LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY | It’s not the victories that mark you. Anyone can be polite and gentlemanly in victory. It’s the way you conduct yourself in defeat that can be so revealing. So it was of Bryson DeChambeau at Valhalla Golf Club.
One minute, after holing an 11-foot putt for a birdie on the 72nd hole on Sunday to conclude the day’s lowest round, a 64, and move to 20 under par in the PGA Championship, he was cutting a lonely figure on the driving range. He was hitting shot after shot to keep himself warm and supple in case he was required for a playoff with Xander Schauffele, who was also 20 under par at that time. Schauffele, though, still had to finish the 72nd hole, a par-5 that presented a real chance of a birdie.
The next minute DeChambeau was stock still on the range, watching on a small television as Schauffele hit a low skipping chip to 6 feet on the boomerang-shaped green and then sank the putt for a birdie, a total of 21-under 263 and his first victory in a major championship.
"I emptied the tank, as I always do in tournaments. I gave it my all and lost to someone who played incredibly well."
Bryson DeChambeau
Suddenly DeChambeau looked tired beneath his suntan. He tipped his blue hat to the back of his head and smiled ruefully. He had done as much as he could with rounds of 68, 65, 67 and 64, and he had been outplayed.
DeChambeau had three birdies in his last six holes, two in his last three, and seven birdies in all in a bogey-free fourth round. His approach to the 16th having rebounded from a tree lining the fairway ended 4 feet from its target, and then he manufactured that birdie on the par-5 18th after driving into a bunker.
“My putting was A-plus; my wedging was A-plus; short game was A-plus; driving was, like, B,” he said. “You know, I shot 20-under-par in a major championship. Proud of myself for the way I handled adversity.”
“I emptied the tank, as I always do in tournaments,” said DeChambeau, a 30-year-old American who won eight times on the PGA Tour, including the 2020 U.S. Open, before he was suspended for having defected to LIV Golf. “I gave it my all and lost to someone who played incredibly well. I put as much effort as I possibly could into it… Xander’s well deserving of a major championship. He’s an amazing golfer and a well-deserved major champion now.”
Gentlemanly words and well spoken.
John Hopkins