CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- LIV Golf League captain Bryson DeChambeau hopes he gets another chance to play with PGA Tour star Rory McIlroy in the final round, this time at this week's PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club.
If it happens, it sounds as if DeChambeau had better be prepared to play 18 more holes in silence.
At last month's Masters, DeChambeau told reporters that McIlroy didn't talk to him while they played together in the last group during the final round at Augusta National Golf Club.
"Didn't talk to me once all day," DeChambeau said at the Masters. "He wouldn't talk to me. He was just like -- just being focused, I guess. It's not me, though."
McIlroy's strategy worked, as he defeated Justin Rose in a one-hole playoff and captured an elusive green jacket to become the sixth player to complete the career Grand Slam.
DeChambeau carded a 3-over 75 and tied for fifth at 7 under.
During a news conference at Quail Hollow on Wednesday, McIlroy said his silent treatment of DeChambeau at the Masters wasn't personal.
"I don't know what he was expecting," McIlroy said. "We're trying to win the Masters. I'm not going to try to be his best mate out there.
"Look, everyone approaches the game [in] different ways. 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."
McIlroy's sports psychologist, Bob Rotella, told the BBC last month that their strategy at the Masters was to stay laser-focused throughout the tournament and to ignore what everyone else was doing, including DeChambeau in the final round.
"That didn't have anything to do with Bryson," Rotella told the BBC. "That was just the game plan all week, and we wanted to get lost in it. We didn't want to pay attention to what anyone else was scoring or shooting or swinging or how far they were hitting it. We just wanted Rory to play his game."
Because of their distance off the tee, McIlroy and DeChambeau are among the favorites to win a Wanamaker Trophy at Quail Hollow, which is one of the longest courses on the PGA Tour (7,626 yards) and figures to play even longer because of wet conditions.
"I do believe you have to have a lot of distance out here," DeChambeau said. "Rory is a great driver of the golf ball, and his iron play is great, too. I think it's a golf course that sets up for his shot shapes pretty well, and I think it sets up well for mine, too.
"We'll see. Maybe I do well, maybe I don't. But I'm certainly going to give it my all, and I know Rory is. Hopefully, we can have another go at it again like the Masters."
