Making a concerted effort to join team bonding events has seemingly helped get him back on side, with US captain Keegan Bradley also pointing to DeChambeau’s “X-Factor ability” and “fiery” energy as further redeeming qualities.
“This is a tough thing for him, to come into guys that he doesn’t see every day,” said Bradley.
“But he’s done an exceptional job of making the extra effort – flying to Napa, flying to Atlanta – doing things that are really difficult with the schedule he has.
“He’s made every effort possible and been incredible in the team room.”
When the Americans were humbled by the Europeans two years ago, DeChambeau was even further on the periphery than he was at Whistling Straits.
The controversial switch to LIV Golf meant he was not eligible to earn qualification points for the Rome clash.
Then-US captain Zach Johnson did not deem him worthy of a wildcard – nor even a phone call relaying the news.
Harbouring an inescapable feeling of being ruthlessly snubbed, DeChambeau set about getting back on the team for Bethpage.
“It sucked. I wanted to be there,” DeChambeau said on Thursday.
“Seeing the guys lose really put a fire in my stomach. I wanted to make the team this time around.”
The same complications remained, though.
As a LIV golfer, DeChambeau could only earn points during the eight major championships over the two-year qualification process.
Demonstrating his insatiable appetite for the big stage, he earned six top-10 finishes – including victory at the 2024 US Open – to claim one of the half a dozen automatic spots.
However criticism about his suitability for the team environment has continued in the run-up to Bethpage.
Brandel Chamblee, a former American player and prominent commentator, still believes DeChambeau is an individualist and described him as a “captain’s nightmare”
“No doubt he is one hell of a golfer,” Chamblee said on the Golf Channel. “But he’s an odd duck when he’s trying to blend in with the team.”
AN England Women’s rugby star is inspiring the next generation in a unique way – by appearing on TV show Gladiators.
Jodie Ounsley, also known as Fury from BBC Gladiators, played for England‘s rugby sevens team as well as Sale Sharks and the Exeter Chiefs.
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Jodie Ounsley is a former rugby star turned GladiatorCredit: Alamy
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She is known as Fury on the BBC gameshowCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
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The former England Women’s rugby star misses the team environment of her old jobCredit: Getty
She was forced into an early retirement aged just 23 because of a shoulder injury, but has put her rugby skills to good use in her new role.
The Gladiators star told SunSport: “I naturally miss playing and just to see how much the sport’s growing. But on the other hand, I feel very privileged in what I’m doing now.
“Obviously being in a different field of work, on TV in a show like Gladiators, I love that I’m able to still showcase women’s rugby in a show like that through my character, Fury.
“Kids might see me as Fury tackling contenders and think, oh, she must play rugby and then now follow rugby. And I think that’s really powerful. I take so much pride in that.
“I just think of the bigger picture and if I can try and inspire the next generation to get into rugby, then that’s enough for me.
“I’ve stepped away now but never say never, I could go back to rugby in the future, but I’m gonna do everything I can to push the game and bring a new audience, new people to the game as well.”
Ounsley was born deaf and wears a cochlear implant, and has followed in her father’s footsteps by appearing on the show.
She is also a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu British champion and a five-time World Coal Carrying champion, but despite her individual accomplishments she still misses the team environment of rugby.
The 24-year-old continued: “It’s really different from going from a full-time team environment to then being pretty much on your own.
“So still very much lots of training. I mix it around now and I’m obviously not around a team, which is a bit different, but that’s the beauty of rugby.
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“I miss my team because that’s what rugby’s about. It’s about being surrounded by your team-mates and you go through so much together.
“Big tournaments like the World Cup, even training, injuries, there’s so much to the game that people don’t even sort of get to see.
“So that’s the part I miss but I’m very happy where I am at the moment.”
Ounsley is also a proud supporter of the See It. Believe It. campaign as part of her role as a brand ambassador for Vodafone.
The campaign aims to dismantle misconceptions surrounding women’s rugby, with research showing 70 per cent of Brits who hold a negative opinion of the sport have never watched a match.
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Ounsley is a campaigner for See It. Believe It.Credit: Vodafone
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She is hoping the Women’s Rugby World Cup can attract a new audienceCredit: Vodafone
Ounsley said of the campaign: “It means a lot to me because obviously I’ve had my own journey in rugby.
