Criticism followed Bryson DeChambeau into Royal Birkdale. A three-under opening round put him back near the top of a major leaderboard and gave him the perfect response.
Bryson DeChambeau spent all week hearing what he could not do. On Thursday at Royal Birkdale, he let his golf answer.
DeChambeau shot a 3 under 67 in the first round of The Open, finishing one shot off the lead and ending, at least for one day, a stretch of three straight missed cuts at the majors this season. He entered the week facing criticism, most notably from Nick Faldo on the Sky Sports Golf podcast.
“That's a whole part of the story, how they're superstars at LIV then come over and can't do it,” Faldo said. “He has, I'd say it to his face, he has zero clue of strategy. He said it last year I think on TV: ‘I'm going to go out and attack the links.’ Well, I've never attacked a links. You thread it, don't you? You feed it down the fairway.”
The opening round told a different story. Playing alongside Scottie Scheffler and Tyrrell Hatton, DeChambeau opened with consecutive birdies and finished with five birdies against two bogeys. He did it while hitting only four of 14 fairways, relying on recovery shots and a strong short game to post one of the day's best scores.
Then came the response.
DeChambeau skipped his full media session and spoke briefly with an R&A official.
“I think you've got to be a lot more strategic out on the golf course,” he said. “I feel like I did a really good job today of being incredibly strategic and focused super hard on placing it in the right places. Besides 18, I placed the ball in some good areas. But I just need to hit more fairways. Other than that, I feel like my strategy was nice today.”
He used the word "strategy" three times in a matter of seconds. Faldo had criticized him for lacking it. DeChambeau made sure everyone heard his answer.
It is also worth remembering that DeChambeau finished tied for 10th at last year's Open Championship, making Faldo's criticism difficult to accept with his recent success on links courses.
One round does not erase a difficult major season. Royal Birkdale will continue to test the field over the next three days. Leaving DeChambeau with more to prove for himself.
