It will have to go some to top the infamous ‘dust-up in the car park’ at Marco Simone in 2023, but the ingredients for this autumn’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black are getting spicier all the time. And in Rory McIlroy vs Bryson DeChambeau, we may just have the main course.
McIlroy’s epic Masters win on Sunday evening provided a feel-good story for the ages and everyone afterwards lined up to sing the Northern Irishman’s praises. Almost everyone anyway. DeChambeau, when asked how his final round playing partner was faring after one of the most nerve-shredding rounds in golfing history, provided an unexpectedly spiky response.
“No idea,” the American shrugged. “Didn’t talk to me once all day.”
Asked to expand on the atmosphere, DeChambeau added: “Electric. I loved it. But he [McIlroy] was just like… just being focused, I guess. It’s not me, though.”
Understandably, his comments triggered plenty of headlines in Monday’s post-mortem.
Bryson DeChambeau says Rory McIlroy didn’t say a word to him all day. 💀 pic.twitter.com/z2vmJqHjpc
— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) April 14, 2025
In DeChambeau’s defence, he was speaking right after his round, before McIlroy had actually won the tournament in a sudden death play-off with Justin Rose, and while the American was presumably still processing his own three-over-par 75, which left him in a tie for fifth.
And DeChambeau did later offer his congratulations to McIlroy, posting on social media to describe the Northern Irishman’s career grand slam as an “incredible achievement”, and adding: “He deserved to get this one”. But by then the damage was done.
The truth is, the man from Modesto, California, was clearly making a point on Sunday night. DeChambeau could easily have said that McIlroy was trying to stay in the zone, or simply preferred not to make chit chat out on course. But he chose to make a thing of it.
The one comment he made about McIlroy’s performance concerned the 35 year-old’s double bogey at 13, when the Northern Irishman pitched into Rae’s Creek.
McIlroy in the water! 🫣 pic.twitter.com/7QkBMzjXnY
— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) April 13, 2025
“I wanted to cry for him,” DeChambeau said. “I mean, as a professional, you just know to hit it in the middle of the green, and I can’t believe he went for it, or must have just flared it. But I’ve hit bad shots in my career, too, and it happens. When you’re trying to win a major championship, especially out here, Sunday of Augusta at the Masters, you have to just do it and get the job done and do it right. There were times where it looked like he had full control and at times where it’s like, what’s going on. Kind of looked like one of my rounds, actually.”
Hardly Joe Frazier versus Muhammad Ali, but the growing feeling within the game is that – despite their denials – there is tension between the respective faces of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, who represent very different characters on and off the course. Perhaps that will dissipate now that McIlroy’s major curse has been lifted and he can relax a bit. Perhaps not.
The tension clearly stems from their clash at Pinehurst at the US Open last summer. McIlory’s dramatic collapse in the final holes opened the door for DeChambeau to claim the title for the second time, and the Northern Irishman’s swift exit afterwards, without speaking to the media or stopping to congratulate DeChambeau, clearly shocked the latter.
Like DeChambeau after this Masters, McIlroy did eventually get around to praising his rival, describing DeChambeau on social media the following day as “a worthy champion” and saying he was “exactly what professional golf needs right now”.
But the relationship between the two is said to have soured when they met in Las Vegas in December for the Showdown – a match pitting the PGA Tour against LIV Golf as McIlroy teamed up with Scottie Scheffler to take on DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.
In the build-up to the Shadow Creek Golf Club contest, the two shared a joke about their rivalry. “I’d like to go up against Bryson and try to get him back for what he did to me at the US Open,” McIlroy said while on the range alongside DeChambeau.
“Well, to be fair, you kinda did it to yourself,” DeChambeau quipped, a retort that stung McIlroy and one that is understood to have stuck with him, having been deemed cruel and unnecessary. It did not take long on Monday for video clips of that particular exchange to be shared online.
The trash talking already starting at Shadow Creek 😅#LIVGolfpic.twitter.com/zB0bM3gWCn
— LIV Golf (@livgolf_league) December 16, 2024
Whether McIlroy was truly irked or not, whether he cannot stand DeChambeau or is simply indifferent, it seems he decided not to have any dealings with DeChambeau at all during Sunday’s final round.
DeChambeau, by contrast, appeared to be trying to get inside his rival’s head before the round had even begun. It escaped no one’s attention that the American started his driving range practice in one of the far berths, only to edge his way slowly towards where McIlroy was hitting from, to the point that they were separated by just three empty bays when nearly all other players had left to start their rounds.
It is just the kind of thing that, if it was intentional, would be likely to annoy McIlroy, a stickler for etiquette. Two years ago, at the Ryder Cup, the Northern Irishman got so fired up by the actions of Team USA caddie Joe LaCava, who he felt had “crossed a line” by celebrating in his face while he was lining up a putt, that he had to be restrained by his friend Shane Lowry. Perhaps this year he will go Bison-hunting at Bethpage Black.
