PGA Tour professional Bryson DeChambeau speaks to the media about defending his title prior to the start of the 2020 Omega Dubai Desert Classic and touches on the Twitter beef with fellow professional Brooks Koepka.
European Tour: Bryson DeChambeau speaks to the media ahead of Omega Dubai Desert Classic title defense
BRIONY CARLYON: Delighted to welcome back our defending champion, Bryson DeChambeau to the OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic.
It must be happy memories, 12 months on, coming back here to kick off the season. Just give us your thoughts on coming back as defending champion for an event. It doesn’t happen for a lot of players but you’ve had the opportunity before. How do you approach the week?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I approach it like any other week. I’m honoured to be back. I love this city. I think it’s an incredible place, and desert golf has always suited my style of play.
I’d say all in all, it’s one of my favourite places to be, just because of how technologically advanced I feel like the place is, and the golf course is in immaculate shape. The greens are perfect. The rough is longer this year, which is pretty interesting and I also just love hitting it off the fairways out here. It’s a lot of great fun, and a lot of scoring opportunities.
So for me, it’s a great test of golf and I had a lot of fun last year. Let’s hopefully do it again.
BRIONY CARLYON: Speaking of the course, you’ve just come off playing the Pro-Am, 18 holes. What are you thinking of everything now with the game and where you’re at, and what do you need to do to have a repeat performance?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, I think, you know, last year, I didn’t drive it my absolute best but I was still able to get it done. It’s going to take great ball-striking, iron play, and making a lot of putts.
My wedge game is much improved I feel like and personally I’m looking forward to the new test this week; the rough is a little bit longer, so being in the fairway is going to be key, and if you have a great wedge game, you can get up-and-down and fix those mistakes you have, it’s definitely a viable option to win.
Q. Just on your comments about the rough being thicker, at the end of last season, Rory said that some events he felt the courses were too easy. Where are you in terms of do you feel some courses need toughened up for how far you guys hit it now and how well you play on these courses?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I think in general, professional golfers are too good now to relate themselves to par. People look at it as relating score to par, and it’s almost impossible to try and get a tournament to play around par without it being unfair.
So for me, I think that it’s irrelevant. I mean, you’re still playing at a golf course; there’s a certain width of fairway, certain length of rough, and you have a field to compete against. We’re not really competing against the golf course. We’re competing against the field.
So as you look at it from that standpoint, I think we’ve become a little bit more relaxed on that idea of “let’s make it more difficult.” Well, we don’t want to make it too difficult to where you hit a good drive and it happens to bounce in the rough, and then a guy that happens to mis-hit it, it goes in the fairway and that guy has a better advantage. What’s to say that that could happen?
So for me, I just feel like, you know, it being too easy, well, you’re still going to play against everyone else, you know. I would say making it statistically proportionate and penalizing as you go away from the middle of the fairway should be the real answer to it. Not going from the fairway and then massive long rough. That really doesn’t make sense to me statistically speaking.
Q. You’ve talked about adding length to your game. Since last season, can you give us an indication, where maybe a different club you’ve used to?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, 3, it’s awesome to be able to hit an iron into 3. It’s great to be able to fly the corner more on 12. 6, you have a shorter iron in. All my irons, I’m hitting at least one or two club less which is nice. Last year, I hit 5-irons in on a few holes and that was a bit troublesome for me and now I’ve got a 7-iron, and it’s like, whoa, that’s nice.
The par 3, 15, is another one where I was hitting 5-iron in last year, and now I’m hitting 7-iron, almost like a chip 7-iron. That’s pretty cool to see, and hopefully it suits me well.
Q. You were talking about drives that isn’t hit particularly well but got a lucky bounce and stays in the fairways, whereas somebody hits a good one and it bounces off. You get that a lot on links courses for majors, so how would that suit your style on links courses?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I just go back to it being statistically proportionate to err. The farther you hit it off line, the farther you hit it out there; the more penalising it should be.
To me golf is a game of risk/reward, as you get closer to the green it should become a little more difficult. If you want to lay up, you have a shot 200 yards in, you can hit the fairway pretty easily but then you have a tougher second shot, right. But you hit it up there and you hit it in a small area, you should be rewarded. If you hit it off-line, then it should be proportionately non-rewarding.
So for links-style, I mean, that’s an interesting conversation. It’s obviously the way the sport was played originally. As it’s become not just a game, but a professional sport where you’re playing for your livelihood, we should be rewarding people that are striking it and playing well, not rewarding people that may get a fortunate bounce here or there. That’s just kind of my own personal — that’s my take on that. When a lot of money is involved, it should be proportionately rewarding.
Q. You just said that you love this place, not only because you’re defending the title here, but also because of the technological advances, and we know how much you love technology. Can you give us instances or examples of what you like about technology here?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, I certainly know that the Dubai Expo, right, is coming up, 2020, right. That’s something I wish I could be here for.
From a technological perspective, the buildings just seem way more advanced. They are beautiful to look at and fun to walk into. The Dubai Mall, going in there, it seems like everything is so nice and just clean, simple and easy. The tech, just going up to see the information boards, simple stuff like that, that may not mean much, but it’s pretty cool.
Even the stoplights, they are unique in a way — I’m serious, they are unique where they flash green, letting you know it’s going to turn yellow and then red. I mean, that’s something that’s really helpful to somebody that’s looking and it’s green and you don’t know if it’s going to go yellow, but it gives you a head-up it’s going yellow. Some of that stuff’s really kind of cool to me, and I think it could be implemented in more places.
Q. Now that we’re into 2020, how important is it for you, and also for the PGA Championship moving to May, how important is it to get a schedule right this year, and also a year with the Olympics and I guess you want to be on The Ryder Cup Team, as well?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, it’s very, very important. It’s one that’s difficult to handle and at the same time, we’re trying our best with what fits well with my type of game and my style of game, I guess you could say.
Just trying to fit the golf courses that work for me best, and sometimes you’re not going to be able to play all of them. But I need time to rest and time to get ready and we take that all into consideration. We may not get it right, but hopefully we do.
Q. Will you play Texas before Augusta, and the Scottish before the British?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I don’t know. I don’t know yet. I think I’m going to come over early for the British, but I don’t know if I’ll play Texas. It’s just a different style of golf compared to the Masters.
Houston was great, obviously, because they overseeded it and kind of made it feel like more of an Augusta feel, and that was great. But it’s a little different now, and I don’t know what I’m going to do yet.
Q. It seems as though there are some mischievous people out there trying to suggest that you and Brooks have problems, and he posted a picture, sort of tongue-in-cheek, with the four trophies. What do you make of that and what’s your reaction?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Personally to me, I’m way passed that and not even looking at that. It’s all good fun. I’ve seen him, actually, past few days where I’m staying, and everything’s fine. I mean, you know, it’s not a big deal.
Q. Did you have a laugh at that picture?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Absolutely. Like I said, what I typed in there, there’s a reason why he’s No. 1. So I’ve got nothing but respect for him, and he knows that. I think everybody should know that. For me, I’m just trying to do my best each and every day, just as he is.
Q. You guys play maybe 22 weeks a year and there’s only four majors. How much of your mind space is taken up by the need to do well?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: All of it. All of it. All of my mind is taken up for the need to do well in the majors. That’s what I haven’t done well in particularly in my career so far, and I am keen on changing that.
BRIONY CARLYON: Wish you all the best this week.
January 22, 2020
Dubai, UAE
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports