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Bryson DeChambeau has had his fair share of fan trolling and bad press recently but Rory McIlroy sympathized with him on Tuesday, saying he shouldn’t be criticized for being "different."
DeChambeau got testy at the finish of the BMW Championship over the weekend after a fan yelled out "Brooksie" to him, referencing his ongoing feud with Brooks Koepka. PGA Tour announced shortly after that anyone in attendance that shouts that will be removed from any event.
McIlroy seemingly disapproved of all the negative attention the 2020 U.S. Open champion’s been getting, saying, "It's pretty tough to be Bryson DeChambeau right now."
"I certainly feel some sympathy for him because I don't think that you should be ostracized or criticized for being different, and I think we have all known from the start that Bryson is different and he is not going to conform to the way people want him to be,'' McIlroy said, via ESPN. "He is his own person. He thinks his own thoughts, and everyone has a right to do that."
McIlroy admitted that while DeChambeau isn’t totally undeserving of the criticism, the recent press has been rough.
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"There are certainly things that he has done in the past that have brought some of this stuff on himself. I'm not saying that he's completely blameless in this. But at the same time, I think he has been getting a pretty rough go of it of late and it's actually pretty sad to see because he, deep down, I think, is a nice person and all he wants to do is try to be the best golfer he can be. And it just seems like every week something else happens."
DeChambeau has certainly received the short end of the stick in his feud with Koepka but he’s also recently had to deal with a public split with his longtime caddie Tim Tucker and fallout over comments he made about his driver at the British Open.
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"I don't know if anyone else on tour has spoken up for him, but I definitely feel for him a little bit," McIlroy continued. "I think he's trying to become better and he's trying to learn from his mistakes, and I think everyone should give him a chance to try to do that."
DeChambeau likely won’t address the situation anytime soon. He’s declined to speak to the media outside of the Tour’s press and PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan recently said he won’t force him to.
"I think human beings and individuals need some space, and I think that's what's going on right now."
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