DUBLIN, Ohio – Bryson DeChambeau got an earful during the second day of the Memorial Tournament.
He insisted, however, that he wasn’t bothered by the taunts from numerous spectators rimming the Muirfield Village Golf Club’s course that started in the early a.m. and lasted into the early evening.
Nope, he wasn’t irritated one bit over much of the 33 holes he played Friday to complete the storm delayed first round and his second round when he was occasionally showered with various chants whose central theme was calling him Brooksie – short for Brooks Koepka, the four-time major winner who has mocked DeChambeau from afar in the social media biosphere.
“Oh, they weren’t taunts at all, it was flattering. I think it’s absolutely flattering what they’re doing,” said DeChambeau, the 2020 U.S. Open champion. “They can keep calling me that all day if they want to, I’ve got no issue with it. Most people think it’s a distraction, but I grew up learning how to deal with that stuff and I honestly thought it was flattering.”
DeChambeau said he did not point out any spectators to be removed from the premises; Golfweek confirmed a few spectators were escorted from the property. But the PGA Tour released a statement saying DeChambeau “had an issue with some spectators and notified security, who dealt with them.”
“The officers take care of that. I don’t really care,” DeChambeau said. “There’s obviously people going to say stuff at inappropriate times, but that’s different than what they’re saying. I don’t care.”
Brooks Koepka tweeted a response late Friday evening, offering cases of beer to any fans whose time at the at the tournament “may have been cut short.”
Capping off a long day with @MichelobULTRA! Thanks for all the support today. Also, we’ve got something for you… pic.twitter.com/kwtwXg3Kqb
— Brooks Koepka (@BKoepka) June 4, 2021
The back and forth between DeChambeau and Koepka is going on two years now and reached its apex the Monday after the PGA Championship. That’s when the infamous eye-rolling video that never was supposed to see the light of social media’s day went viral, showing Koepka’s disgust at the sight of DeChambeau and being thrown off his train of thought and dropped some expletives during an interview after the second round of the PGA Championship two weeks ago.
There also was a video posted on social media outlets last week showing DeChambeau getting angry during a practice round at the PGA Championship when someone called him Brooksie.
This led to some exchanges between the two, with DeChambeau saying he was living on Koepka’s head rent free.
“I’m proud of the way that I’ve handled the situation,” said DeChambeau, who has shot 71-72 to stand seven shots out of the Memorial lead set by Patrick Cantlay. “I think that people think that it bothers me, it really doesn’t. I mean, that one video clip that came out the other day it was more of the person saying it in my back(swing) than anything that bothered me. It wasn’t the fact that he said Brooksie, it was just, he said something at an inappropriate time. If he said peanut butter and jelly at the wrong time, I would have probably said the same thing.”
After his second round, four-time major champion Rory McIlroy said he’s gotten a kick out of the “feud.”
“I sent Brooks a message last Monday morning when it all came out. I said, ‘I don’t care what happens to me for the rest of this week, this has made my week, this is like the best thing ever,’” McIlroy said. “I think it’s good for guys to show personality. There’s certainly people out here that don’t like me, I’m sure, and there’s a few people out here that I don’t like.”
Three-time major champion Jordan Spieth played alongside DeChambeau and Cantlay on Friday. He said it was much ado about nothing and added he’s heard much worse playing in groups with Patrick Reed.
“I’ve had people tell me I suck to my face for a long time; you just kind of zone everything out,” Spieth said. “Any bad hole, someone was yelling (Brooksie) and then any good hole people were yelling, ‘Go Bryson’ almost louder. It was like a pseudo rivalry and (Koepka’s) not even here.”
The DeChambeau-Koepka quarrel likely won’t drift away anytime soon. Which won’t bother DeChambeau.
“I’ve got nothing against him,” he said. “I’ve got no issues at all. If he wants to play that game, that’s great. I’m going to keep trying to play my best game and when it comes down to it, when somebody’s that bothered by someone else it is flattering.
“He’s had stuff with other people, too. Like Rory (McIlroy) and numerous others. So this isn’t a one-off thing. So, you know, it’s just the way he deals with stuff and I’m totally fine with it. He’s a great player and he’s won a lot of tournaments and it’s like somebody calling me Jack (Nicklaus) or Payne (Stewart) or (Ben) Hogan or whatever. I think it’s kind of fun.
“Everybody thinks it’s a big deal. It’s not to me.”