CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It's PGA Championship week, but there's still a bit of unresolved business left over from the Masters. You probably rememberRory McIlroy won that tournament in dramatic fashion, achieving the dream of a lifetime. Bryson DeChambeau sure remembers, because as he said afterward,McIlroy didn't talk to him during the entire final round on Sunday. DeChambeau bested McIlroy at the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, and the two were together in the last pairing of this year's Masters. DeChambeau even briefly held the lead before McIlroy flexed and finally surged ahead of his LIV Golf rival for good. DeChambeau often comes across these days as a very large puppy eager to be loved, and it was pretty clear he was somewhat hurt — or at the very least confused — by McIlroy not speaking to him all afternoon. "Didn't talk to me to me once all day," DeChambeau said after his Masters round. "Wouldn't talk to me." He expanded on that during a LIV Golf event in South Korea earlier this month. "I can only speak for myself. I can't speak for Rory. What I can say about myself is that I genuinely care about the game of golf and growing it globally and inspiring a bunch of people and kids, especially kids, to play this great game," DeChambeau said. "So it's my duty, as not only a professional golfer, but a bit of an entertainer, to interact and be as authentic as I possibly can be with myself and with my fans. I think it's my responsibility to do so. I'll continue to keep doing that because that's what I believe in." Asked for his side of the story on his silence Wednesday morning, McIlroy seemed a bit incredulous that the question even needed to be asked. "I don't know what he was expecting," he said. "We're trying to win the Masters. I'm not going to try to be his best mate out there." Not needing to create any additional beef, McIlroy went a step further to share his side. "Look, everyone approaches the game different ways," he said. "Yeah, like I was focused on myself and what I needed to do. That's really all that it was. It wasn't anything against him … it's just I felt that's what I needed to do to try to get the best out of myself that day." The leaderboard delivered the ultimate verdict. McIlroy and DeChambeautee off on opposite sides of the draw Thursday— McIlroy at 8:22 a.m. ET, DeChambeau at 1:47 p.m. — butboth are favorites this week, so it's possible, even likely, they'll be in closer contact on the weekend. And then we'll see who speaks to whom.
