Bryson DeChambeau was at the center of attention (and gravity) throughout the return of the PGA Tour, mainly thanks to his massed physique and the mammoth driving distance.
Today, Bryson made headlines for a different reason, when he had a fight with a golf channel cameraman after a somewhat childish manifestation of frustration.
Bryson is a little warm. Framed with him on the 7th, where he took a Sergio cut in the sand after splashing out of a bunker on the green, he murmured an explosion after losing the par par and spent 60 seconds in a … daring discussion with a cameraman on his way to 8 tees. pic.twitter.com/ENjQt1U689
– Will Gray (@WillGrayGC) July 4, 2020
Obviously in the middle of the moment, a player can understandably be upset and decide to get rid of the frustrations on a bunker, and then on a cameraman who documented that bunker hit.
After the round, however, DeChambeau clarified that it was not a real blowout when he expressed something absolutely incredible to hear from an athlete who earns a living playing a spectator sport.
From Will Gray to the Golf Channel:
“He was literally watching me all the way after exiting the bunker, walking near the green. And I was like ‘Lord, what’s the need to look at me so long?’ “DeChambeau said.” I mean, I understand that it’s his job to video me, but at the same time, I think we have to start protecting our players here from showing a potential vulnerability and damaging someone’s image. I don’t think it’s necessarily the right thing to do. “
“As much as we perform here, I think it is also necessary to have our moments of privacy when things are not going the right way. I mean, we’re in the spotlight, but if someone else is in the spotlight they wouldn’t want it either, “said DeChambeau.” I feel that when you’re filming someone and you catch Tiger (Woods) in a bad time, you accidentally show him doing something , or someone else, they’re just frustrated because they really care about the game. It could really hurt them if they catch you in a potentially vulnerable moment.
This was the worst part:
“We don’t mean anything about this, we only care a lot about the game. Because this damages our brand in that way, the way we act is not beautiful because if you meet me in person, I’m not a bad boy, I don’t think. “
DeChambeau is essentially supporting equality Less transparent cover of golf, the sport that remains more opaque for spectators. What Bryson is discussing says it incredibly; he wants cover, but not everything that could make him look bad or even human. He wants full control of the narrative. Imagine this in another sport, where the cameras would move away from an NBA player who argues with a ref or gets a technician, or ESPN who launches in advertising while a hitter loads the mound Baseball on Sunday evening.
The problem is, the only reason players like Bryson make the money they make is because of the interest of fans in seeing them play. It is quite difficult to see moments like this (which, it should be noted, has just been mentioned in the broadcast) in which it is possible to participate in events; now, with the live crowd prohibited, the only link to the game is through the broadcast. DeChambeau scolding a cameraman for doing his job is clearly more embarrassing than any angry reaction could have been, and his comments seem to give more weight to the responsibility of protecting his image on a rights partner than his choices.
https://t.co/3v2R6XF1Zh pic.twitter.com/pmB3ksIeA3
– Matthew Harbeck (@ HarbeckHawkeye3) July 5, 2020
DeChambeau could still hold a grudge for the 2018 Open Championship, when the cameras surprised him in full blending mode at a time he apparently considered private, although media and cameras are present on the field during the main weeks of the championship.
I think Bryson was hit and really annoyed by that collapse of the Open range that was picked up in the background by the GC cameras and I think it’s still an underground current for today’s comments (which are, to be clear, bad)
– Brendan Porath (@BrendanPorath) July 5, 2020
Apparently Bryson wants to play golf not in a vacuum, because he clearly wants the fame and fortune that comes from being one of the best players in the world, but through a filter approved by his (arguably qualified) PR team. This is a player who released his 15-minute quarantine video that included things like cooking shirtless bacon, or who on Saturday was wearing a shirt that presented mathematical equations (the scientist’s new clothes). He wants more attention than any other player on tour, but only if he receives his stamp of approval.
wait wait wait wait wait pic.twitter.com/P7hi6NjitV
– Brendan Porath (@BrendanPorath) July 4, 2020
That’s not how sport works, of course. There is a push between what viewers want to see and what athletes don’t want to give up; often, athletes are right. (Do we really need prolonged shots of sobbing colleagues after the end of their career? Or zoom-shots of players in agony after suffering injuries?) The professionals of the PGA Tour, however, do not seem to understand how this contract works, perhaps because essentially they work in their alloy and are therefore intrinsically short-sighted.
It came out a few weeks ago when players refused to wear microphones in advance, with points similar to what DeChambeau expressed today. This is not to say that the owners of other sports are visionary geniuses who deserve praise. It is to say that the only advantage of that player-owner push-pull relationship is that there is a part involved in thinking about the health of long-term sports, even if this is often only because their greed is working on a line. different storm. (Or at least they should; the MLB fiasco suggests it’s not automatic.)
Players should and want what’s best for them, but too often when what’s best for PGA Tour players and the game of golf in general is something that would make them slightly uncomfortable or force a small change in habit or , god forbid, show them in a setting that is not hermetically sealed by a team of branding experts.
DeChambeau could be an outlier in many, many ways, but there are many players on this subject who probably agree with him, at least in part. He’s trying to blend protein and eat it, but Bryson should be a much better scientist to figure out how to make it possible.
[Golf Channel]
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