Three-time Open champion Sir Nick Faldo has criticised Bryson DeChambeau for having “zero clue of strategy” as the American looks to avoid a clean sweep of missed cuts at this year’s majors.
DeChambeau won the US Open in 2020 and 2024 but after three top-10s in majors last year he has failed to make the weekend in any of the major tournaments in 2026.
He arrives at Royal Birkdale trying to salvage something but Faldo does not have much confidence in the 32-year-old.
“That’s got to be a rough slam, isn’t it? We’ve got to name it,” Faldo, a six-time major winner and last Englishman to lift the Claret Jug in 1992, told the Sky Sports podcast.
“I’d say it to his face: he has zero clue of strategy. He said it last year, I think, ‘I’m going to go out and attack the links’.
“Well, I’ve never ‘attacked’ a links. You thread it, don’t you? You feed it down the fairway, it’s really important. You look at humps and bumps and think, if I send it over and feed it, it nudges back into play.
“You don’t think ‘oh, I’ll just bomb it down there, can’t see where I’m going, it’s 20 yards wide.’ Oh, yeah, good luck’.”
DeChambeau is seeking a quick improvement to his game having missed the cut at the US Open in June following a score of five-over from the opening two rounds. He also failed to reach the weekend in the US PGA Championship having posted seven-over across Thursday and Friday while at the Masters back in April, the big-hitting American finished on six-over par from two rounds.
Contrastingly, on the LIV Tour, DeChambeau won the Singapore and South Africa events in March and is feeling optimistic about his chances at the Open this week.
“On a course like this, if I feel good I know I can give myself a chance,” he said. “I know I haven’t had the best results this year, but I’ve won twice, and top-three’d three times. Just a couple of weird things happening at the majors.
“If it goes well for me this week, great. If it doesn’t, I’ll keep moving on and creating as much as I can.”
