JERSEY CITY — Slow play was the topic, but Bryson DeChambeau wasted no time getting started. He stepped atop the interview platform Saturday at Liberty National Golf Club, and before a question could be asked said, “I’ll introduce this and talk about it.”

What followed amounted to an impassioned 16-minute character defense.

“When people start talking to me about slow play and how I’m killing the game, I’m doing this and that to the game, that is complete and utter you-know-what,” DeChambeau said.

His par-71 round Saturday left him at 6-under, eight strokes off the pace of the 54-hole leader, Patrick Reed, who carded a 67. The crowd of reporters huddled around DeChambeau was twice as large as the one that showed up to hear Reed speak, proving that until punitive measures are taken by the PGA Tour , slow play is going to threaten to overshadow sterling play.

DeChambeau, the defending champion, and Dylan Frittelli, the player with whom he was paired in the third round of the Northern Trust, had just played 18 holes in a combined 146 strokes over four hours.