‘He’d kick my ass’ – DeChambeau backs out of Koepka feud
By Alex Perry
Hello. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Slam, in which Phil Mickelson goes in hard on a Ryder Cup rival, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka kiss and make up, and John Daly has a weird nickname for Donald Trump. Let’s get on with it, shall we?
Slow play showdown
Unless you’ve been living under a rock then you’ll know Bryson DeChambeau took more than two minutes to hit – and subsequently miss – an eight-foot putt at last week’s Northern Trust.
The social media fallout led to DeChambeau’s entire post-round press conference being about slow play, with the one they call the Scientist even saying players “should have the balls to say it to [his] face” and demanded to meet with Brooks Koepka, who has been quite outspoken about it all. (It was quite something, and you can read all about it here – after you’re finished with this though, please.)
Now the pair appear to have buried the hatchet.
Brooks and Bryson went on SiriusXM’s PGA Tour Radio, where host Michael Collins said that “people acted is if [they] were going to fight”.
DeChambeau replied: “We know who would win that and it’s not me. Let me tell you right now – he’d kick my ass.”
Koepka quipped: “You’ve got that right.”
Commission the sitcom already.
Some Quick Hits on Slow Play! World No. 1 @BKoepka & @b_dechambeau join @ESPNCaddie & Pat Perez to sound off on a variety of topics surrounding slow play. Hear the full interview on Sirius XM OnDemand! pic.twitter.com/HQ96SrNnl2
— SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio (@SiriusXMPGATOUR) August 14, 2019
Phil the gaps
There have been some tremendous rivalries down the years – Snead vs. Hogan, Arnie vs. Jack, and the greatest of my generation, Happy vs. Shooter. And if Brooks vs. Bryson wasn’t enough for one year, we’ve now got Phil Mickelson going in hard on – checks notes – Luke Donald. Eh? That can’t be right.
It all started with a tweet from Rickie Fowler’s caddie Joe Skovren to which Mickelson replied:
The greens book allows me to do 80% of my read before I even get to the green. For anyone to say they slow up play is flat out idiotic.
— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) August 13, 2019
Donald couldn’t resist the bait:
Guess I’m an idiot then 🙋🏼♂️
One thing I don’t understand here is for a greens book to be effective you have to know exactly where your ball is on the green relative to the hole – how can you have done 80% of your read then before you’ve even got to the green?? 🤔 #banthemisay https://t.co/aVcz3ICMlK
— Luke Donald (@LukeDonald) August 13, 2019
To which Mickelson quipped:
We agree one one thing at least
— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) August 14, 2019
Oof! At least Donald took it in good spirits:
Haha, this you seconds after firing that tweet out?? Well played ?? pic.twitter.com/8AX1qpvFh3
— Luke Donald (@LukeDonald) August 15, 2019
Can we ditch Padraig Harrington and Steve Stricker and make these two Ryder Cup captains next year?
Solheim surprise
Speaking of the best 24 players in Europe and the US going toe to toe, our Solheim Cup team was finalised this week – and there was a huge surprise-that-wasn’t-actually-a-surprise when skipper Catriona Matthew opted for Suzann Pettersen as her final wildcard pick.
Surprise? Because since the end of 2018 when she fell pregnant with her first child, Pettersen has entered the grand total of two events – and missed the cut in both.
Not a surprise? Because she’s played in eight Solheim Cups, winning three and contributing 19 points from a possible 33. Even Mel Reid, who was next in line for a pick, would have gone for Pettersen.
But it got me thinking: What would the Ryder Cup equivalent of this situation be? It’s been a big talking point in at NCG Towers with lots of suggestions thrown around – but I’m not having that it’s the same as when Darren Clarke picked Lee Westwood.
The best suggestion is someone with the pedigree of Sergio Garcia taking 18 months out of the game and then getting a pick. If you have any ideas, let us know in the comments below or you can tweet us (the modern day answers on a postcard).
Daly trumped by Donald
In the least-shocking news of the week, John Daly has said his best mate and President of the United States, Donald Trump, doesn’t cheat at golf.
While the likes of Solheim star Pettersen, Hollywood mega-idol Samuel L Jackson, and boxing legend Oscar de la Hoya have all called Trump out for his questionable scorecards, two-time major champion Daly isn’t jumping on that particular bandwagon.
“He can hit it,” Daly told TMZ after teeing up with the President at his course in Bedminster, New Jersey. “We’ve got to work on his short game a little bit, but he hits his driver and 3-wood absolutely perfect. He doesn’t miss many fairways. He’s a good 8-, 9-handicap.”
He added: “You know, it’s funny how all these people say, ‘Does he cheat?’ When he goes out and plays and hits a bad shot he might hit a mulligan, but he doesn’t count it when we’re playing a match. We don’t even really keep score. He plays match play a lot when he plays with his friends.”
He then followed it up by inexplicably calling Trump “dad” in his Instagram post:
OK…
Right, that’s enough from me. Here are some good things my colleagues did this week…
Alex Perry
Alex has been the editor of National Club Golfer since 2017. A Devonian who enjoys wittering on about his south west roots, Alex moved north to join NCG after more than a decade in London, the last five of which were with ESPN. Away from golf, Alex follows Torquay United and spends too much time playing his PlayStation or his guitar and not enough time practising his short game.
