PGA FedEx Cup Playoffs

[arnie]

Some people relish being the villain. But not many. Is DeChambeau one of those? I guess we'll find out. It has to be dispiriting to know that darn near everyone is rooting for the other guy(s). Not saying it isn't a self-inflicted wound. But you can almost feel sorry for him. Almost.

I’ll bite. I liked Laettner and I like watching DeChambeau. Maybe I have a personality disorder?

[Tripping William]

Some people relish being the villain. But not many. Is DeChambeau one of those? I guess we'll find out. It has to be dispiriting to know that darn near everyone is rooting for the other guy(s). Not saying it isn't a self-inflicted wound. But you can almost feel sorry for him. Almost.

To paraphrase a well-known exchange: You've met Christian Laettner; Christian Laettner was an interviewee of yours. BAD's no Christian Laettner.

[cato]

Some people relish being the villain. But not many. Is DeChambeau one of those? I guess we'll find out. It has to be dispiriting to know that darn near everyone is rooting for the other guy(s). Not saying it isn't a self-inflicted wound. But you can almost feel sorry for him. Almost.

I definitely think he’s trying to take that route. And maybe it will succeed. I just think the pressure is a bit more than he bargained for, particularly when it comes to Sunday with everything on the line.

Of course, he would have won yesterday if Cantlay hadn’t turned in a career day on the greens. I still can’t believe he rolled in all those must-make putts.

[Tripping William]

I definitely think he’s trying to take that route. And maybe it will succeed. I just think the pressure is a bit more than he bargained for, particularly when it comes to Sunday with everything on the line.

Of course, he would have won yesterday if Cantlay hadn’t turned in a career day on the greens. I still can’t believe he rolled in all those must-make putts.

An alternate take, from ESPN's Kevin Van Valkenburg.

Money quote: "DeChambeau was never meant to play the heel. It's not in his DNA. People who interact with him regularly have told me that, deep down, what he wants is to be loved. To be embraced. He can't seem to grasp why he often isn't, despite so much success."

Tl;dr: BAD just wants to be loved.

[dudog84]

Some people relish being the villain. But not many. Is DeChambeau one of those? I guess we'll find out. It has to be dispiriting to know that darn near everyone is rooting for the other guy(s). Not saying it isn't a self-inflicted wound. But you can almost feel sorry for him. Almost.

So you're saying he needs to hire Patrick Reed as his psych coach?

[camion]

I’ll bite. I liked Laettner and I like watching DeChambeau. Maybe I have a personality disorder?

You post on this board don't you? That should be a clue.


I used to have a personality disorder, but I sent it back and reordered.

[cato]

An alternate take, from ESPN's Kevin Van Valkenburg.

Money quote: "DeChambeau was never meant to play the heel. It's not in his DNA. People who interact with him regularly have told me that, deep down, what he wants is to be loved. To be embraced. He can't seem to grasp why he often isn't, despite so much success."

Tl;dr: BAD just wants to be loved.

That’s an elucidating take — thanks. I’m not sure it’s entirely alternate, though. It’s hard for me to believe that DeChambeau isn’t trying to be a villain, even if he got to that point without intending to or understanding why. The way he stood on the edge of the green at 18 with his putter propped against pelvis while Cantlay lined up his must-make putt was 100% an attempt to intimidate his opponent. The kind of thing a villain would do.

And I don’t have a problem with it. That was compelling stuff yesterday. You could tell Cantlay wanted to beat Bryson just as much as Bryson wanted to beat Cantlay, but was just expressing it differently. I do think that it is very difficult for Bryson to slog through four days of constant heckling and then jubilation when he finally makes a mistake.

He certainly draws a crowd. I tried to catch a bit of him on Friday at the US Open, but so many people were trying to do the same thing that it made much more sense to go see people elsewhere on the course.

To bring my thinking full circle, at the end of the day, I hope that BAD can thrive as the unintentional villain and maybe win people over. So I guess I’ll be rooting for him next week. I have my doubts, but he’s already proved a bunch of those doubts wrong.

[Tripping William]

That’s an elucidating take — thanks. I’m not sure it’s entirely alternate, though. It’s hard for me to believe that DeChambeau isn’t trying to be a villain, even if he got to that point without intending to or understanding why. The way he stood on the edge of the green at 18 with his putter propped against pelvis while Cantlay lined up his must-make putt was 100% an attempt to intimidate his opponent. The kind of thing a villain would do.

And I don’t have a problem with it. That was compelling stuff yesterday. You could tell Cantlay wanted to beat Bryson just as much as Bryson wanted to beat Cantlay, but was just expressing it differently. I do think that it is very difficult for Bryson to slog through four days of constant heckling and then jubilation when he finally makes a mistake.

He certainly draws a crowd. I tried to catch a bit of him on Friday at the US Open, but so many people were trying to do the same thing that it made much more sense to go see people elsewhere on the course.

To bring my thinking full circle, at the end of the day, I hope that BAD can thrive as the unintentional villain and maybe win people over. So I guess I’ll be rooting for him next week. I have my doubts, but he’s already proved a bunch of those doubts wrong.

A complete aside on the highlighted. You spelled it wrong. It's spelled "Cantmiss." {Hat tip to someone on Twitter; I could not have come up with that myself, but laughed when I saw it.}

[SouthernDukie]

An alternate take, from ESPN's Kevin Van Valkenburg.

Money quote: "DeChambeau was never meant to play the heel. It's not in his DNA. People who interact with him regularly have told me that, deep down, what he wants is to be loved. To be embraced. He can't seem to grasp why he often isn't, despite so much success."

Tl;dr: BAD just wants to be loved.

Being an armchair long range psychologist here, but I think that is 100% the correct take. Bryson is trying to play the bad guy, I think in large part because of discontinuing feud with Brooks. I think Koepka has gotten to him mentally in terms of who’s the tough guy. Bryson wants to project that he’s going to be the bully. But deep down he looks like he wants the type of attention that only comes from being loved. Therefore I don’t think he has what it takes to be a Christian Laettner. Not in the least.

[Channing]

Whatever one thinks of BAD, it is, IMO, completely out of bounds for one of his fellow competitors to egg-on harassment of BAD and reward that bad behavior. The ship is probably out the harbor, but BAD isn't the first person to be prickly with the media and he isn't the first person to try and intimidate his opponents. If people are actually serious about making mental health a focal point of sports, then how can one not condemn the perpetual, non-stop bullying (because that's what it is) of BAD by the fans?

[elvis14]

I'm always rooting for BAD. Last year when golf was the only thing being played and I was watching weekly, some of the announcers just hated Bryson. They were old school, old guys who just kept saying negative things about Bryson, even as he was winning. As a golfer, I'm the opposite of him...I'm not a long hitter and I'm more 'feel', less 'calculate'...oh and I suck. But I love the fact that he takes what he does to an extreme level and wins. Does he need to speed it up a bit? Yes. Does he need to do better with what he says to the media when he's annoyed and/or they ask stupid questions? Yes (he's still young). But I love that he's sticking to all the old stuffy naysayers. Stuffy old people are not what I want around me when I'm golfing (and yes, I've avoided playing courses that I thought were full of those guys).

[CameronDuke]

Whatever one thinks of BAD, it is, IMO, completely out of bounds for one of his fellow competitors to egg-on harassment of BAD and reward that bad behavior. The ship is probably out the harbor, but BAD isn't the first person to be prickly with the media and he isn't the first person to try and intimidate his opponents. If people are actually serious about making mental health a focal point of sports, then how can one not condemn the perpetual, non-stop bullying (because that's what it is) of BAD by the fans?

Eh, that’s an interesting take. Bryson is an enigma to me. Before I make it seem like I’m hating on the guy, let me be the first to say it takes a huge set of balls to approach the game like Bryson. He does it his way. He is a showman. He hits it a mile, works out like a freak, and has to go out and blaze his own trail to play like he does. His one length golf club approach and knowledge of physics is darn impressive. For that, I respect him.

But that all comes with the territory of being heckled or jeered or questioned when it doesn’t work. Yesterday, he was hitting it a mile off the tee but couldn’t putt it 7 feet when it mattered. It’s pretty normal to me for fans to jeer someone who brags about how dialed in and calculated he is on golf courses and acts like he has it all mathematically, physically, and technically figured out when that person struggles. That’s the beauty of sports and why we all crave the entertainment aspect of it.

Bryson is arguably one of the most talented golfers ever. But between the ears, he’s also arguably one of the biggest sociopaths seemingly. He talks to himself, blinks his eyes rapidly, does the mental calculations in his head, and acts like a robot often. His former caddie quit because it was all too much for him to be around. Bryson seems like a great guy and has a big heart, but acting like a robot isn’t going to make you seem like a common man golfer to the masses.

[rsvman]

If you haven't watched at least one of the gm golf (or maybe good good?) videos with Bryson and Kyle Berkshire as guests, then you are getting an extremely myopic view of BAD.
He's actually one of the good guys.

[Channing]

But that all comes with the territory of being heckled or jeered or questioned when it doesn’t work. Yesterday, he was hitting it a mile off the tee but couldn’t putt it 7 feet when it mattered. It’s pretty normal to me for fans to jeer someone who brags about how dialed in and calculated he is on golf courses and acts like he has it all mathematically, physically, and technically figured out when that person struggles. That’s the beauty of sports and why we all crave the entertainment aspect of it.

I think this is a pretty weak take in the context of golf. When has any other professional golfer on the tour dealt with the same level of jeering and heckling as BAD - with a colleague, of all things, encouraging it? Golf is a different game than other spectator sports. Its 4 hours a day over 4 days - a long time to sit and receive harassment shot after shot after shot. I would take the position that it is wholly uncommon, almost unheard of, for professional golfers to be jeered or heckled - it is very much a game (at least on the course) of encouragement. The only other person I can think of is Patrick Reed and he has his own issues, but even he isn't subject to the same level of harassment as BAD.

The whole notion is enhanced by the discussion coming out of the Olympics - or are we supposed to just expect that that since he is a professional athlete people can treat him however they want?

[cato]

BAD has the folks of DBR talking past each other.

[sagegrouse]

I think this is a pretty weak take in the context of golf. When has any other professional golfer on the tour dealt with the same level of jeering and heckling as BAD - with a colleague, of all things, encouraging it? Golf is a different game than other spectator sports. Its 4 hours a day over 4 days - a long time to sit and receive harassment shot after shot after shot. I would take the position that it is wholly uncommon, almost unheard of, for professional golfers to be jeered or heckled - it is very much a game (at least on the course) of encouragement. The only other person I can think of is Patrick Reed and he has his own issues, but even he isn't subject to the same level of harassment as BAD.

The whole notion is enhanced by the discussion coming out of the Olympics - or are we supposed to just expect that that since he is a professional athlete people can treat him however they want?

BAD has the folks of DBR talking past each other.

Bryson DeChambeau is making life difficult for himself. Even the most hard-bitten competitors of the past managed to get the fans on his side. Even with his massive tee shots, golf is still a gentle game, both in finesse shots around the green and in interactions with the other players and the fans. He could fix this problem in two weeks. The fact that he hasn't makes me wonder about his long-term career.

[CameronDuke]

I think this is a pretty weak take in the context of golf. When has any other professional golfer on the tour dealt with the same level of jeering and heckling as BAD - with a colleague, of all things, encouraging it? Golf is a different game than other spectator sports. Its 4 hours a day over 4 days - a long time to sit and receive harassment shot after shot after shot. I would take the position that it is wholly uncommon, almost unheard of, for professional golfers to be jeered or heckled - it is very much a game (at least on the course) of encouragement. The only other person I can think of is Patrick Reed and he has his own issues, but even he isn't subject to the same level of harassment as BAD.

The whole notion is enhanced by the discussion coming out of the Olympics - or are we supposed to just expect that that since he is a professional athlete people can treat him however they want?

Golfers get heckled a lot more than I think you may realize. Especially many of the stars. A guy I went to college with, Lanto Griffin, was paired with Rory McIlroy a few years ago at a PGA Tour tournament (the Traveler’s Championship) and said Rory couldn’t have been a nicer guy to him, but much of the vulgar heckling and comments Rory received from the gallery were horrible. Bryson isn’t much different than other golfers in that he gets heckled. You let people in the gallery drink beer all day and watch any sport (including golf) and they’re gonna heckle, jeer, and taunt the sport participants within the game.

Bryson has brought a lot of this on himself. Sunday on the 14th, he even called Cantlay out on camera by saying “Patrick, can you stop walking?” as Bryson was about to hit a shot. Cantlay was several feet away from Bryson walking up the fairway because he said PGA Tour officials had told the group to speed up a bit. Bryson has a history of playing pretty slow and analyzing his shots at a high level before hitting his shot. Do you think Cantlay doesn’t know golf etiquette? He doesn’t need to be told to stop walking there. That’s bush league by Bryson. Cantlay is a professional just like Bryson and knows when to walk and when not to and if he thought his walking was going to interfere with Bryson’s shot, he wouldn’t have done it. Cantlay doesn’t need Bryson policing him letting him know when and where he can walk on the golf course. Bryson was also visibly rolling his eyes on the green as Cantlay was lining up and looking over short putts.

