Bryson DeChambeau won the LIV Golf Singapore, but, like everyone who was there, he left Sentosa with a strange feeling. Happy about the victory, yes, of course, but also uncomfortable about the way the playoff ended against Richard T. Lee, with a very short putt missed by the Canadian. The American did not hide either feeling. He celebrated his triumph and, at the same time, had very clear and heartfelt words for his rival.
“You never want to win like that”, he said. “It was bitter to see him miss that putt. You never want to see something like that happen”. DeChambeau insisted he would have preferred to play another hole and decide it with good shots. “I wanted to go to another hole and have the chance to play great golf in that second playoff hole”, he explained. “It just wasn’t on his side today, and that’s how the cards sometimes fall in this sport”.
It was a tough scene. Bryson acknowledged it without beating around the bush. “I didn’t like seeing something like that. It’s hard”. And even so, amid that discomfort, he also made it clear that he is grateful to have been the one on the positive side of the outcome. “I’m grateful that it happened and to be on the positive side”, he admitted.
The most striking thing about his remarks was the respect with which he spoke of Richard T. Lee. It wasn’t a courtesy compliment. It went much further. Chivalrous, empathetic and elegant. “After finishing, I told Richard that the golf he played was level major”, he revealed. And he finished with a weighty line within the LIV context: “Honestly, he deserves to be on a team after that performance”.
Bryson went further. He knows Lee well and wanted to emphasise that this was no coincidence. “He’s beaten me several times already this season when I’ve played with him, so he plays very well and deserves to be here”, he said. Among other things because he has earned it at school, although Bryson did not mention that. For DeChambeau, what happened in Singapore was not an isolated surprise, but confirmation that Lee has the level to compete at the top.
The American even drew on televised memory to explain how strange it was to live through such a finish from the inside. He recalled an old image of Tiger Woods beating John Daly after a short putt was missed. “You see that on TV, and to experience it live, to be on the positive side of that, is a strange feeling”, he explained.
From there, Bryson focused on how interesting the Sentosa test had been with the Majors in mind. “Definitely, it was a major test”, he said. And he gave a very concrete and vivid example from that Sunday: “Hitting a 6-iron into the 15th hole from 230 yards to the green on a par 4, with how firm the greens were this week, that’s major golf”.
He also stressed that the test was not only technical but mental. “It’s been a great mental test this week”, he said. And there emerged one of the ideas he repeated most in his appearance: staying in the present, executing and not deviating from the plan. “It’s about staying in the present and looking forward”, he explained. “Go and execute, go and do the best you can”. At heart, the message Bryson conveyed throughout the press conference was that: less noise and more execution. Almost a shut up and execute.
In fact, he said that that was the difference compared to other weeks when he tends to carry each moment more emotionally. “Today I felt more at peace with all that”, he said. “Usually I have a lot of emotions around it. Today it was more like: ok, let’s just execute each shot as best we can”.
The victory in Singapore also leaves him with a good feeling looking ahead to what’s next. The next stop is South Africa, an event he is hugely looking forward to. “It’s going to be fantastic. I’ve never been there”, he commented. And he added that he has only received glowing references about the country from names like Gary Player, Louis Oosthuizen, Ernie Els and Charl Schwartzel. “They’ve all spoken very highly of it, so I’m really looking forward to going there and hopefully putting on a show for them”.
