau’s post-round interview went viral, he posted the following statement to his Instagram account: