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Bryson DeChambeau was left on the outside looking in when it came to the American golfers who were tapped to represent the United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics, but he only added to his newfound reputation as one of the sport’s most likable personalities based on his refreshing reaction to the development.
It’s hard to believe Bryson DeChambeau was one of the more divisive figures in the golf world just a couple of years ago thanks to an over-analytic approach to the game that rubbed plenty of people wrong the way, a sartorial headwear choice that managed to do the same, and his decision to leave the PGA Tour behind for LIV Golf.
However, the tides eventually underwent a dramatic shift as more and more people began to realize he actually seems like a pretty chill dude, and based on the reactions we were treated to when he won his second U.S. Open title at Pinehurst, it appears his reinvention is officially complete in the wake of that championship.
As things currently stand, DeChambeau occupies the 10th spot on the Official World Golf Ranking, which is pretty impressive when you consider he hasn’t participated in a PGA Tour tournament in two years.
It seems safe to assume he would have been a member of the quartet of Americans who were tapped for the golf team the United States is sending to the Summer Olympics if he hadn’t defected to LIV Golf.
However, the fact that the OWGR was used to firm up the roster means he won’t be joining Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark, and Collin Morikawa in Paris after they were officially announced as the participants on Tuesday.
DeChambeau got the chance to address that inevitable development while appearing on The Pat McAfee Show on Monday in the wake of his U.S. Open victory, and it’s hard not to appreciate his candid assessment of the situation.
Bryson DeChambeau tells @PatMcAfeeShow about his disappointment in not being eligible to play in the upcoming Paris Olympics.
In golf, players qualify for the Olympics through the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), with a maximum of four golfers from a single country.… pic.twitter.com/LKClhNnv9C
— ESPN (@espn) June 17, 2024
Here’s what he had to say:
“I would love to represent the United States. It was tough for me not to go last time around because of COVID. It’s just one of those things that happened.
Hopefully, this game of golf will get figured out and come back together and I’ll be able to play. I’m playing great golf. I’m excited. Am I frustrated and disappointed? Sure, you can absolutely say that, but I made the choices that I’ve made and there’s consequences to that and I respect it.
But hopefully sooner rather than later we figure that out so we can get past all that and move forward into showing how awesome this sport actually is around the globe.”
Well said.