Bryson DeChambeau wants golfers who move slowly on the course to receive the same scrutiny and punishment as those who take too long pondering their next shot.
The criticism of DeChambeau specifically and of slow play in general reached its zenith during the Northern Trust. Several golfers called out DeChambeau for his methodical analysis before each shot. Brooks Koepka and DeChambeau eventually met face-to-face on the practice green at Liberty National before the final round of the Northern Trust to air their grievances.
Cooler heads prevailed. DeChambeau took to social media Monday in a vow to play quicker and at least one of his critics, including Eddie Pepperell, apologized for attacks on social media.
But DeChambeau isn’t ready to take all the blame.
“The biggest flaw in the system” that needs to be addressed is that of golfers who don’t move quickly enough between holes, DeChambeau told the Barstool Sports Fore Play podcast that was released Tuesday.
Those slow-walkers cause much longer delays than players who hover over the ball, DeChambeau believes.
“Guys can walk literally as long as they want to the ball. They can take as much time as they want getting to the ball, but until they are, once they get the ball, they have 40 seconds. So theoretically you can have a guy that walks to their ball in 10 minutes and the plays are shot in 10 seconds and he’s never ever, ever going to get penalized,” he told the Fore Play podcast.
“I can’t wait for the PGA Tour to show the timings and the time it takes for someone to hit their shot walk to the next shot. Hit their shot again, walk to the green, hit their putt, hit their putt and show the actual process of how long it takes everybody to do all the steps included, not just one you win. You’re over the ball, there’s plenty of guys out there that walk a little slower than most and don’t take very much time over the ball.”
DeChambeau put a proactive spin on the “slow-play” issue moving forward.
“I’ve always been outspoken, not necessarily outspoken a year ago, but recently about penalizing players. I’m totally fine with that. That’s something that I’ve wanted people to do but at least make the policy and the system fair,” DeChambeau said.
He also offered play-by-play of his man-to-man meeting with Koepka after remarks made by Koepka’s caddie, Ricky Elliott, about DeChambeau’s playing style. DeChambeau told Elliott that Koepka should directly address his concerns with him.
Koepka eventually took DeChambeau up on the offer while both players were preparing for their final round Sunday.
“Brooks comes over to me, and when he did that, I gained the utmost respect for him. I mean that’s classy,” DeChambeau said. “That’s exactly what we need to do on Tour, and maybe not in an outdoor setting. But you know when we’re in the locker room we see each other all the time. It could’ve been done better there I’d say, but at the same point in time is great for everybody to see that situation. We’ve got to be men about this. We can’t be doing stuff on social media all day long and saying this and that about each other without talking to us personally about it.”