Heading into the 2026 Open Championship, Bryson DeChambeau is trying to avoid an unfortunate blemish on his career resume. The two-time major winner has missed the cut in the first three majors of the year. Another one this week would give DeChambeau a dreaded Missed-Cut Slam.
While DeChambeau hopes that ugly streak ends this week at Royal Birkdale, one golf legend isn’t betting on it. Not by a long shot.
That golf legend is Nick Faldo.
A six-time major winner and longtime golf TV analyst, Faldo joined the Sky Sports Golf Podcast this week and unloaded on DeChambeau for his lack of strategic awareness when playing links golf and for his poor record in majors recently.
Faldo on DeChambeau’s major missed cuts: ‘That’s got to be a Rough Slam’
DeChambeau’s record in the majors this year has been decidedly rough. At the Masters in April, he opened with a 76, then fought back valiantly on Friday before a disastrous triple bogey on 18 sent him home early.
At the PGA at Aronimink, he went 76-71 to miss another cut. Things didn’t get much better at last month’s U.S. Open, where he shot 75 in Round 2 to miss the cut by one.
Those forgettable performances came amid a torrid stretch for DeChambeauon LIV Golf where he won back-to-back events. But LIV is likely adding to DeChambeau’s issues right now. His contract ends this year, and LIV’s own future is in doubt.
When asked about DeChambeau’s major record in 2026 in his Sky Sports Golf Podcast interview with Jamie Weir, Faldo didn’t hold back.
“Unbelievable, isn’t it?” Faldo said. “That’s got to be a ‘Rough Slam,’ isn’t it? We’ve got to name it.”
He then argued that the stark difference between Bryson’s performances on LIV compared to the majors is a trend among LIV’s “superstars.”
“Yeah, it’s classic,” Faldo said. “That’s a whole part of the story how they’re superstars at LIV and then come over and can’t do it.”
For the record, while Faldo’s theory accurately described DeChambeau’s current season, DeChambeau has had plenty of major success since joining LIV.
In addition to his 2024 U.S. Open win, he finished T6 at that year’s Masters and runner-up at the PGA Championship, though he missed the cut at the Open Championship.
Last season, DeChambeau missed the cut at the U.S. Open, but he earned a T5 at the Masters and a T2 at the PGA Championship. He closed out the 2025 major season with a T10 at the Open.
Faldo criticizes DeChambeau’s links strategy: ‘I’d say it to his face’
But for all of DeChambeau’s major offenses, Faldo identified his approach to links golf as the worst.
As he said in his Sky Sports interview, Faldo thinks DeChambeau has “zero clue of strategy” when it comes to the links golf played annually at the Open Championship.
“He has — I’d say it to his face — he has zero clue of strategy,” Faldo said.
He continued with a more detailed criticism: “I mean, he said it last year and then I think on TV, ‘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.”
Faldo said the key to links golf is navigating the “humps and bumps” and pot bunkers to get your ball safely in the fairway. He contrasted that with DeChambeau’s reputation for prioritizing distance off the tee over accuracy.
“You don’t think, ‘I’ll just bomb it down there, can’t see where I’m going, it’s 20 yards wide.’ Oh yeah, good luck,” Faldo said. “You’ve got to think, ‘How do I get it on the short grass?’ It’s so important.”
Faldo said DeChambeau will “stand up and just keep bombing away… but you can be completely blocked out on a links.”
Driving accuracy will certainly be an essential ingredient to a winning campaign at this week’s Open at Royal Birkdale, which already is running faster than an IndyCar track.
Pro Michael Kim specifically called out the fairway pot bunkers as an especially difficult hazard on Monday, writing on X, “Bad. Avoid at all cost.”
DeChambeau’s fellow LIV Golf member Jon Rahm, who is the third betting favorite at this week’s Open, seems to agree with Faldo’s strategic advice. During his pre-tournament press conference at Royal Birkdale, Rahm cautioned against depending on your driver at Open Championships.
“From what I’ve learned in the past, if you start pulling out drivers in an Open Championship, you can do a good job short term,” Rahm said. “You can maybe get away with it one round. 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.”
Despite all the criticism, DeChambeau has played well at Opens before. In addition to his T10 just last year at Royal Portrush, he finished T8 at the 2022 Open. In between, though, he fell to T60 in 2023 and missed the cut in 2024.
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