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As one of the game’s more deliberate players, you could perhaps forgive Bryson DeChambeau for being alarmed at news of the European Tour’s crackdown on slow, which starts at this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

If he is, he’s certainly not letting on.

The 26-year-old American will peg it up in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on Thursday, having gone back on his threat to skip the event on account of political tensions between the USA and the Middle East.

As a result, he, along with the other players on the tour, will be subject to the new timing procedures that are outlined here.

DeChambeau, though, does foresee any problems.

“Considering how far I’m hitting, I don’t think that will be an issue anymore,” he said. “I love it. I welcome it.

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“All I’m doing is my absolute best to be better, and that’s what I look forward to this year. A new me, a new person, and a way that’s going to represent all tours, all golf in general, in a positive way to help grow the game.

“What I’ve always been about is trying to shine a light on the game of golf and not push people away, with developing the one-length irons, having a new way of swinging the golf club and doing all these different things that look weird, but have been a massive benefit to the game. That’s what I’m about. So when considering change like that, I welcome it.”

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Actions, though, will speak louder than words and there’s no question DeChambeau has work to do to fix his reputation.

He found himself at the centre of the slow play maelstrom during last year’s FedEx Cup Playoffs when footage of him taking more than two minutes to hit a ten-foot putt went viral.

The ensuing backlash prompted the PGA Tour to undertake its own pace of play review. Again, DeChambeau is unconcerned.

“I was playing under the rules and there was no rhyme or reason to be called out, other than the fact that it looked like it was a really, really long time that it took, and it was, absolutely. I’m not saying it wasn’t.

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“But I was playing under the rules at that point in time, and there’s no reason or why I should have been given so much heat, considering other things that had occurred that day and previous days of other people that I played with and other things that occurred. It’s just .01 per cent of the time that that happens on tour, which it happens literally with everybody out there. They just caught it on camera at that specific moment in time.

“There was no time assessed, there was nothing that occurred and I played under the rules. To be called out like that was kind of weird, but it is what it is and I take it and I understand it.”


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Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor

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