Paige Spiranac, Rory McIlroy react to Bryson DeChambeau’s US Open win

Paige Spiranac has tipped her hat to Bryson DeChambeau after his smashing US Open win, but Rory McIlroy wasn’t as generous.

Bryson DeChambeau celebrates on the 18th green after winning the US Open. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Paige Spiranac will give credit where it is due.

Spiranac congratulated Bryson DeChambeau on his US Open win, less than two months after the former golfer and “Playing A Round” podcast host chastised the 27-year-old’s behaviour.

“It’s fun to give Bryson s*** at times but you have to give him so much credit for sticking to his guns despite all the hate and now he gets to call himself a US Open Champion. Well deserved win,” Spiranac tweeted.

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DeChambeau, whose physical transformation has become one of golf’s biggest storylines this season, scored his first major championship win at the Winged Foot Golf Club. He finished six-under par to cruise to a six-shot victory that he called “surreal.”

“It’s been a lot of hard work,” DeChambeau said.

DeChambeau, who had blasted the course during the first round, has taken the golf community by storm, but not always for the best reason.

Over the summer, Spiranac called out DeChambeau, who had debated with a PGA official in July about an out-of-bounds decision during the Memorial Tournament in Ohio.

“The way he acted to that rules official was so uncalled for and I think it just shows where his headspace is at right now, where he thinks that he is literally pioneering the way that golf is being played, and so he is so far and beyond everyone else that he can tell a rules official, who their job is to know the rules inside and out, and for Bryson to say, ‘I don’t believe you, I need a second ruling.’ Who do you think you are?” Spiranac said.

Spiranac added Monday that she loves how both “(Matthew) Wolff and Bryson both play the game their own way.”

Paige Spiranac and Bryson DeChambeau.

MCILROY: IT’S HARD TO WRAP MY HEAD AROUND

But Rory McIlroy isn’t quite sure what to make of DeChambeau’s US Open conquest.

McIlroy was asked what he would have said if he were told before the tournament that the winner only hit four of his final 21 fairways, as the hulking DeChambeau did.

“No chance. No chance,” McIlroy said. “I don’t really know what to say because that’s just the complete opposite of what you think a US Open champion does. Look, he’s found a way to do it. Whether that’s good or bad for the game, I don’t know, but it’s just — it’s not the way I saw this golf course being played or this tournament being played. It’s kind of hard to really wrap my head around it.”

DeChambeau made his way around Winged Foot with a final round 67. Again and again, he muscled out of the thick rough to keep his round on track.

DeChambeau has been the talk of the PGA Tour since it returned from its coronavirus pause after he added 25kg of muscle and countless yards to his drive. Now that he has a signature moment to go with the hype, McIlroy is not quite sure what to make of it.

“I thought I can see it for week in and week out, PGA Tour setups that are a little more benign … but I sort of said, ‘OK, wait until he gets to a proper golf course, he’ll have to rein it back in,’” McIlroy said. “This is as proper as they come, and look what’s happened. Yeah, he’s got full belief in what he’s doing, and it’s pretty impressive … So I think … about the guy, I think it’s brilliant, but I think he’s taken advantage of where the game is at the minute.

Bryson DeChambeau kisses the championship trophy. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

“Look, again, whether that’s good or bad, but it’s just the way it is. With the way he approaches it, with the arm-lock putting, with everything, it’s just where the game’s at right now.”

McIlroy, 31, was on the fringe of contention entering Monday before four-putting the first hole to earn a double bogey. The Northern Irishman finished six-over and in a tie for eighth place. McIlroy has four major wins, but none since 2014.

BRYSON STICKING TO HIS GUNS

DeChambeau has no plans to change his approach.

“I kept telling everybody it’s an advantage to hit it farther,” he said. “It was a tremendous advantage this week.

“As difficult as this golf course was presented, I played it beautifully. Even through the rough, I was still able to manage my game and hit it to correct sides of the greens and kept plugging away.

“My putting was immaculate. My speed control, incredible. You see me out there on the greens with the device trying to control my speed. So many times I relied on science and it worked every single time.”

“I’m not going to stop,” he added. “Next week I’m going to be trying a 48-inch driver. We’re going to be messing with some head designs and do some amazing things with Cobra to make it feasible to hit these drives maybe 360, 370, maybe even farther. I don’t know.

“I’m just trying to figure out this very complex, multivariable game, and multidimensional game as well. It’s very difficult.”

— New York Post