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Even fellow tour pros are calling out Bryson DeChambeau after slow-play videos go viral
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Brooks Koepka might want to sit down for this. Then again, there's a good chance he's already seen a pair of viral videos showing Bryson DeChambeau taking an inordinate amount of time to play a couple of shots during Friday's second round at the Northern Trust. Either way, we're pretty sure Koepka won't be happy about them.
In addition to being the world's best golfer, Brooks has also become the game's most outspoken critic of slow play on the PGA Tour. In fact, earlier this year he criticized DeChambeau specifically for his lengthy pre-shot routine in which he calculates things like air density in addition to the usual yardage and wind.
“I just don’t understand how it takes a minute and 20 seconds, a minute and 15 to hit a golf ball; it’s not that hard,” Koepka said at the time.
Well, then he really won't understand this. The first video shows DeChambeau taking more than three minutes to play a 70-yard shot.
To be fair, it was from an unusual spot, but still. . . . And if possible, the next one is even worse. DeChambeau takes more than two minutes before attempting an eight-footer—and missing.
For golf fans, it was hard to watch. But imagine how much worse it was for DeChambeau's playing partners, Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Thomas? Let's just say neither looked thrilled.
The good news (we guess?) is that Koepka has plenty of support in the anti-slow-play community on Twitter. Here are some of the responses by fellow tour pros to DeChambeau's deliberate display with two-time European Tour winner Eddie Pepperell going as far as to calling Bryson a "single-minded twit."
And the LPGA's Christina Kim had a pretty funny jab at the former physics major:
Kim also noted the LPGA has assessed some slow-play penalties this year (Sounds like a good idea!), and she was impressed by Thomas hanging in there as he did. Thomas acknowledged it wasn't easy:
Of course, DeChambeau isn't the only slow player out there. Others like J.B. Holmes, Ben Crane, and Kevin Na have been harshly criticized through the years, but these videos of the five-time PGA Tour winner are particularly damning. DeChambeau has defended his pace of play in the past in part by saying he walks faster to his golf ball, which allows him more time once he arrives there. You don't have to be a physics major, though, to know that math isn't adding up.