Bryson DeChambeau has made the first appearance in the Ryder Cup since the 2021 US victory, and he will certainly get the same attention as the rest of the sport.
After Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee called him “the captain’s nightmare,” DeChambeau’s teammates quickly supported him, but it’s unclear who DeChambeau might play in the team’s game.
In 2021, Dechambeau won a four-ball match against Scottie Scheffler 2-0-1 and participated in two four-man meetings. In 2018, he beat his two games 0-3-0, playing against Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson without a four-goal match.
Woods and Mickelson no longer compete in the Ryder Cup and Scheffler and can pair with good friend Sam Burns for most of the matches.
There is really no obvious candidate to work with DeChambeau, Golf Channel analyst Johnson Wagner believes that part of the trouble is golf.
“I think he’ll be such an awkward partner,” Wagner said in the episode of Golf’s Deputy Convention last week. “I think it’s just because they played the same ball and became Cam Young, but I’ve heard that Bryson has been playing since Cam Young won Wyndham and one of them has moved down.”
Golf Ball in Bryson DeChambeau
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Jack Hirsh
A week after Cam Young won the Wyndham title with the new Pro V1X double-point prototype golf ball, DeChambeau put the same ball in the match at Liv Golf Chicago. However, the experiment lasted only one game, and now DeChambeau is using the 2025 Pro V1X golf ball he played with most of the year.
While other American players played an older version of the Pro V1X, which won 10 games on the PGA Tour last season, DeChambeau was the only game to play the 2025 model.
Wagner claims this may make it difficult for him to find a partner in the foursome.
“I didn’t know there was only one ball,” he said. “Because we all know, like Bryson, his spin speed and his shooting angle and all of that stuff, he wouldn’t be the kind of guy who had to switch and play some spin or less spin, just to make it easier for his partner.”
Picking golf at the Ryder Cup is an interesting quirk, and it only surfaces due to the unique team form of the game. During the PGA Tour season, the only time the two partners need to choose golf is in the Zurich Classic Team Competition.
Interestingly, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry won the event in 2024, exploiting a vulnerability that allows players to switch balls between holes. The event did not take effect in that game and also stood out from Ryder and the Presidents Cup.
“We either can use it, but it’s a foursome – like we played a lot of foursomes, obviously Ryder cups and stuff, so you can figure out how to do that,” Lowry said of the conversion strategy for Zurich this year. “You drive each other’s golf balls, and then, because driving isn’t a problem. Especially when the wind gets windier and the wind is spinning, you want to control the ball.
“I think we figured it out last year and we’ll do it this year.”
As for who DeChambeau will work with to participate in this Ryder Cup, we just need to wait and see.
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