“The whole meaning behind it is there is a whole misconception from people who have a negative view about women’s rugby. It’s people who haven’t even watched a game of women’s rugby.
“So I think it’s about trying to change that misconception but also getting a new audience and new people to watch the game.
“And then funnily enough, they come and watch the game and they realise they might actually like it. It’s like that throughout all women’s rugby, you always have those different opinions and how people sort of expect it to be.
“I think it’s just how we can change that and flip it to more of a positive light.
“The biggest thing is people try and think we’re trying to say, oh, it’s the same as the men’s game, but it’s really not, it’s just about showing that women love the game as much as anyone else.
“It is a really special game, regardless of what gender is playing it.
“It’s a game of rugby. It’s an exciting thing. It’s really just coming to watch a game of rugby. If you enjoy sport, then it shouldn’t really matter who was playing.”
Jodie Ounsley is proudly supporting Vodafone’s ‘See it. Believe it.’ campaign, which aims to challenge misconceptions about women’s rugby and connect the sport with new audiences.
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Los Angeles County is poised to pay nearly $2.7 million to a teenager whose violent beating at a juvenile hall launched a sprawling criminal investigation into so-called “gladiator fights” inside the troubled facility.
Video of the December 2023 beating, captured on CCTV, showed Jose Rivas Barillas, then 16, being pummeled by six juveniles at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall as probation officers stood idly by. Each youth attacked Rivas Barillas for a few seconds before returning to breakfast. Two officers, later identified as longtime probation officials Taneha Brooks and Shawn Smyles, laughed and shook hands, encouraging the brawl.
“What made this unique is the video,” said Rivas Barillas’ attorney, Jamal Tooson, who said his client suffered a broken nose and traumatic brain injury. “The entire world got to witness the brutality that’s taking place with our children at the hands of the Los Angeles County Probation Department.”
The video, first reported by The Times, prompted a criminal investigation by the state attorney general’s office, which later charged 30 probation officers — including Brooks and Smyles — with allowing and encouraging fights among teens inside county juvenile halls. California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta referred to the coordinated brawls as “gladiator fights” and said his office’s CCTV review had turned up 69 such fights during the chaotic first six months after the hall opened in July 2023.
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Footage obtained by the L.A. Times shows a December 2023 incident in which staffers can be seen allowing at least six youths to hit and kick a 17-year-old.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors will vote on whether to approve the $2.67-million settlement to Rivas Barillas and his mother, Heidi Barillas Lemus.
According to a public summary of the “corrective action plan” that the Probation Department must produce before a large settlement, officials failed to review CCTV video of the fight and waited too long to transport the teen to a hospital and notify his family.
CCTV monitors are now “staffed routinely,” and officials are working on conducting random audits of the recordings, according to the plan. A spokesperson for the Probation Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Immediately after Rivas Barillas arrived at the Downey juvenile hall, Brooks demanded to know his gang affiliation, according to the claim filed with the county. Brooks said she had heard that Rivas Barillas, who is Latino, was from the “Canoga” gang and that she “hoped he could fight” before directing the other juveniles, all of whom were Black, to attack him in the day room, the claim stated.
After the video made headlines, accounts of teens forced by probation officers to fight have trickled out of Los Padrinos. A teen told The Times in March that officers at Los Padrinos rewarded him with a fast-food “bounty” — In-N-Out, Jack in the Box, McDonald’s — if he beat up kids who misbehaved. The teenager, who had previously been housed in the same unit as Rivas Barillas, said staffers would also organize fights when someone arrived who was thought to be affiliated with a gang that didn’t get along with the youths inside.
“We get a new kid, he’s from the hood. We have other hoods in here. We’re going to get all the fights out of the way,” he said at the time. “They were just setting it up to control the situation.”
Another teenager, identified in court filings as John (Lohjk) Doe, alleged in a lawsuit filed in February that soon after arriving at Los Padrinos in 2024, he was escorted by an officer to the day room. The officer, identified only by the surname Santos, told a youth inside the day room that “you have eleven (11) seconds” and watched as the youth attacked Doe, according to the lawsuit.
On another occasion, the same officer threatened to pepper-spray Doe if he didn’t fight another youth for 20 seconds. The teens who fought were rewarded with extra television and more time out of their cells, the suit alleged.
After the teen told a female officer about the two coordinated brawls, he was transferred to solitary confinement, the suit alleged.
Times staff writer James Queally contributed to this report.
