He had just missed a birdie putt that brought an end to one of the most memorable playoffs the PGA Tour has seen in recent years, and understandably, he wanted to get away. From everyone. The roars for Patrick Cantlay, the winner of the BMW Championship, were still ringing out as DeChambeau ducked into the tunnel that cuts beneath the 18th hole grandstands. DeChambeau handed his hat to a gleeful adolescent fan standing at the rope line, then began a furious but silent walk up the steep hill that winds its way toward the Caves Valley clubhouse.
Halfway up the hill, something happened that made me feel like we’ve arrived at a miserable place in the never-ending circus that is DeChambeau. A patron waited until DeChambeau had walked by, but was not out of earshot, then sneered from over the rope line “Great job Brooksie!” DeChambeau spun around in a rage and began briefly walking in his direction.
“You know what? Get the f— out!” DeChambeau yelled. He had rage in his eyes.
I’m being dead serious when I say it could have gotten ugly really fast. Maybe not “Malice At The Palace” bad, but in that moment, nothing would’ve surprised me. A rope line is little more than a polite suggestion when it comes to security a golf tournament. DeChambeau had been hearing, and ignoring, that kind of taunt all week. But everyone has their breaking point.
Thankfully DeChambeau paused, angrily motioning for a police officer to handle the heckler, then continued his march up the hill. The entire exchange took less than 10 seconds. The PGA Tour declined comment when asked about the incident by ESPN. But we’ve been building to something like this all summer. And I don’t know what the end game is.
The feud between DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka felt playful when it started, a harmless distraction in a time when we needed one. Besides, shouldn’t golf try to be less stuffy? Athletes in other sports trade barbs all the time. Why should this be different? That’s how I viewed it. If DeChambeau couldn’t ignore the fans taking Koepka’s side, wasn’t that a sign of weakness? Shouldn’t he shut them up with his clubs?
It’s obvious who won, though, even if DeChambeau has won more money and more tournaments than Koepka this season. Koepka no longer even needs to participate to keep the feud going. (Koepka told me he agreed to pause it, at least for now, at the request of Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker.) There is still an army of trolls eager to needle DeChambeau, and Koepka probably couldn’t call them off, even if he wanted to. It plays out almost like a Twitter harassment campaign with the trolls insisting they aren’t crossing any line, they’re just shouting “Brooksie!” because they want to support their favorite player — knowing full well it gets under DeChambeau’s skin.
Can you really boot someone from a professional sporting even for shouting a player’s name at a player who doesn’t like it? When does heckling cross a line and morph into bullying? And can you really bully a professional athlete who is built like a bull? It’s a surreal ethical dilemma.
If you’re not a golf fan, I suspect you find all this utterly perplexing, but golf is going to have to come up with an answer at some point because it’s not going away. The NBC broadcast team repeatedly implied the “Brooksie!” chants weren’t much of an issue throughout the weekend, that fans were mostly supportive of DeChambeau. But anyone who walked with DeChambeau at Caves Valley could tell you that was — to be generous — grossly misleading. I heard it dozens of times while walking with him and Cantlay during the six-hole playoff. DeChambeau had plenty of fans, sure, but he also had plenty of people openly rooting for him to hit the ball in the water. A huge contingent of the crowd was chanting “Patty! Pattt! Patty” for Cantaly, and roaring with glee when DeChambeau’s drive found the creek during the playoff.
I won’t tell anyone they should root for DeChambeau, or change their mind. He’s earned a lot of the criticism thrown his way. But I do think we’re losing the plot a bit, overlooking how compelling he is as a golfer, even if he can’t seem to resist saying foolish things. He isn’t as thoughtful behind the microphone as Rory McIlroy or Jon Rahm — few athletes are. He just shot the lowest score in PGA Tour history by someone who didn’t win a golf tournament, an absolute showcase for a city that hasn’t had a PGA Tour event in 60 years. And yet he seems on the verge of a meltdown because he can’t tune out the people who delight in mocking him. In an era where we are encouraging athletes to talk about their mental health, is it still OK to openly ridicule DeChambeau simply because he comes across as less likeable?
If certain aspects of golf have tried to mirror professional wrestling, with the PGA Tour awarding $40 million as part of its Player Impact Program that is based partially on fan engagement, then DeChambeau was never meant to play the heel. It’s not in his DNA. People who interact with him regularly have told me that, deep down, what he wants is to be loved. To be embraced. He can’t seem to grasp why he often isn’t, despite so much success.
Five years ago, when DeChambeau was about to turn professional, I sent him an email, inquiring whether he might be willing to sit down for an interview about his desire to be an agent of change in the often-stagnant world of golf. His outspoken aspiration, even as a college student, to evolve the way we view equipment and science and putting seemed like a great story.
