​SOUTHPORT, England — Human beings resist easy definitions. They resist blanket judgements. They require nuance and complexity and depth and texture.And in a sport filled with strange and vexing human beings, no player is better than Bryson DeChambeau at convincing us to believe the opposite.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBryson’s life as a professional golfer has been like an entrapment scheme for critical thinkers — an endless ping-pong between “absolutely loved” and “completely hated” that has spanned at least six years, two professional tours, two major championship victories, a high-profile bullying story, a few thousand protein shakes and many, many million YouTube views. A scheme that continued with a new chapter on Thursday afternoon at the 154th Open Championship, when an R&A official informed reporters that DeChambeau would not be speaking to them despite shooting one of the rounds of the day at Royal Birkdale, continuing a major championship blackout from the golf press that dates back to a first-round 76 at the Masters on April 9 and has arrived with no apparent reason or explanation.It’s worth pointing out that DeChambeau did not entirely blank the public on Thursday. Even if he did not answer a question from a single person who might ask him about something, y’know, interesting, he answered several questions for an R&A official and completed a short video interview with the R&A’s official media channels.It’s also worth pointing out that DeChambeau’s media exit on Thursday at Royal Birkdale arrived after he found himself in the crosshairs of two prominent golf critics (and ex-players), Nick Faldo and Brandel Chamblee, in the days leading up to the tournament. Faldo and Chamblee were doing their jobs as members of golf media when they criticized Bryson’s tactical weaknesses at the Open, but DeChambeau’s not-so-subtle answers to the R&A indicated he might have heard their criticism and not particularly enjoyed it.Still, there is no obfuscating the most simple truth — the one underlining DeChambeau’s decision on Thursday: Golf’s most media savvy pro appears to be taking a break … from the media. And with that truth comes the familiar feeling that Bryson is about to find himself painted in the public with all the subtlety of a 2-iron to the forehead.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOver the years, many of us have been deluded into thinking we understood Bryson. We believed we could see through the bluster and the braggadocio in a way others couldn’t — that we could speak to his role in golf with a degree of certainty. As impatient truth-tellers, we rushed to ensure our conclusions were understood on (surprise!) simple terms: Bryson as hero or villain. As genius or dolt. As self-possessed influencer or sincere force-for-golf-good. As saved from the depths of self-indulgence or so convincingly lost he’s putting on an act to prove he isn’t.And yet, in that time, there