Bryson DeChambeau And Cobra's Rep Go Head-to-Head After He Says Driver 'Sucks'
After an opening round 71, it became clear that Bryson DeChambeau couldn't hit the driver a lick. He said post-round that his Cobra driver "sucks," and that rubbed Cobra's rep the wrong way and actually drew a response.
This one got ugly.
"If I can get it down the fairway that's great, but again, the driver right now...the driver sucks," DeChambeau said. "It's not a good face for me, and we're still trying to make it good on the mis-hits."
That comes across like a whiny Little Leaguer who blames dropping fly balls on his glove not being broken in. I suggest instead that he simply stop mis-hitting the golf ball and spare us the blame game. Targeting your sponsorships is bad business and overall a brutal look for DeChambeau.
And that's what led us to a Cobra rep snapping back (as much as they probably shouldn't have)
"Everybody is bending over backwards. We've got multiple guys in R&D who are CAD'ing (computer added design) this and CAD-ing that, trying to get this and that into the pipeline faster. (Bryson) knows it," Cobra rep Ben Schomin said. "It's really, really painful when he says something that stupid."
And just when you thought he couldn't drag DeChambeau any further, he latches on for the kill.
"He has never really been happy, ever. Like, it's very rare he's happy. Now he's in a place where he's swinging a 5-degree driver with 200 rpm of ball speed. Everybody is looking for a magic bullet. Well, the magic bullet becomes harder and harder to find the faster you swing and the lower your loft gets."
Holy ****!
First of all, Cobra has every right to be sick of dealing with DeChambeau's crap. That sad, I still don't think it makes business sense to spar with your company's biggest star. And I'm not arguing everyone should bow down to big stars because of their status, but some things can be dealt with in private.
Of course, Cobra may have already tried keeping things private. Maybe DeChambeau just didn't get the picture? It's also possible the company felt they had to make a public example of DeChambeau's behavior. He did just split up with his caddie after Bryson was described as being difficult to work for. Most great athletes are, yet they also manage some type of baseline for accountability that earns the respect of their peers. It seems, at least from our debacle today, that Bryson DeChambeau will blame anyone but himself.
God forbid he wins a major championship and all he wants is for the media to clamor about his work ethic. DeChambeau hit just two fairways today, so we'll see if he can hone that in to make up for his seven stroke deficit on Friday. Either he'll lock it in or maybe Cobra will design him a new driver by tomorrow morning.