Making a concerted effort to join team bonding events has seemingly helped get him back on side, with US captain Keegan Bradley also pointing to DeChambeau’s “X-Factor ability” and “fiery” energy as further redeeming qualities.<\/p>\n
“This is a tough thing for him, to come into guys that he doesn’t see every day,” said Bradley.<\/p>\n
“But he’s done an exceptional job of making the extra effort – flying to Napa, flying to Atlanta – doing things that are really difficult with the schedule he has. <\/p>\n
“He’s made every effort possible and been incredible in the team room.”<\/p>\n
When the Americans were humbled by the Europeans two years ago, DeChambeau was even further on the periphery than he was at Whistling Straits.<\/p>\n
The controversial switch to LIV Golf meant he was not eligible to earn qualification points for the Rome clash. <\/p>\n
Then-US captain Zach Johnson did not deem him worthy of a wildcard – nor even a phone call relaying the news.<\/p>\n
Harbouring an inescapable feeling of being ruthlessly snubbed, DeChambeau set about getting back on the team for Bethpage.<\/p>\n
“It sucked. I wanted to be there,” DeChambeau said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“Seeing the guys lose really put a fire in my stomach. I wanted to make the team this time around.”<\/p>\n
The same complications remained, though. <\/p>\n
As a LIV golfer, DeChambeau could only earn points during the eight major championships over the two-year qualification process.<\/p>\n
Demonstrating his insatiable appetite for the big stage, he earned six top-10 finishes – including victory at the 2024 US Open – to claim one of the half a dozen automatic spots.<\/p>\n
However criticism about his suitability for the team environment has continued in the run-up to Bethpage.<\/p>\n
Brandel Chamblee, a former American player and prominent commentator, still believes DeChambeau is an individualist and described him as a “captain’s nightmare”<\/p>\n
“No doubt he is one hell of a golfer,” Chamblee said on the Golf Channel. “But he’s an odd duck when he’s trying to blend in with the team.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Making a concerted effort to join team bonding events has seemingly helped get him back on side, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-160415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}