He wrote back almost right way. His response, as I recall, was both polite and earnest. DeChambeau invited me to come to California and spend time with him and his family. He was an open book, excited to share his theories on where he saw the sport going. We couldn’t get our schedules aligned, and sadly never made it happen, but lately I’ve been thinking about the kid DeChambeau was back then, still mostly unknown, yet so hungry and eager to share his passion for the game.
A lot of that earnestness remains, but some of it has been chipped away, and his resentments have hardened. It would be fun if everyone — DeChambeau included — could push a reset button, because it’s fascinating to watch him play golf. Even the athletes who annoy us deserve a little empathy. Whether he deserves it or not, it would be nice to extend him some.
Allar missed the second half of last week’s win over Wisconsin after suffering a left knee injury, but he was not listed on the injury report for the No. 3 Nittany Lions on Saturday morning.
Penn State coach James Franklin said earlier this week that Allar could be a game-time decision and that backup Beau Pribula would take snaps with Allar in practice.
Allar ranks 10th nationally with a QBR of 83.6. He has completed 71.3% of his passes for 1,640 yards and totaled 15 touchdowns with four interceptions.
Penn State starting defensive lineman Dani Dennis-Sutton will be a game-time decision, a source told ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Dennis-Sutton, who is listed as questionable, is expected to warm up and try to play.
Information from ESPN’s Jake Trotter was used in this report.
WEST POINT, N.Y. — Army star quarterback Bryson Daily will miss Saturday’s game against Air Force with an undisclosed injury/illness, Army officials told ESPN.
Daily leads the country with 19 rushing touchdowns and leads all FBS quarterbacks with 909 rushing yards. He was unable to practice this week. The No. 21 Black Knights had a bye last weekend after beating East Carolina 45-28 on Oct. 19 to win their seventh straight game this season.
In the win over ECU, Daily carried the ball 31 times for a career-high 171 yards and accounted for six touchdowns, five rushing and one passing. The 6-foot, 221-pound senior has already set Army single-season records for touchdowns responsible for (26) and rushing touchdowns (19) in seven games.
With Daily sidelined, junior Dewayne Coleman will fill in at quarterback and make his first career start. Daily, one of four team captains, has been Army’s starting quarterback over the past two seasons and the main cog in a Black Knights offense that has eclipsed 400 yards of total offense in all seven games this season.
Army (7-0, 6-0) travels to North Texas next week for an AAC contest. They get a bye week on Nov. 16 and then face Notre Dame on Nov. 23 at Yankee Stadium.
There’s no timetable at this point on how long Daily might be out of the lineup, but Army officials don’t think it’s a season-ending setback.
Army, off to its best start in nearly 30 years, will be one of the top contenders for the Group of 5’s spot in the College Football Playoff if the Black Knights can win the American Athletic Conference championship.
The 2024 World Series ended with the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the championship in a stunning comeback in Game 5, with Walker Buehler the unlikely pitcher to close out the 7-6 win over the New York Yankees. First baseman Freddie Freeman was handed the World Series MVP award for his record-tying 12-RBI performance.
But that doesn’t tell the full story of everyone who played a starring role in October — a postseason that featured a record six grand slams, among other wildness. So, to honor the best of the entire postseason, we’ve created our first MLB All-October Team.
From wild-card-round sensations to World Series standouts, here are the players our ESPN MLB panel of experts voted as the best of the best at every position along with some award hardware for the brightest stars of October.
Why he’s here: To be honest, it wasn’t a great playoffs for catchers — they hit just .184/.254/.310. Higashioka is the one catcher who did hit, belting three home runs and driving in five runs in the seven games the Padres played.
Honorable mention: Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers
1B: Freddie Freeman, Los Angeles Dodgers
Why he’s here: Freeman didn’t have an extra-base hit and drove in just one run in the first two rounds of the playoffs as he tried to play through the severely sprained ankle he suffered at the end of the regular season. He didn’t even play in two games of the NLCS and required hours of physical therapy before each game just to get on the field. But the five days off before the World Series clearly helped, and he homered in the first four games, including his dramatic walk-off grand slam in Game 1 that will go down as not only the signature World Series moment of 2024 — but a World Series moment for the ages.
Why he’s here: Torres had a solid October as he heads into free agency, although he had little competition here. Indeed, second basemen collectively hit just .219 with three home runs the entire playoffs — two of those from Torres — and drove in 24 runs, with Torres driving in eight himself. He had three multihit games and scored five runs in five games in the ALCS, while also taking walks to help set the table for Juan Soto.
Why he’s here: Max Muncy set a record when he reached base 17 times in the NLCS, including a single-postseason-record 12 times in a row, but he went hitless in the World Series. Vientos, meanwhile, had a stellar first trip to the postseason, hitting .327/.362/.636 with five home runs and 14 RBIs in 13 games. That followed a breakout regular season in which he posted an .837 OPS with 27 home runs in just 111 games. He looks like he’ll be a fixture in the middle of the Mets’ lineup for years to come.
Why he’s here: Edman was an under-the-radar pickup at the trade deadline, in part because he was still injured and hadn’t yet played for the St. Louis Cardinals. Most of Edman’s starts came at shortstop, especially after Miguel Rojas was injured in the NLDS, but his bat got him here. Edman was the NLCS MVP after hitting .407 with a record-tying 11 RBIs in the series. He had started at cleanup just twice in his career but was slotted there twice against the Mets, driving in seven runs in those two games. Then he went 2-for-4 in each of the first two games of the World Series, including a home run in Game 2, and finished the Fall Classic hitting .294/.400/.588 with six runs.
Why they’re here: Betts entered this postseason in a 3-for-38 postseason slump going back to the end of the 2021 NLCS — and it initially looked like it would be more of the same when he went 0-for-6 the first two games of the NLDS, including being robbed of a home run courtesy of Jurickson Profar. Everything turned in Game 3 when Profar almost robbed him of another home run — but didn’t. After that, Betts was in the middle of most of the Dodgers’ big rallies, hitting .321/.394/.625 with four home runs and 16 RBIs over the Dodgers’ final 14 playoff games.
Soto’s at-bats spoke for themselves: He never seemed to have a bad one. His big at-bat was the three-run home run in the 10th inning of Game 5 of the ALCS to send the Yankees to the World Series. Getting intentionally walked twice while batting in front of Aaron Judge speaks to Judge’s struggles, yes — but also to how locked in Soto was all postseason. He finished the postseason slashing .327/.469/.633 with 4 home runs, 9 RBIs and 14 walks in 14 games.
Hernandez actually began October on the bench, but we’ve seen him perform big in the postseason before, and he stepped up when Rojas was injured in the NLDS. Hernandez homered in the Dodgers’ 2-0 victory to close out the Padres in the NLDS, had a big two-run home run against the Mets in Game 3 of the NLCS and got the series-turning five-run rally against the Yankees in Game 5 started with a leadoff single in the fifth as well as the series-winning rally in the eighth with another leadoff base hit. Overall, he hit .294/.357/.451 with 11 runs and six RBIs.
Why he’s here: The Yankees were often a two-man show in the postseason, just like they were in the regular season — except it was Soto and Stanton, not Soto and Judge. Stanton blasted seven home runs in the playoffs, including in the final three games of the ALCS (earning MVP honors) and in Games 1 and 5 of the World Series. He finished the playoffs hitting .273/.339/.709, and those seven homers are the most in a single postseason in Yankees history.
Why they’re here: Certainly, it seems as if the status of the starting pitcher in the postseason continues to decline — although, that doesn’t mean they’re not important. There were certainly some stellar individual outings along the way: Corbin Burnes allowed one run in eight innings (but lost 1-0) for the Baltimore Orioles; Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler allowed one hit in seven scoreless innings (but that would be his only start); and the Padres’ Michael King fanned 12 to beat the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS. Skubal had two scoreless starts against the Houston Astros in the wild-card series and Cleveland Guardians in the ALDS, confirming his status as one of the best in the game — or maybe the best, as his soon-to-be AL Cy Young Award will attest.
Cole was really the one consistent starter throughout the postseason, making five starts with a 2.17 ERA. Unfortunately, that ERA doesn’t register the five unearned runs from the final game of the World Series when the Yankees’ defense turned into a comedy of errors — including Cole himself opening up the floodgates by failing to cover first base to get what would have been the inning-ending out.
Why they’re here: It also wasn’t the best of postseasons for closers — not even great ones. The Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase allowed five earned runs all regular season — and then eight in the playoffs. Milwaukee Brewers closer Devin Williams blew that wild-card game against the Mets. All-Star Jeff Hoffman lost two games for the Phillies. Weaver, however, was the one consistent late-game performer and was great while often pitching more than one inning. He posted a 1.76 ERA across 15⅓ innings. Who knows how the World Series ends if Yankees manager Aaron Boone keeps Weaver in the game in the 10th inning of Game 1. (Weaver had thrown just 19 pitches.)
Treinen, meanwhile, capped his comeback season — he had missed almost all of 2022 and then all of 2023 — with a 2.19 ERA across 12⅓ innings, winning two games and saving three others. In the World Series clincher, he recorded seven outs and got out of a two-on, no-out jam in the eighth inning to preserve the Dodgers’ 7-6 lead before handing the ball to Buehler to close out the ninth.