It will have to go some to top the infamous ‘dust-up in the car park’ at Marco Simone in 2023, but the ingredients for this autumn’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black are getting spicier all the time. And in Rory McIlroy vs Bryson DeChambeau, we may just have the main course.
McIlroy’s epic Masters win on Sunday evening provided a feel-good story for the ages and everyone afterwards lined up to sing the Northern Irishman’s praises. Almost everyone anyway. DeChambeau, when asked how his final round playing partner was faring after one of the most nerve-shredding rounds in golfing history, provided an unexpectedly spiky response.
“No idea,” the American shrugged. “Didn’t talk to me once all day.”
Asked to expand on the atmosphere, DeChambeau added: “Electric. I loved it. But he [McIlroy] was just like… just being focused, I guess. It’s not me, though.”
Understandably, his comments triggered plenty of headlines in Monday’s post-mortem.
Bryson DeChambeau says Rory McIlroy didn’t say a word to him all day. 💀 pic.twitter.com/z2vmJqHjpc
— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) April 14, 2025
In DeChambeau’s defence, he was speaking right after his round, before McIlroy had actually won the tournament in a sudden death play-off with Justin Rose, and while the American was presumably still processing his own three-over-par 75, which left him in a tie for fifth.
And DeChambeau did later offer his congratulations to McIlroy, posting on social media to describe the Northern Irishman’s career grand slam as an “incredible achievement”, and adding: “He deserved to get this one”. But by then the damage was done.
The truth is, the man from Modesto, California, was clearly making a point on Sunday night. DeChambeau could easily have said that McIlroy was trying to stay in the zone, or simply preferred not to make chit chat out on course. But he chose to make a thing of it.
The one comment he made about McIlroy’s performance concerned the 35 year-old’s double bogey at 13, when the Northern Irishman pitched into Rae’s Creek.
McIlroy in the water! 🫣 pic.twitter.com/7QkBMzjXnY
— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) April 13, 2025
“I wanted to cry for him,” DeChambeau said. “I mean, as a professional, you just know to hit it in the middle of the green, and I can’t believe he went for it, or must have just flared it. But I’ve hit bad shots in my career, too, and it happens. When you’re trying to win a major championship, especially out here, Sunday of Augusta at the Masters, you have to just do it and get the job done and do it right. There were times where it looked like he had full control and at times where it’s like, what’s going on. Kind of looked like one of my rounds, actually.”
Hardly Joe Frazier versus Muhammad Ali, but the growing feeling within the game is that – despite their denials – there is tension between the respective faces of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, who represent very different characters on and off the course. Perhaps that will dissipate now that McIlroy’s major curse has been lifted and he can relax a bit. Perhaps not.
The tension clearly stems from their clash at Pinehurst at the US Open last summer. McIlory’s dramatic collapse in the final holes opened the door for DeChambeau to claim the title for the second time, and the Northern Irishman’s swift exit afterwards, without speaking to the media or stopping to congratulate DeChambeau, clearly shocked the latter.
Like DeChambeau after this Masters, McIlroy did eventually get around to praising his rival, describing DeChambeau on social media the following day as “a worthy champion” and saying he was “exactly what professional golf needs right now”.
But the relationship between the two is said to have soured when they met in Las Vegas in December for the Showdown – a match pitting the PGA Tour against LIV Golf as McIlroy teamed up with Scottie Scheffler to take on DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.
In the build-up to the Shadow Creek Golf Club contest, the two shared a joke about their rivalry. “I’d like to go up against Bryson and try to get him back for what he did to me at the US Open,” McIlroy said while on the range alongside DeChambeau.
“Well, to be fair, you kinda did it to yourself,” DeChambeau quipped, a retort that stung McIlroy and one that is understood to have stuck with him, having been deemed cruel and unnecessary. It did not take long on Monday for video clips of that particular exchange to be shared online.
The trash talking already starting at Shadow Creek 😅#LIVGolfpic.twitter.com/zB0bM3gWCn
— LIV Golf (@livgolf_league) December 16, 2024
Whether McIlroy was truly irked or not, whether he cannot stand DeChambeau or is simply indifferent, it seems he decided not to have any dealings with DeChambeau at all during Sunday’s final round.
DeChambeau, by contrast, appeared to be trying to get inside his rival’s head before the round had even begun. It escaped no one’s attention that the American started his driving range practice in one of the far berths, only to edge his way slowly towards where McIlroy was hitting from, to the point that they were separated by just three empty bays when nearly all other players had left to start their rounds.
It is just the kind of thing that, if it was intentional, would be likely to annoy McIlroy, a stickler for etiquette. Two years ago, at the Ryder Cup, the Northern Irishman got so fired up by the actions of Team USA caddie Joe LaCava, who he felt had “crossed a line” by celebrating in his face while he was lining up a putt, that he had to be restrained by his friend Shane Lowry. Perhaps this year he will go Bison-hunting at Bethpage Black.
