(Point) Missers, 154th Open Championship
Those who had less-than-stellar weeks compared to the Champions and Cutmakers…
Bryson DeChambeau. Made his first major cut in 2026 and finally finished on the plus side with his approach play (+0.93 SG/60th). But making it to this edition after the fourth straight major means “BAD” became the first golfer to ever hit The Quadrilateral’s (Point) Missers Impregnable Quadrilateral. Bryson’s Birkdale week was an unmitigated career disaster. His army of flunkies, toadies, and general groupies seems unable to tell the boss to cut back on the aggrievement and conspiratorial tendencies following his strangest major championship fiasco yet. And his continuing refusal to speak, much less acknowledge reckless and highly suspicious lie improvement effort with a cameraman feet away, will not increase his chances of earning MENSA status. Barring a public apology, DeChambeau’s excessive and desperate attempts to make the case against a two-stroke penalty will forever stain his career. As fellow players realize how long of a leash he received to make his case and at the expense of others being able to go about their business, it’s the details of his behind-the-scenes antics with rules officials that he should be most embarrassed about. DeChambeau is also on thin ice in our brave new governing body world, one where Codes of Conduct policies will get codified and give organizations the right to withhold invitations (Augusta’s already does this). DeChambeau needs someone to remind him that, just like the Rules of Golf, majors are a privilege and totally optional. Including the invitation to play in one.
No longer staring at a $500 million payday from His Excellency (if he ever was), DeChambeau’s post-LIV future on the PGA Tour has become more complicated. Drama and antics are good for business. To a point. But after the 32-going-on-12 “Crusher” revealed a bonkers-level puerility unimaginable not long ago, players and Ponte Vedra brass should be less excited about welcoming him back with one of their makeshift Returning Members Program clauses. In stomping down grass around his ball too many times and demanding a crime scene to hysterically plead his case, it’s the threat of a third-round boycott that will linger with leading organizations and potential investors in whatever he’s pitching. He badgered R&A officials, refused to sign his card, and demanded the leader of the free world’s time while holding up the last few groups from signing their cards. Those antics should have wiped out what respect his peers had left for him. (Max Homa and Michael Kim came to his defense and hardly made Cal proud defending an obvious violation.) Setting aside the lack of self-awareness to realize a wartime President should not be bothered with his petty golf problems—Tiger made such a call but he could at least blame the pills—the whole episode encapsulates the sad culmination of what happens when someone’s surrounded by sycophants. Or in Bryson’s case, simply doesn’t listen to anyone. That talented, charismatic and fun-loving DeChambeau who once had the potential to transcend the sport seems to be gone. But at least his iron play is on the upswing.
NBC. The former gold standard was once so eager to start the R&A package ten years ago that they took over a year early and promised to treat The Open the way NBC once built Wimbledon into a breakfast tradition. With two years to go in the R&A contract, it’s apparent NBC does not care about viewers or their R&A partners. Already loathed for extreme commercial loads in recent years, the network committed too many offenses to list. But nearly all were tied to the crazy number of breaks and “Playing Throughs” that rightfully set Golf Twitter X ablaze. It’s telling that Rolex doesn’t chip in for a commercial-free final hour as the watchmaker does on NBC’s U.S. Open coverage. Why try to de-enshittify the most enshittified golf broadcast of the year? It’s unfortunate that the programming and salespeople have turned NBC’s Open coverage into an unwatchable mess. Because the folks behind and in front of the camera care about The Open—except the gobsmackingly lazy and insight-free lead analyst, Kevin Kisner. At least the Sky feed is accessible on Peacock and now the only way any American can watch next year’s Open coverage from the Home of Golf. Unless they take it away.
Kevin Kisner and other Wannabeintheclub “analysts.” It’s still hard to imagine that NBC executives Rick Cordella and Sam Flood once proudly admitted to jetting their way into Aiken to woo Kevin Kisner after not renewing Paul Azinger. It’s even more amazing that Kisner has been allowed to collect Comcast checks after blasting CBS earlier this year for showing too many shots on tape when NBC does the same (it’s particularly relentless at The Open and not the end of the world unless you’re missing shots entirely due to a heavy commercial load). Flood has been the primary architect of NBC golf’s on-air demise and should go the way of Kisner, who apparently rolls in to NBC’s majors as late as possible and is so unaware of his shaky status that he admitted last week (on camera!) to being asleep as the DeChambeau saga played out Friday night. Then he was mired in a Twitter X spat during the final round broadcast (while inadvertently highlighting how many commercial breaks free up useless scroll and bickering time). He attempted to blame the actions of “BAD” on the walking referee for not preventing DeChambeau from committing acts Kisner also said were not clear violations. “I wish the walking official was over there during this. Every group has a walking official. Why is he not a part of this?” On a Barstool podcast after The Open, Kisner suggested the inability to see the ball made it impossible to know if DeChambeau had cleared a swing path with all of the stomping around behind the ball. So the whole thing is now the camera operator’s fault (Kisner apparently did not watch any of the footage briefly aired on NBC from the same cameraman showing DeChambeau arriving at the ball and turning into a North Korean soldier parading for Dear Leader.)
But Kisner is not alone in struggling to articulate the obvious or to take a stand that might upset a player’s groupies. A staggering number of former players-turned analysts could not bring themselves to acknowledge an obvious problem worthy of review after seeing DeChambeau’s fifth hole stomp. Even Jim Furyk, a pretty reliable source of wise takes on questionable behavior, struggled as the current Ryder Cup captain because he might have DeChambeau on his squad. We all get that this is an era when analysts live in fear of getting on a player’s bad side or having agents call their bosses to complain. It’s a shame anyone in TVland listens to those gripes. But too many times, the trepidation to take a stance sounds more like fear of losing buddy status. And it’s bad TV. It’s not as if anyone is asking them to unleash character indictments or to get personal. But in a sport where viewers also happen to play and see things happen that would never be tolerated in their Saturday game, there is no faster path to credibility destruction than sugarcoating dodgy behavior.
Slogan Slop. These Are The Slogans of Legendary Brand Managers. Foraged by AI. Embracing Elements of Little Style. Stepping Into Meaninglessness. Greatness Is Ever-Deranging. Champions Write Something Better Than These Cutting Room Floor Brand Statements. Nature’s Greatest Stage Will Be Changed Only By The Members. True Greatness Is Rhymeless. Where The Fencing Decor Frays. Only at The Open. Only Where They Need To Stop With The Messaging And Embrace Simplicity.
The Jug Handoff.