The Open 2021: Erratic Bryson DeChambeau blames his driver, says sorry

Sandwich Bay, England: Bryson DeChambeau fought the wind blowing in from the English Channel and the thick thatches of rough at Royal St. George’s.

And then he fought with his clubmaker.

After shooting a one-over 71 in the first round of the British Open on Thursday, the 2020 US Open champion blamed his driver for his errant tee shots and then backtracked hours later after a rebuke from a Cobra official.

‘‘I sucked today, not my equipment,” DeChambeau wrote in the apology, which was posted on Instagram around 11 p.m. local time. ‘‘The comment I made in my post round interview today was very unprofessional. My frustration and emotions over the way I drove the ball boiled over.’’

DeChambeau’s bulked-up body made its links debut on the shores of Sandwich Bay, but instead of using his new strength to outdrive his opponents he needed it just to muscle his way out of the thigh-high rough. He hit just four of 14 fairways, made five bogeys to go with four birdies and finished seven strokes behind 18-hole leader Louis Oosthuizen.

‘‘If I can hit it down the middle of the fairway, that’s great. But with the driver right now, the driver sucks,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s not a good face for me and we’re still trying to figure out how to make it good on the mis-hits. I’m living on the razor’s edge.’’

Ben Schomin, the tour operations manager at Cobra, told Golfweek that it’s a challenge to design clubs without data because no one swings as hard as DeChambeau.

‘‘Everybody is bending over backwards,’’ said Schomin, who helps design and build DeChambeau’s clubs how he wants them. ‘‘He knows it. It’s just really, really painful when he says something that stupid.’’

In his apology, DeChambeau said the Cobra staff was ‘‘like family to me, especially Ben Schomin.’’

‘‘I deeply regret the words I used earlier,’’ he wrote. ‘‘I am relentless in pursuit of improvement and perfection. Part of that causes me to become outwardly frustrated at times. ... My game is a constant work in progress and so is controlling my emotions.’’

DeChambeau has missed the cut in two of the three British Opens he has played. He said he doesn’t think it’s the nature of links golf that causes problems” it’s the weather that accompanies it.