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Bryson DeChambeau has become the story in golf these days and it hasn’t really had anything to do with his play (which has been pretty good) but rather with how fans have been treating him ever since his beef with Brooks Koepka went off the rails a few months ago.
Things escalated even more at last week’s tournament when DeChambeau reportedly had a heated moment with a fan moments after losing in a playoff to Patrick Cantlay. The fan yelled “Good job Brooksie!” Bryson yelled the F-word at the fan and cops then stepped in and handled the situation.
It was a messy end to what was another messy week for DeChambeau who has heard fans yelling “Brooksie” at him for months now. This whole beef (you can’t call it a rivalry because they haven’t really had any meaningful showdowns in tournaments) went off the rails after Koepka rewarded fans with free beer for getting kicked out of the Memorial for yelling “Brooksie” at Bryson. That opened the floodgates and empowered all the fans who like to yell dumb stuff at golf tournaments to focus all their dumb energy on DeChambeau.
Well, things are going to stop now because PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan came out yesterday and said that any fan who yells “Brooksie” at Bryson could be thrown out of tournaments.
That should fix things!
I’m kidding, of course. That threat is like throwing a glass of water at a burning building and then looking around for handshakes for a job well done. If anything, it feels like they threw more fire on the fire.
Our friend Eamon Lynch over at Golfweek had a brilliant take on this that you should go read, as he rightfully says that Monahan and the Tour shouldn’t be babysitting DeChambeau.
Monahan’s threat, by the way, was instantly mocked by many players including Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and James Hahn.
How are you going to police thousands of spectators, many of whom are juiced up on overpriced beers being sold on the grounds, and find those who are yelling out another player’s name at DeChambeau? And do you think fans are going to care about being kicked out of a tournament for doing so?
There is a really easy fix to all of this, I think, though it’s a fix that would take some time – everyone just ignores it completely. Bryson doesn’t drop F-bombs at fans, the Tour doesn’t talk about it, and Koepka, who can be just as hard to root for as DeChambeau, continues to be quiet about it.
You have to think over time fans would move on to something else and forget about yelling “Brooksie” after seeing it has no impact whatsoever on anything or anyone anymore.
Then again, they’re still yelling Baba Booey after tee shots so maybe I’m being way too hopeful here.
But I still think what Monahan said yesterday isn’t going to help things at all and only shows how the Tour has no idea how to handle situations like this one.
What happens if Koepka and DeChambeau get paired up this weekend at the Tour Championship? Only 30 players are in the field, which means the chances of that happening are a lot better than a normal-sized field of over 150 players. Fans are going to be yelling “Brooksie” but will they be yelling that at Koepka or at DeChambeau? And will they be booted for yelling that?
Yeah, it could get messy in Atlanta this weekend.
Good luck with all of that, PGA Tour.
Quick hits: Shohei Ohtani steals home… Bill Belichick’s savage move before releasing Cam Newton… South Carolina’s wild QB selection… And more.
– Shohei Ohtani, the coolest player in baseball, stole home last night and it was pretty awesome.
– Bill Belichick said yesterday morning that Cam Newton was heading in the right direction. Then a little while later he cut him from the team.
– South Carolina is going to start a graduate assistant at QB this week against Eastern Illinoi. For real.
– Our new betting site, BetFTW, is live and you should go check it out.
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