Golf in a hangar? DeChambeau’s woes at the British Open get ‘The Scientist’ thinking

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland (AP) — As a popular YouTuber and golfing enigma, Bryson DeChambeau is known for coming up with some wacky, radical ideas.

“The Scientist” might have another one in the pipeline.

“This is going to be wild,” DeChambeau proffered at the British Open on Tuesday, “but imagine a scenario where you’ve got a 400-yard tent, and you can just hit any type of shot with any wind with all the fans.

“That’s what I imagine, like in a hangar or something like that. A big stadium. That would be cool to test.”

Don’t put it past DeChambeau to go through with it.

After all, he’s open to anything if it means improving his patchy record at golf’s oldest major championship.

The 31-year-old American has played seven times at the Open Championship, where handling the fickle weather can be the key to success. He missed the cut on three occasions and only finished inside the top 30 once.

It’s a record that frustrates one of the sport’s deeper thinkers. He remembers playing well at the Walker Cup at Royal Lytham St. Anne’s — one of the courses on the British Open rotation — back in 2015, and was quick to point out he coped fine in windy conditions in LIV Golf events in Miami and Valderrama this year.

Place him in the British Open, though, and he can get blown away — like last year at Royal Troon, when he shot 76-75 to miss the cut and said afterward: “I can do it when it’s warm and not windy.”

“The times I’ve been over here, for some reason, my golf swing hasn’t been where it needs to be,” DeChambeau said Tuesday. “Right now it feels as good as it’s ever been. Hitting it far, hitting it straight as I can, and learning how to putt better on these greens in windy conditions and rain and all that.

“It’s just figuring it out. It’s just going to take time and something that I never really experienced growing up in California.”

Lifting the claret jug — as unlikely as it would be, given his Open woes — would deliver the two-time U.S. Open champion a third major title and no doubt boost the already-swelling audience on his YouTube channel that has risen to more than 2 million subscribers.

His popularity is clear over in Northern Ireland, too. Late Monday, dozens of people — mostly kids — were seen waiting outside Portrush to get a photo with, or the autograph of, DeChambeau.

He obliged, happily.

DeChambeau is using YouTube to have some fun and to show the world a different side to him. He even suggested it’s just as important as the results he gets.

“I’m not going to be here forever,” he said. “What footprint do I want to leave? I think it humbles me and almost makes me more passionate about what I’m doing off the professional golf course.

“Am I going to get frustrated playing bad golf?” he posed. “Yeah. Am I going to want to still sign autographs? Yeah, because I care about the game.”

That’s not to say he doesn’t still have a burning desire to win at Portrush this week — and secure a result that will impress Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley in the process, ahead of the match against Europe in September.

“I feel pressure every week to play good for not only Keegan, but myself, and the people that I love online and everybody that’s watching me,” DeChambeau said.

“I’ll walk through the fire,” he added, “rather than run away from it.”

___

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf