Redemption in golf rarely arrives quietly, and for Bryson DeChambeau this week at Royal Birkdale, it may arrive under the loudest possible spotlight. The two-time U.S. Open champion touches down at the season’s final major already trailing an unwanted piece of history: three missed cuts from three attempts at the 2026 majors, and now a pointed, very public verdict from one of the sport’s most decorated voices hanging over every swing he takes this week.
According to Golf.com, Sir Nick Faldo used his Sky Sports Golf Podcast appearance this week to dismiss DeChambeau’s chances of ending that run at The Open, declaring that the American has “zero clue of strategy” when it comes to playing links golf. Faldo went further, coining a new nickname for DeChambeau’s wretched major season – the “Rough Slam” – and arguing that LIV Golf’s biggest stars have repeatedly struggled to translate their form into major championship golf. The six-time major winner’s verdict lands as a direct, public challenge, delivered before DeChambeau has even hit a competitive shot at a Royal Birkdale course already running fast and unforgiving.
Yet DeChambeau, speaking to Mirror US Sports after his first practice round at Birkdale on Monday, sounded unmoved by the outside noise.
DeChambeau’s Answer To Faldo: “Anything Else Is A Loss”
Asked whether a win this week would send a message to his doubters, DeChambeau shut the idea down immediately. “I’m not trying to send a message to anybody other than me and myself, and knowing what I know I can do,” he said. “You know, if I don’t win, I’ll be disappointed. Anything else is a loss, whether it’s second or anything past that, you know?”
He was equally direct about the part of his game that has undermined him all season: his wedges. “They’re getting better,” DeChambeau said, explaining a mechanical fix. “I steepened my angle of attack, so it feels a lot better. Hopefully it showcases out there.” It’s a small, technical adjustment, but on a firm, fast Birkdale layout where scrambling from tight lies will decide the Claret Jug, it could matter more than anything he does off the tee.
The Strategy Faldo Says He’s Missing
That’s precisely where Faldo’s criticism cuts deepest. “He has – I’d say it to his face – he has zero clue of strategy,” Faldo said on the podcast, contrasting DeChambeau’s reputation for prioritising distance with what links golf actually demands. “I’ve never attacked a links. You thread it, don’t you? You feed it down the fairway, it’s really important.” Faldo argued that navigating Birkdale’s humps, bumps and pot bunkers requires restraint DeChambeau has rarely shown off the tee.
Fellow LIV Golf member Jon Rahm offered an almost identical warning during his own pre-tournament press conference, without directly referencing DeChambeau. “If you start pulling out drivers in an Open Championship, you can do a good job short term,” Rahm said. “Over four rounds, you’re going to start finding spots you don’t want to be in, and you’re going to pay the price.” When two major champions independently land on the same warning during Open week, it stops looking like punditry and starts looking like a pattern.
DeChambeau’s own Open record backs up the concern: a tie for eighth in 2022 remains his best finish in eight appearances, against three missed cuts, including as recently as 2024. His tie for tenth at Royal Portrush last year is the one recent data point in his favour, and it’s one the wider 156-man Birkdale field will be watching closely this week.
The numbers explain why the stakes feel so heightened. A triple bogey at the 18th cost him the cut at the Masters; a 76-71 start left him seven-over at the PGA Championship at Aronimink; and he missed out at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills by a single shot after rounds of 70 and 75. Add in the uncertainty around LIV Golf’s own finances, and a DeChambeau contract expiring at year’s end, and Birkdale looks like the most consequential week of his season – regardless of where the tournament’s leading contenders finish.
Faldo’s “Rough Slam” jab was designed to sting, and by DeChambeau’s own admission, anything short of the Claret Jug this week will feel like exactly that. The difference this time is that he says he already knows it.
