Bryson DeChambeau might be the defending champion of The Northern Trust, which completed its third round Saturday at Liberty National in Jersey City, but that’s not to say he’s universally revered.

DeChambeau, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour and one of the game’s rising young stars, has become a target of ire for a number of fellow players because of his incessantly slow play as a result of his constant overanalyzing.

There’s a line between quirky mad scientist and someone who simply drives the people around him mad, and DeChambeau has crossed that line.

You need only to hop onto Twitter to find a couple of videos that show DeChambeau, during Friday’s second round, abusing the PGA Tour rule that states a player must hit his shot within 40 seconds.

On the par-4 16th hole, after he hit a poor drive into a spectator area, DeChambeau paced off the 70 yards between his ball and the flag on the green, taking more than three minutes to execute his shot.

On the eighth green, DeChambeau took two minutes and 20 seconds to attempt an eight-foot putt (which he ended up missing by a mile) while his playing partners, Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood, looked on in disbelief.

DeChambeau was subsequently roasted on social media by fellow players, something he said “hurt’’ him as he believes he is being unfairly “singled out.’’

“We are all trying to do our best to play well and make our livelihoods and win tournaments,’’ DeChambeau said in a passionate 15-minute rebuttal with reporters about the criticism he has received. “But when you start personally attacking people on Twitter, it’s like, ‘Come on, dude. Let’s have some more balls to come up and speak to me to my face about that.’

“It’s really kind of unfortunate the way it’s perceived, because there’s a lot of other guys that take a lot of time. For me personally, it is an attack and it is something that is not me whatsoever. People don’t realize the harm that they are doing to the individuals.’’

LPGA player Christina Kim, after watching that nonsense, tweeted: “More respect to @JustinThomas34 for sticking it out and waiting for the putt to fall. I would have left before the :30 mark, even if it’s bad etiquette. I also don’t understand why players don’t heed the advice of others, esp if everyone says the same thing.’’

Thomas responded to Kim’s comment by tweeting, “It was hard to!’’ And he added an alarm clock emoji.

British player Eddie Pepperell tweeted: “Just look at Tommy and Justin, both looking completely bored. Slow players do this to their playing partners making the game less enjoyable. Problem is, the unaffected single minded twit in this instance, doesn’t care much for others.’’

Slow play is an epidemic in golf. It starts on the PGA Tour and trickles down to the amateur game, where 20-handicaps are imitating the pros — plumb-bobbing putts, pacing off yardage, never ready to hit their shot when it’s their turn.

Acts like the complete lack of self-awareness DeChambeau displayed Friday threaten to kill the game. Who, after all, wants to go to a golf course and play rounds that last five-plus hours?

The only solution to curb this alarming trend is for the PGA Tour to penalize offending players strokes for slow play. Fining players does little good, because most of them are multi-millionaires who view being docked a few dollars as the price of doing business.

Stroke penalties represent the only deterrent that’s going to get the attention of slowpoke offenders. That will hit them where it hurts. Players should get one warning for slow play and any time after that when they’re put on the clock should result in a one-shot penalty.

With this latest and loudest outrage over slow play, it would be surprising if the PGA Tour doesn’t implement a stroke-penalty rule after this 2019 season is complete.

“It starts at our level because people try to emulate us,’’ Rory McIlroy said. “It should be a warning and then a [penalty] shot. I don’t understand why we can’t just implement that. We are not children that need to be told five or six times what to do.’’

Brooks Koepka, who has been a vocal advocate against slow play, said “it’s up to the rules officials’’ to fix the problem.

“What I don’t understand is if I hit in the water, I have to take a penalty stroke,’’ he said. “It’s in the rule book. And then you have 40 seconds to hit a shot. That’s in the rule book, too. I think it’s just gotten out of hand. I mean, I take 15 seconds and go, and I’ve done all right.’’

Indeed: Koepka has won four major championships in the past two years. Maybe players should start imitating his process.