Bryson DeChambeau stepped into a bunker at Chapultepec on Thursday and found bare dirt instead of grass, and he didn’t stay quiet about it.

Cameras captured the golfer's reaction as he examined the bare patch.

"You've got destroyed grass. Oh, this is rough?" DeChambeau said. "Guys, this is what we're playing on, apparently." NUCLR GOLF put the clip out on April 17.

He waved over a rules official and asked about the lie. "What's it called again?" Free relief was denied, and he played the shot anyway, chipped it close, and made par.

DeChambeau shot 71 and trailed Perez by nine after finishing second here last year, while Perez made 11 birdies for a 62 to lead Rahm by three, his best result since joining LIV Golf, after 20 rounds without a top-10 finish.

"Very happy to finish with four birdies," Perez said after closing with four consecutive birdies down the stretch.

Rahm has his parents with him in Mexico City this week, something he values deeply, and he opened with a bogey-free 65 to sit at 6-under.

"Since I joined LIV, they haven't had the joy to be there for a win," Rahm said. "Hopefully I can get one while they're here with me."

Also catching the eye on day one, defending champion Niemann made a hole-in-one on his very first shot of the tournament.

On And Off the Course, Bryson DeChambeau Is Having a Week

DeChambeau’s LIV deal runs out this season and is said to be worth over $125 million. With the league facing funding questions, his 2027 plans are still up in the air.

He arrived in Mexico City after wins in Singapore and South Africa. That run ended at the Masters, where a triple bogey on the 18th in round two cost him the cut.

DeChambeau spoke about his LIV future earlier this season: "We just have to continue to align and, as I said from day one, if we can get to an alignment point, there's no doubt that I'll be here next year."

O'Neil went public with his support this week. "Nobody is more passionate about growing the game in the most pure sense of the word than Bryson," the CEO said. "He loves LIV Golf, and I am pretty confident that we will find a solution."

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Written by

Sneha Abraham

Edited by

Pulkit Prabhav