You’ll be pleased to know that golf-ball crushing, protein-shake-chugging, weight-gaining, rules-arguing, camera-complaining, U.S. Open-winning, frontal-lobe-straining, distance-obsessed Bryson DeChambeau got back in the fray for the first time in 2021 over in Saudi Arabia, aka The Kingdom.
On Thursday, DeChambeau opened with a nifty 65 and it didn’t come in the usual manner. DeChambeau says it wasn’t bombs-away at the manicured Royal Greens Golf Club.
After a long flight to the Middle East country, the Mad Scientist conceded his body wasn’t ready to deliver.
“It’s just more of my body isn’t feeling 100 percent from the travel over, and not like I thought it would. I had a lot of things to do these past couple nights, so I haven’t been able to work out the way I wanted to,” he said. “I got a speed training session in yesterday, but wasn’t enough to get my (ball) speeds over 200 (mph) and be comfortable with it. Once you start hitting it wayward, my brain just kind of retracts to not wanting to swing as fast. I could hit it really far, hit it over 200 (mph), but it could go anywhere.”
Even so, DeChambeau was pretty effective in round one. He dialed up seven birdies and two bogeys on the par 70 layout which has just two par five holes. Small ball for Bryson? Sort of.
“Huge,” Bryson said about the work he has put in with his wedges. He hit an array of nice shots around the green and, as he put it: “a lot of nicely struck putts.”
And on top of that, there was some other important news from the Baron Of Bombardment. You may recall that when Bryson inflated himself to 230-plus pounds, he talked about possibly heading toward the 250-pound mark. Well, that’s now a thing of the past. DeChambeau conceded this week that he’s feeling a little chunky and will now try to “lean out” a bit but continue to try and get stronger. Sounds like the 5,000-calorie a day deal is out the door.
As good as Bryson’s 65 appeared to be, he was still four shots behind first round leader David Horsey. Horsey found himself nine-under par standing over his third shot into the par five 18th. Hole it out for 59. But he made a less-than-spectacular swing and nearly pulled his wedge shot into the water left of the green. He saved par and carded his best-ever opening round — a 61.
“It’s a shock actually,” Horsey said, after carding nine birdies – seven of which came on the final nine holes, adding up to a spectacular 28. “I’ve been playing rubbish the last couple weeks. Didn’t feel like I controlled my ball the first two events where he missed the cuts. “I had a conversation with a pal back home last night, talking a few things through and he suggested something that I work on away from the tournament. Knowing me, I thought, well, can’t get any worse, so I may as well try it and here we are.”
Horsey’s 61 was only a shot better than Bernhard Gallacher, who has been looking forward to the new season. “I couldn’t wait for 2021 to come really and get back to a bit of normal – back playing and back enjoying it, Gallacher said. “I worked hard in the winter in the gym and on my net in the house, and came out early and showed a bit of form early doors. 2020, just erase it from my memory and look forward now to 2021.”
While DeChambeau was the low American, world’s No. 1 Dustin Johnson looked good from tee to green but found his putting off as time-and-again he burned the lips in search of birdies. D.J. managed to card a three-under par 67.
As for Bryson, he’ll no doubt unleash The Kraken before the weekend.
On Friday, there was a rare weather circumstance — rain. Some players in the early morning wave finished before play was halted just before 1 p.m. (Saudi time) and players were taken off the course. PGA Tour rising star Viktor Hovland got his second round finished, shooting a four-under par 66 that made him the early leader in the clubhouse at six-under. DeChambeau completed just two holes, starting par-par off the first tee.
The rainy weather gave way to a beautiful late afternoon and both Bryson and D.J. were trying to move up the leaderboard. Both were six-under to the tournament through 10 holes of the second round.
