U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2021

June 20, 2021

Bryson DeChambeau

Torrey Pines Golf Course

Flash Interview

THE MODERATOR: Talk about your week for us.

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Good. Didn't strike it particularly well all week. Yesterday was my best ball-striking day. Today on the back nine I just didn't hit it very good, and I got really unlucky, and that's golf.

THE MODERATOR: Talk about the state of your game right now. How do you feel Torrey played as a major championship test?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Torrey is a great test. The greens are very difficult to read. They're pretty bumpy because of the poa annua. It's just a part of it. We've all got to deal with it, and somebody shot a low score today. I knew what I had to take to win today, and I was right there. I'm just glad I gave myself a chance being a defending champion. I haven't done that ever with any of my wins, and I was proud of it.

Q. Can you just talk about what happened on 13 and how much you might have been aware of the craziness?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I didn't know until I saw him, so it was kind of weird. Well, I slipped twice on 13. I mean, that was really weird. I don't know what happened. But that's the game. I've got to be better at not slipping because I've done it before but never to that extent. Two times in a row on the same hole, it was kind of weird.

Put myself in a bad place, and then I hit it up -- we had a bad line, and hit it in the right rough, and you just can't be there and you're dead. Ultimately then there was a streaker that came around, and I had no idea what happened with that. I'm just glad an officer clotheslined him. That was fun. Then took him down and got him out like he should be.

Unfortunately, had bad break after bad break happen. I played two little shots next to the green, both weird lies, both trying to get cute with them and messed up on 13.

17, I hit a great second shot -- well, third shot, and the ball just spun too much. The wind died down and it landed short and came back off of that front edge into a really, really bad lie. I tried just chopping it out, and I caught the hosel just from a weird line.

It is what it is. It's golf. It's life. I'm just proud that I can hold my head right now. I'm okay. I'm all right.

Q. I think you went 34 holes without a bogey. How did it, I guess, get off the rails so quick, for lack of a better term?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I didn't get off the rails at all. It's golf. People will say I did this or did that, and it's just golf. I've had plenty of times where I hit it way worse than today and I won. It's just one of those things where I didn't have the right breaks happen at the right time. I could have easily gotten to 7-, 8-under today. I just wasn't fully confident with the golf swing and just got a little unlucky in the rough and a couple other places.

Q. Bryson, we don't seem to understand how much luck plays into this game, especially around here.

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Nobody understands, at least if you play professional golf, major championship golf. A lot of it is luck.

I can't tell you how many times I hit shots this week into bad lies and good lies, and they played out 50-50 this week. I caught the bad lies in the back nine today.

But I knew going into the week that was going to be my game plan. Had to be a little lucky, and I was for the first three and a half days and just didn't get lucky on the last nine. But it plays a huge factor in major championship golf. It's probably over 50 percent in most scenarios. There are times when I hit it in fairways and hit it into a divot. It's just part of it.

Q. You're actually very pragmatic now, but at least for some of us, it would take a long time to shake this off. How long do you think it will take you?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Right now. I don't even care. People think that -- I've changed a lot, attitude-wise and everything. It's frustrating in the moment when it's happening, but afterwards for me now, I don't really care as much. I've already won it.