I will admit the level of harassment Bryson catches is at times over the top. As he was walking off the course Sunday, he gave his hat to a young fan. As he was walking away, someone yelled “Way to go Brooksy!” to Bryson and Bryson told him in a rage to get the f—- out of here. I can get his rage in that particular scenario and I think it’s wrong to heckle a man who just suffered a crushing defeat as the man is just trying to get off the course and go be a human being. Some of the heckling is definitely over the top, and unoriginal. I respect Bryson and do feel bad for him at times but his actions at times are worthy of ridicule and thinking that some of his antics won’t attract attention is foolish.

[Channing]

Golfers get heckled a lot more than I think you may realize. Especially many of the stars. A guy I went to college with, Lanto Griffin, was paired with Rory McIlroy a few years ago at a PGA Tour tournament (the Traveler’s Championship) and said Rory couldn’t have been a nicer guy to him, but much of the vulgar heckling and comments Rory received from the gallery were horrible. Bryson isn’t much different than other golfers in that he gets heckled. You let people in the gallery drink beer all day and watch any sport (including golf) and they’re gonna heckle, jeer, and taunt the sport participants within the game.

Bryson has brought a lot of this on himself. Sunday on the 14th, he even called Cantlay out on camera by saying “Patrick, can you stop walking?” as Bryson was about to hit a shot. Cantlay was several feet away from Bryson walking up the fairway because he said PGA Tour officials had told the group to speed up a bit. Bryson has a history of playing pretty slow and analyzing his shots at a high level before hitting his shot. Do you think Cantlay doesn’t know golf etiquette? He doesn’t need to be told to stop walking there. That’s bush league by Bryson. Cantlay is a professional just like Bryson and knows when to walk and when not to and if he thought his walking was going to interfere with Bryson’s shot, he wouldn’t have done it. Cantlay doesn’t need Bryson policing him letting him know when and where he can walk on the golf course. Bryson was also visibly rolling his eyes on the green as Cantlay was lining up and looking over short putts.

I will admit the level of harassment Bryson catches is at times over the top. As he was walking off the course Sunday, he gave his hat to a young fan. As he was walking away, someone yelled “Way to go Brooksy!” to Bryson and Bryson told him in a rage to get the f—- out of here. I can get his rage in that particular scenario and I think it’s wrong to heckle a man who just suffered a crushing defeat as the man is just trying to get off the course and go be a human being. Some of the heckling is definitely over the top, and unoriginal. I respect Bryson and do feel bad for him at times but his actions at times are worthy of ridicule and thinking that some of his antics won’t attract attention is foolish.

I'm not Bryson's biggest fan, by any stretch, but I think he gets it way worse than anyone else. Anecdotally, I've been to dozens of golf tournaments over the years (between the Masters, East Lake, and other tournaments in Alabama and North Carolina, we have a lot of opportunities). I find a clear delineation between one off comments which are inappropriate (which happen) and a concerted, repeating campaign against a single player. There is a group think bully mentality with respect to Bryson that exceeds the one or two off drunk fan hurling an insult and its out of line with golf as a sport and just common decency - (at the risk of repeating myself) especially if anyone wants to be taken seriously in discussing mental health in the context of sporting events. To be clear, I'm not saying that everyone needs to be a BAD fan or supporter - but rather that he does not deserve to be the subject of ongoing persistent harassment that is encouraged and goaded on by one of his peers.

-With respect to the Cantlay incident, why is it inappropriate for Bryson to ask Cantlay to stop walking? Isn't that golf 101 - take 10 seconds while your partner is getting ready to hit and don't move in their vicinity where a sound could distract them or you could move into their peripheral vision? I think that was completely overblown and have seen any number of players at any number of golf tournaments asking spectators or camera people or other officials to stop moving or to move out of their line of sight - is it somehow not distracting because it was another pro that was distracting BAD (and clearly if BAD knew Cantlay was the one walking it was distracting him at a very high stress moment)? In what sense is that bush league unless the thought is Bryson should just deal with the distraction at that point in the tournament? Is Cantlay the arbiter of what is distracting to BAD?

[CameronDuke]

I'm not Bryson's biggest fan, by any stretch, but I think he gets it way worse than anyone else. Anecdotally, I've been to dozens of golf tournaments over the years (between the Masters, East Lake, and other tournaments in Alabama and North Carolina, we have a lot of opportunities). I find a clear delineation between one off comments which are inappropriate (which happen) and a concerted, repeating campaign against a single player. There is a group think bully mentality with respect to Bryson that exceeds the one or two off drunk fan hurling an insult and its out of line with golf as a sport and just common decency - (at the risk of repeating myself) especially if anyone wants to be taken seriously in discussing mental health in the context of sporting events. To be clear, I'm not saying that everyone needs to be a BAD fan or supporter - but rather that he does not deserve to be the subject of ongoing persistent harassment that is encouraged and goaded on by one of his peers.

