Bryson DeChambeau may regret taking a shot at the comments Sir Nick Faldo made about him before The Open Championship began after his performance over the weekend at Royal Birkdale.
When DeChambeau was handed a two-shot penalty on Friday evening, it appeared that the LIV Golf star had the fuel he needed to go on and win the Claret Jug. He was just three shots adrift of the lead and had been hugely impressive over the first two days.
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It would have been one of the most incredible turnarounds when you consider that DeChambeau missed the first three major cuts of the year, and has rarely looked entirely comfortable playing links golf.
The uncomfortable truth, however, is that DeChambeau has actually proven Sir Nick Faldo correct.
Bryson DeChambeau still has plenty of work to do as an Open Championship player
How Bryson DeChambeau played over the first two days should not be entirely dismissed. It initially appeared that he was going to go into the third round in second place.
It was surprising to see him struggle to get out of neutral on Saturday given the motivation he had, having felt wronged by the decision to hand him a two-shot penalty on Friday night.
Nevertheless, he went into Sunday four shots off the lead and with a genuine chance of winning the major that seems to clash with his game the most.
Sadly, Sunday showed that DeChambeau has still got a lot of work to do if he wants to build a game that will hold up in the tougher conditions.
According to Data Golf, DeChambeau was the worst player in the field for strokes gained approach in the final round, losing 4.1 shots. Just one other player lost more than three shots to the field in that category.
Meanwhile, DeChambeau also lost 1.01 shots off the tee.
Of course, he was far from the only player near the top of the leaderboard who went backwards as the winds picked up in the final round.
It was remarkable to see Cameron Young’s hopes of winning increase as the afternoon went on.
But DeChambeau was constantly having to hole lengthy putts for par during his final round. It is no surprise that he was one of the very best on the greens on Sunday.
Sir Nick Faldo may have been proven correct about Bryson DeChambeau
DeChambeau has shown that he can contend at The Open when the conditions are favourable.
His final three rounds at Royal Portrush last year were outstanding. Meanwhile, he was superb for two days in Southport.
However, Sunday seemed to confirm that DeChambeau has still got work to do if he is going to silence the likes of Faldo who doubt that he has the strategy to ever win The Open Championship.
The biggest mistake DeChambeau could now make is to think that he has cracked the code of mastering links golf because of the start he made at Birkdale.
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