Bryson DeChambeau wastes no time responding to Slow Play

JERSEY CITY – Slow play was the subject, but Bryson DeChambeau wasted no time getting started. He stepped up on the interview platform at Liberty National Golf Club on Saturday and before a question could be asked, he said, "I'll introduce this and talk about it."

What followed meant a passionate 16-minute defense character.

"When people start talking to me about slow play and how I kill the game, I do this and that with the game, that's complete and absolutely you know," DeChambeau said.

His par-71 round Saturday left him at 6-under, eight strokes off the pace of 54-hole leader, Patrick Reed, who played a 67 card. The crowd of reporters crawling around DeChambeau was twice as large as the one who showed up to hear Reed speak, proving that until the PGA Tour takes punitive measures, slow play threatens to overshadow the real game.

DeChambeau, the defending champion, and Dylan Frittelli, the player with whom he was linked in the third round of the Northern Trust, had just played 18 holes in a combination of 146 strokes over four hours.

None of that was the problem.

It was DeChambeau's game during the second round of Friday, where he needed 2 minutes and 20 seconds to complete an 11-foot putt on one hole and two-and-one half minutes to complete a 70-meter approach on another. Video clips from both holes were posted on social media and quickly went viral.

Critics of the pace issues of the PGA Tour in general, and the purpose of DeChambeau in particular, weighed quickly. all he had to do was read the tweets from Eddie Pepperell, the world's 40th player, to find out which way the wind blew in the wave bubble.

"Slow players do this to make game play less enjoyable for their game partners," Pepperell said on Twitter. "The problem is that the untouched, uninhibited twit doesn't care much about others in this case."

DeChambeau, 25, five-time PGA Tour winner, shot back, "I would like to talk to him personally and talk about it."

DeChambeau added: "Look, I'm not really so sensitive to a man. I don't get hurt by many things. It's not like throwing clubs and slamming clubs, you know. This is a conversation about playing golf in a certain time. "

The tour follows it pace of the game based on the position of a group in relation to the groups before: if a group is considered to have fallen behind the general pace, all players in the group are set to a clock, after which they have 40 seconds to to complete a shot unless they are the first to hit the group.

Once on the clock, a player must exceed the time limit twice to be able to judge a penalty with one strike. on the clock until they are deemed not to be out of position DeChambeau monkeys were not put on the clock on Friday or Saturday.

Tommy Fleetwood, who was part of the Friday trio of DeChambeau, said with reference to the putt and approach photo: "If we were on the clock, he would certainly not have taken that much time."

DeChambeau claimed that he is rapidly approaching his ball, and because he often beats the other players in his group, he hits the last one and cannot make his next move until it is his turn.

Of course, not all shots have the same level of difficulty. And if the wind blows like it was Saturday, and the greens are slippery, a player will last longer than normal.

"If it's not an easy shot, I'll take a little longer, because that's my job," DeChambeau said. "I try to do my utmost. I try to provide entertainment, and I hope people can realize that more is needed than just me to make a recording in 30 seconds or 40 seconds to call it slow play. "

Justin Thomas, who completed DeChambeau & # 39; s trio Friday, started two groups after him Saturday. DeChambeau was still working on reporters when Thomas, a major winner and former world number 1, walked past him way to sign his score card.

Thomas didn't have to stop to know what was being discussed.

"I love Bryson as a person, but he's a slow golfer," Thomas said and added: "I hate to say this because I don't want Bryson to think I'm throwing him in the bus or something like that, but it's just a shame where the pace of the game is right now .

Thomas said there are others who need to play faster. But on Friday, DeChambeau was the one in his group and therefore in his crosshair. "It's hard because I should have said something to him personally," Thomas said. "If I feel so strong about it, I don't have to hide behind it."

DeChambeau said the criticism occupied him during the Saturday round. "It was stressful," he said.