-With respect to the Cantlay incident, why is it inappropriate for Bryson to ask Cantlay to stop walking? Isn't that golf 101 - take 10 seconds while your partner is getting ready to hit and don't move in their vicinity where a sound could distract them or you could move into their peripheral vision? I think that was completely overblown and have seen any number of players at any number of golf tournaments asking spectators or camera people or other officials to stop moving or to move out of their line of sight - is it somehow not distracting because it was another pro that was distracting BAD (and clearly if BAD knew Cantlay was the one walking it was distracting him at a very high stress moment)? In what sense is that bush league unless the thought is Bryson should just deal with the distraction at that point in the tournament? Is Cantlay the arbiter of what is distracting to BAD?

I get that if we want to push the mental health in athletes dialogue forward, this type of group think bullying of a particular player doesn’t support that narrative. For that, I do feel badly for Bryson.

I don’t think it’s ridiculous to be distracted by someone when you’re standing over the ball about to hit your shot. Normal protocol in my opinion would be to step off your shot and go back through your pre shot routine again and then address the ball. You don’t, in the heat of the moment, say that to your group partner in my opinion. Again, the standard is usually you step off your shot, maybe even look over at your group partner if he’s distracting you, and usually they will get the point and stop doing whatever they’re doing that was distracting you. Telling someone when and where to walk like they don’t know golf course etiquette is a bad look. Give your partner the courtesy to not call them out on national television like they don’t know proper golf course etiquette. Maybe Cantlay was just trying to appease the PGA Tour officials that told them they need to speed their pace up. Maybe for a fleeting second, Cantlay was aloof in his own world. Just do a quick step off and give a quick look over. Don’t call them by name and seemingly berate him in front of the entire golf world to see.

[dudog84]

I haven't, and I've watched a lot of golf over the years. He gave a few shots back on the back nine, though.



On a completely unrelated note, does anybody else besides me find the FedEx Cup Playoff format to be just weird? I enjoy the consecutive tournaments winnowing the field down to 30, but it seems to me that once the 30-player field has been set, they ought to just play the tournament and have the winner take all. I know in the past they did the confusing point system all the way through so that it was possible to finish second, third, or even lower in the final tournament and still win. Now I think they have the top people START the tournament under par, a given number of shots ahead before the first shot is even played.

How/why does that make sense? Can you imagine doing this in other sports? We could, for example, start the Super Bowl with one team already ahead 7-0 because they won their earlier playoff games by a larger margin? Or, weirder yet, play the Super Bowl, lose by three points, and be declared the winner? What about in basketball? Maybe one team could start the Finals already up one game to none or two games to none because they dispatched their earlier foes in fewer games? People would come unglued! And yet that's what they are doing in golf.

Am I thinking this through incorrectly? I mean, if they really wanted to make stuff carry over, maybe they should add up the scores for the last two tournaments and say that the player with the fewest strokes over the last 8 rounds is the winner. But to me it would make much more sense to just use the earlier tournaments to figure out who the thirty players are going to be, reset everything to square one, and let the winner of the final tournament be declared the winner of the whole thing. Good play in earlier tournaments would still be required or you wouldn't make the field. I don't know what the format would lose by changing to this, and I think it would make the final tournament that much more exciting.

Not to pile on rsvman , but now that the field is set I wanted to illustrate my point.

I'll just pick on Erik van Rooyen, #27, because I've never heard of him. He's won 1 PGA event in his career, the Barracuda Championship this year. That is one of the weakest fields on tour (only 1 player in the top 50 competed) because it was at the same time as a World Golf Championship. The tour thinks so little of it that the winner only gets 300 FedEx points (vs. 500 for regular tournaments). Heck, it's even scored by that Stableford thing! In addition, Erik did not make the cut in any major this year.

You just can't have him start off the Tour Championship at the same level as a Patrick Cantlay or Jon Rahm. If he plays lights out and others stumble he can still win the season's Tour Championship, so he has a chance. But he does not have the year's body of work of many others. Your comparison to a tennis tournament is only applicable if this weekend was a match play event.

I love the way this 3-event playoff is set up. 2000 points for the winners of the 1st two events. Getting hot at the right time is important. But there is still emphasis on the season-long body of work.