Rory McIlroy did not speak to Bryson DeChambeau during Masters triumph – but does it matter?

Bryson DeChambeau claimed Rory McIlroy did not talk to him at any point during their final-round tussle at The Masters, but does it matter and how common is it when in major contention?

McIlroy completed the career Grand Slam with a dramatic play-off victory at Augusta National, where he came through multiple setbacks on a roller-coaster final day to register a first major title since the 2014 PGA Championship.

The Northern Irishman was playing in the final group alongside DeChambeau, who briefly lead after birdieing the par-five second but then saw a four-shot swing go in McIlroy’s favour over the next two holes.

DeChambeau eventually stuttered to a final-round 75 to finish four strokes behind McIlroy and Justin Rose in tied-fifth, with the two-time US Open champion revealing the lack of interaction between the pair after his round.

“Didn’t talk to me once all day,” DeChambeau said. “He was just like – just being focused, I guess. It’s not me, though.”

DeChambeau was visibly engaged with the patrons during his round, slapping hands with the crowd at various opportunities, whereas McIlroy focused on trying to stay in a “bubble” and keep his focus on victory.

“It’s such a battle in your head of trying to stay in the present moment and hit this next shot good and hit the next shot good,” McIlroy explained in his press conference. “My battle was with myself.

“It wasn’t with anyone else. You know, at the end there, it was with Justin [Rose], but my battle today was with my mind and staying in the present. I’d like to say that I did a better job of it than I did. It was a struggle, but I got it over the line.

“I’ve rode my luck all week. Again, I think with the things that I’ve had to endure over the last few years, I think I deserved it!”

The final-round duel came 10 months after DeChambeau’s US Open success at Pinehurst No 2, where he claimed a one-shot victory after McIlroy – playing in the penultimate group – squandered a two-shot lead over the final five holes.

“If Bryson thought that he was going to be chatty, chatty with Rory, that was never going to happen,” Dame Laura Davies told the Sky Sports Golf podcast.

“Rory probably went to the course yesterday morning thinking that this is going to be hard work. He [DeChambeau] is going to be revving the galleries up and I don’t want to be too pally-pally with this guy because it’s going to work against me.

“If he’s revving up the crowd and then saying ‘oh, would did you have for breakfast?’, then that doesn’t work in that dynamic. I think Rory not talking to him was a very clever point and it sounds like it got to him, so one-up Rory!”

PGA Tour player Byeong Hun An tweeted he would not expect a competitor of his to talk to him, with DeChambeau unable to use the crowd to his advantage in the same way he did at last year’s US Open.

“I think personally he’s doing that interview and he’s mad as a wasp,” Nick Dougherty added on the Sky Sports Golf podcast. “Every good journalist knows there’s a good time sometimes to get a grab, and that was a good time for Bryson.

“The demeanour, the things he was saying. I think they knew and he was ready to go, because he isn’t naive enough to realise that that is absolutely the game plan.

“Why would I want to, as Rory McIlroy, engage with the guy that’s going to try and ride this gallery and rile them up in the way that he does?

“Not to be unfair, because he gets this energy from the crowd like he did it at Pinehurst No 2, but he couldn’t do it there. I think where it was lopsided to Bryson at Pinehurst in the US Open, but it wasn’t here [Augusta] as the favourite was McIlroy.

In what world is Rory going to be treating it like ‘yeah, let’s get a nice little chat going here’? As he said with Bob Rotella, he’s blocking out the noise, staying in his lane, he’s taking the energy down. That was his job, and you don’t do that by having a chat with a guy that’s up here.

“That took all of his energy. There was nothing spare there yesterday that he couldn’t put into all of the things he sits and works with his team on, focusing on, to allow him to just be able to play the golf in a cauldron of pressure that’s unrivalled.”

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