On Tuesday, long after the dust at Royal Portrush had settled, Bryson DeChambeau went viral (yes, again) when a video of him interacting with a spotter after a wayward tee shot on the 11th hole surfaced on TikTok. When DeChambeau arrived at his ball, the spotter didn’t move, prompting the two-time U.S. Open champ to say, rather brusquely, “you can move out of the way, thank you.” As the spotter walked away, DeChambeau quipped to the gallery, “he was standing right in front of it,” prompting a handful of chuckles. Watch it below:
🚨🌾🏌️ Close up of Bryson DeChambeau in the thick stuff at The Open
Bryson to the spotter: “You can move out of the way, thank you…. Standing right in front of me.”
— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) July 23, 2025
RELATED: Bryson DeChambeau vows to be ‘chirping’ in Rory McIlroy’s ear at the Ryder Cup
The reaction of golf fans to the video was split. Some saw it as a symptom of the Internet’s uncanny ability to make mountains out of mole hills. Others viewed it as the latest of instance of DeChambeau’s “good guy” persona evaporating as soon as the YouTube cameras turned off. So which is it? Is this something or is it nothing? Deal or no deal? Ultimately that’s for you to decide, but we asked our editors for their thoughts, and here’s what they had to say.
Alex Myers, Senior Writer: I love spicy viral clips as much as anyone, but this is a nothingburger to me. Was DeChambeau a bit frustrated to find his ball buried in the fescue? And was he a bit quick to tell the spotter he could move out of the way? Perhaps. But he also thanked him for finding it and tried to make a (perhaps, bad) joke about the guy standing right in front of him as he started to prepare for his next shot. Hey, they’re starting to get stricter about putting players on the clock! The “pretty wild” comment referred to Bryson barely missing carrying the rough, and, well, that’s about it. I’m giving him a total pass here—especially due to all the viral videos of great interactions he’s had with people at tournaments through the years.
Coleman Bentley, Loop Editor: You can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat “the help.” Nothing DeChambeau said in this video was explicitly out of line, but when you consider the power dynamic at play—imagine if Bryson was scolding a waiter at a restaurant for filling the water glasses one time too many—if feels tone deaf, if not outright condescending. DeChambeau gets off with a warning because, on it’s own, this video is just another bullet, not the smoking gun, but this is hardly the first time he’s let the mask slip. Rightly or wrongly, repeat offenders are always judged on a different curve, and if DeChambeau keeps courting seemingly avoidable controversies like this, we’ll have to take him downtown and book him.
E. Michael Johnson, Equipment Editor: Although I’ve come to accept that almost anything can go viral (alligators on golf courses, anyone?), this one I simply don’t get. Yes, DeChambeau has a rep for being douchey at times, but this is nothing. Once the player is aware of where the ball is the spotter should get out of the way. Instead he stood there like a statue. Bryson wasn’t rude or brusque, just asked him to move. If he didn’t, the dude might still be standing there. For anyone who thinks this is a thing, three words: Get. A. Life.
RELATED: How late is too late to say you can’t make a tee time? Time to ruin friendships
Greg Gottfried, Web Producer: I’ve never actually been in the hunt for a major championship—shocking, I know—but I would assume there’s a great deal of pressure, especially after a slow start. Every shot counts, specifically when stuck in the “thick stuff,” and you need to figure out how to make the most of every single moment. Yet, this clip of Bryson losing his cool for a second on a spotter rubbed me the wrong way and certainly felt a bit cringey. The guy’s out there for hours on end, just trying to find golf balls in the sun. Give him a bit of latitude, and just kindly ask him to move out of the way. A bit odd for Bryson, too, as he’s trying to be everyone’s No. 1 golf friend. It’s not the end of the world, and we’ve had much worse interactions lately on the golf course, yet it all feels a bit rude. It’s not nothing. And it’s not something to get super worked up about either. Maybe let’s just all relax for a second. The major season is over. Time for a little vacation.
Mike Stachura, Senior Editor, Equipment: It’s come to my attention after years of study and personal reflection, consultation with therapists and men of faith and reading more than I should of Kahlil Gibran, Billy Graham and Erma Bombeck, that you have to work hard to be a horse’s ass. Frankly, it seems to me it takes a 180-degree turn from what should be our natural default behavior as human beings. In other words, you aren’t accidentally cruel or dismissive or loutish, you are intentionally so. Which, of course, makes any such behavior worse, not merely sad, but, if we’re talking about some reasonably fully formed adult-type person, disappointing on existential level for the species. So, when Bryson DeChambeau mocked a spotter at the Open Championship last week, delegitimizing the efforts of a volunteer (out of earshot, mind you), I wept a little bit for what has become of human decency. In my eyes, the volunteer not only had helped to find DeChambeau’s ball, but clearly was offering to stay in place so he wouldn’t lose it again while DeChambeau went about surveying the kind of shot he was about to play. DeChambeau, as is often his failing, defaulted to the boorish bro behavior that infects too much of human interaction these days. It is a tone that belittles instead of recognizes the link we all share. DeChambeau is the bigger deal here, certainly, and it is easy in his position to expect others to simply serve him and be cast aside as non-entities. I’m not asking him to be Mother Teresa of Calcutta. But maybe, maybe, just don’t be a dick.
RELATED: The internet is lighting up Kevin Kisner for his take on the Wyndham Clark/Oakmont situation
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com