Bryson Dechambeau Apologizes for Saying Driver 'Sucked' in Open Championship Round 1

On Thursday afternoon, a frustrated Bryson DeChambeau told reporters his Cobra Golf driver "sucks" after shooting a 1-over 71 during the first round of the Open Championship at Royal St. George's Golf Club in Sandwich, England.

He quickly apologized for those comments, however:

DeChambeau went off when asked how he felt about his opening round.

"If I can hit it down the middle of the fairway, that's great, but with the driver right now, the driver sucks," he told reporters. "It's not a good face for me, and we're still trying to figure out how to make it good on the mishits. I'm living on the razor's edge, like I've told people for a long time. When I did get it outside of the fairway, like in the first cut and whatnot, I catch jumpers out of there and I couldn't control my wedges."

Cobra Golf tour operations manager Ben Schomin was not pleased with those remarks, telling David Dusek of Golfweek that multiple people at the company are constantly "bending over backwards" to get the optimal driver for DeChambeau and that it's "really, really painful when he says something that stupid.”

“He has never really been happy, ever," he added, pertaining to DeChambeau's opinion of his driver. "Like, it’s very rare where he’s happy,”

Then he compared DeChambeau to "an 8-year-old that gets mad at you."

"They might fly off the handle and say, ‘I hate you.’ But then you go. ‘Whoa, no you don’t.’ We know as adults that they really don’t mean that and I know that if I got him cornered right now and said, ‘What the hell did you say that for,’ he would say that he was mad," Schomin said. "He didn’t really mean to say it that harshly. He knows how much everyone bends over backwards for him, but it’s still not cool.”

DeChambeau hit just four of 14 fairways on Thursday, as his "bomb and gouge" approach failed him. He's focused on gaining strength and fitness as his career has progressed, allowing him to hit monster shots off the tee. 

When it works, it's a viable strategy—DeChambeau won the U.S. Open in September, has two wins overall this season and six top-10 finishes. He's currently the No. 6 ranked golfer in the world. At 27, he's one of the game's top players. 

But he was clearly frustrated with his performance on Thursday. And his club sponsor sure wasn't pleased with his initial choice of scapegoat.