BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU was labelled ‘stupid’ and accused of being a brat over his Open outburst.
The world No 6 sparked an angry backlash from sponsor Cobra after whining about his driver.
DeChambeau trails leader Louis Oosthuizen by seven shots following a frustrating first-round 71.
The angry American said: “The driver sucks. It’s not the right design, unfortunately, and we’ve been trying to fix it.
“I’m living on the razor’s edge, I’ve told people for a long time.”
DeChambeau, 27, has a multi-million-dollar deal with Cobra, whose tour operations manager, Ben Schomin, said: “It’s really painful when he says something that stupid.
“He’s never really been happy, ever.
“Everybody is bending over backwards. We have multiple guys in research and development, in computer-aided design, trying to get this and that into the pipeline faster.
“It’s like an eight-year-old that gets mad at you — they fly off the handle and say, ‘I hate you’.
“But I know that if I got him cornered now and said, ‘What the hell did you say that for?’, he’d say he was mad.
“He didn’t really mean to say it that harshly — but it’s still not cool.”
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DeChambeau said sorry for his outburst late last night.
He posted on Instagram: “The comment was very unprofessional.
“My frustrations and emotions over the way I drove boiled over. I sucked, not my equipment — I deeply regret the words I used.”
