July 23, 2025<\/a><\/p>\nRELATED: Bryson DeChambeau vows to be \u2018chirping\u2019 in Rory McIlroy\u2019s ear at the Ryder Cup<\/p>\n
The reaction of golf fans to the video was split. Some saw it as a symptom of the Internet\u2019s uncanny ability to make mountains out of mole hills. Others viewed it as the latest of instance of DeChambeau\u2019s \u201cgood guy\u201d 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\u2019s for you to decide, but we asked our editors for their thoughts, and here\u2019s what they had to say.<\/p>\n
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\u2019re starting to get stricter about putting players on the clock! The \u201cpretty wild\u201d comment referred to Bryson barely missing carrying the rough, and, well, that\u2019s about it. I\u2019m giving him a total pass here\u2014especially due to all the viral videos of great interactions he\u2019s had with people at tournaments through the years.<\/p>\n
Coleman Bentley, Loop Editor: You can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat \u201cthe help.\u201d Nothing DeChambeau said in this video was explicitly out of line, but when you consider the power dynamic at play\u2014imagine if Bryson was scolding a waiter at a restaurant for filling the water glasses one time too many\u2014if feels tone deaf, if not outright condescending. DeChambeau gets off with a warning because, on it\u2019s own, this video is just another bullet, not the smoking gun, but this is hardly the first time he\u2019s 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\u2019ll have to take him downtown and book him.<\/p>\n
E. Michael Johnson, Equipment Editor: Although I\u2019ve come to accept that almost anything can go viral (alligators on golf courses, anyone?), this one I simply don\u2019t 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\u2019t rude or brusque, just asked him to move. If he didn\u2019t, the dude might still be standing there. For anyone who thinks this is a thing, three words: Get. A. Life.<\/p>\n
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Greg Gottfried, Web Producer: I\u2019ve never actually been in the hunt for a major championship\u2014shocking, I know\u2014but I would assume there\u2019s a great deal of pressure, especially after a slow start. Every shot counts, specifically when stuck in the \u201cthick stuff,\u201d 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\u2019s 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\u2019s trying to be everyone\u2019s No. 1 golf friend. It\u2019s not the end of the world, and we\u2019ve had much worse interactions lately on the golf course, yet it all feels a bit rude. It\u2019s not nothing. And it\u2019s not something to get super worked up about either. Maybe let\u2019s just all relax for a second. The major season is over. Time for a little vacation.<\/p>\n
Mike Stachura, Senior Editor, Equipment: It\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019t accidentally cruel or dismissive or loutish, you are intentionally so. Which, of course, makes any such behavior worse, not merely sad, but, if we\u2019re 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\u2019s ball, but clearly was offering to stay in place so he wouldn\u2019t 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\u2019m not asking him to be Mother Teresa of Calcutta. But maybe, maybe, just don\u2019t be a dick.<\/p>\n
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com<\/p>\n