Bryson DeChambeau On His Opening Round: "The Driver SUCKS"... and His Sponsor's Response Is SPICY

Mannnnn what a rough look this is for everybody involved. Bryson especially. He just can't seem to get out of his own way these days. I was getting ready to write up a good-natured little blog about his comments saying "yeah, we've all been there with the driver yada yada yada..." but this sponsor statement is SPICY. And it's actually not just some sponsor rep spouting off from an arm's length. This is the guy who CADDIED FOR BRYSON LAST WEEK IN DETROIT. Yeah, the guy who replaced long-time caddie Tim Tucker at a moment's notice. So if we're keeping score... in recent months, Bryson has found himself on the bad side of fellow players, to a degree his own (now former) caddie, and now his very own sponsors. 

At face value, today's comments could have been perceived as an honest mistake. Instead of saying "the driver" he very well could have meant "I sucked at swinging the driver". The phrase "the driver" could have been figurative meaning that element of his game. But then he went on about the face of the driver and "living on the razor's edge" etc etc etc and made it pretty specific about the driver itself. It's pretty understandable why Cobra would be slighted by that kind of talk. Where there's smoke, there's usually fire and for a sponsor rep to come out so brashly in response publicly... it's pretty telling. Cobra has nothing to gain by going in on their own athlete like that unless they're truly fed up. It's hard to perceive it any other way.

It'll be fascinating to see what kind of damage control Bryson and his team tries to put together here. Those guys are working overtime these days. The guy is a perfectionist and golf is an imperfect game by nature. His biggest flaw right now is his reluctance to accept that. Part of that stubbornness is what makes him great (because he is), but it's only creating more problems for him in the public eye. Maybe he'll show up tomorrow and make it through to the weekend at The Open, but this saga (among many others) feels far from over.