Bryson DeChambeau on the No. 15 hole during Round 1 of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, Thursday, November 12, 2020.

Golf continues to shoot itself in the foot with Argentina’s Angel Cabrera facing extradition to his homeland for gender violence and Bryson DeChambeau missing a golden opportunity to distance himself from the behaviour of US President Donald Trump.

DeChambeau insists he’ll pull himself “out of the rabbit hole” if he feels he’s endangering his health with his big-hitting antics, even explaining that the dizziness that affected him at the Masters might have come about because the frontal lobe of his brain “was working really, really hard.”

But when it comes to his friendship with Trump and his family, the US Open champion ran a mile from making any brand-threatening remarks in the press briefing for next month’s Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers.

“I know there's a lot of stuff going on today and I won't really talk too much about relationships or anything like that,” said DeChambeau, who played last week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions with the Trump Golf logo conspicuous by its absence from his golf bag.

The Californian (27) celebrated his US Open win with Trump’s son Eric and others at Trump Bedminster, the New Jersey venue stripped of the 2022 PGA Championship by the PGA of America this week because they feared it would be detrimental to their brand.

But when asked if he felt the PGA of America decision was unfair, DeChambeau said: “It's unfortunate and it is what it is and I understand it. At the end of the day, whatever their moves are, they are. I really don't have a comment. I'm still going to go play a golf course and try to do my best no matter where it is.”

He added: “This is a very tough time in this world right now and I won't make a comment on any relationships that I have on that."

As for his golfing ambitions, the Californian had no problem talking those up.

He believes he’s on his way to overtaking Dustin Johnson, who will also be in Saudi Arabia in three weeks’ time, as world number one and put his disappointing Masters performance down to possibly having an over active brain.

“I feel like I've set myself up pretty nicely to do that,” the world No 6 said of his chances of becoming world No 1. “If I consistently keep putting it well, wedging it well and iron playing it well, and driving as far as I am; I think over time, hopefully the law of averages will play out in my favour.”

To get there he will have to start winning regularly and avoiding weeks like the recent Masters Tournament, where he finished tied 34th after going in as the hot favourite and complained of dizziness and feeling “weird” there.

Bryson DeChambeau plays a stroke on the No. 11 hole during Round 1 of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, Thursday, November 12, 2020.

Asked if he managed to get to the bottom of his problems at Augusta National, he did not disappoint with the reply.

“So that's a great question. I actually went to multiple doctors, multiple people, trying to figure out what this was. I got a bunch of MRI -- I got a couple MRIs. Went to an inner ear doctor, eye tests, eye pressure, ear pressure, even did ultrasound on my heart, ultrasounds on my neck to see the blood flow and how things were moving through the different areas of my body, and everything came back really, really well.

“The one thing I will tell you is that I've done a lot of brain training with Neuropeak, and the frontal lobe of my brain was working really, really hard and that's kind of what gave me some weird symptoms, like crazy overworking.

“So as I started to relax my brain a little bit and just get into a more comfortable situation and got on a really good sleep schedule routine, a lot of those symptoms went away and they come back every once in a while but as I do a lot of breathing, it goes away and that's really what I'm focused on trying to do. I'm really working on gut health right now. I think there could be something there. We've registered some pretty good inflammation in the stomach just from the massive changes I've made this past year. When you're trying to change anything, you're always going to have something on the back end happen that may or may not be good for you.

“As of right now it wasn't really great for me and my stomach but I'm working out how to figure out how to optimizse it to the best I possibly can so that I have the best health moving forward and we're doing it in the right way. I guess you could say it was a dirty weight gain bulk. I've started to lean out over the past, I guess you could say, month, still trying to have strength gains while maintaining good muscle mass, good muscle size and strength, as well, and power, as well. That's what I'm trying to develop is a lot of power now.

“It's going to come through eating well, eating right and feeding my body with the right sources to make sure this head stuff doesn't ever come back.”

Asked if it was all down to nerves and stress, having said the course was basically a par-68 for him, DeChambeau said: “Well, I'm absolutely sure it was a part of it. I wouldn't say it was the full bit. There were things that I was doing, there was some -- we were trying to mess with the gut a little bit back then, putting in some, what were they, they were probiotics, I think, pre- and probiotics that I was changing just to change some of the gut stuff that we had measured that was off, and I started to feel really weird after that.

“So there was that, the stress of the tournament, and you know, just the spotlight, the whole thing. Yeah, it all took a toll, whether it was that specific thing, I don't think it was exactly that specific thing but it was a combination of a few things that escalated my brain, overworking and just giving out, ultimately just giving out, unfortunately.:

Angel Cabrera. Picture: Kwee Song Lim - Flickr

Meanwhile, former Masters and US Open champion Cabrera (51) was arrested in Brazil on Thursday in connection with assault charges levelled against him in his homeland, police and diplomats said.

A federal police statement about the arrest on suspicion of crimes committed in Argentina between 2016 and 2020 did not name Cabrera, but Argentinean diplomats confirmed it was the golfer.

Consul Claudio Gutiérrez said Cabrera, who was on the Interpol red list, was taken to prison in a Rio suburb pending extradition proceedings.

According to the Argentine daily Clarín, Cabera is accused of alleged gender violence against three of his ex-partners, Micaela Escudero, Cecilia Torres Mana and Silvia Rivadero, the mother of his two oldest children.

Clarín reported:

“The winner of the US Open 2007, when he defeated the legendary Tiger Woods, and of the Augusta Masters in 2009 is accused of physical violence and verbal aggression by three of his ex-wives and one of them, Cecilia Torres, alleges that the athlete threatened her life.
Cabrera, 51 years old and who was on the ‘red list’ of Interpol, arrived in Brazil on December 31, just a month before his visa expired in the North American country, where he had surgery last October for a wrist injury that had kept him away from competition.
“In the event of his extradition to Argentina, Cabrera will have to face a trial process in the province of Córdoba for ‘qualified minor injuries and threats,’ and another for “qualified minor injuries and theft,” denounced in 2017 and 2018 by Torres.
The other complaint was allegedly filed by Silvia Rivadero, the mother of her two oldest children and whom Cabrera threatened in audio messages that rest in Justice.
The other woman who filed a formal complaint against Cabrera was Micaela Escudero, who accuses the golfer of "threats and coercion."
The Argentine, according to the press, will be transferred to the Benfica prison complex, in the capital of Fluminense, and the STF will have to decide on his extradition in the coming days.