What’s next for Bryson DeChambeau?
How about a November date at Augusta National Golf Club?
Bryson, the Mad Scientist of the PGA Tour now has another, fancier moniker — 2020 U.S. Open Champion.
Everyone is still trying to get their arms around the method and manner in which DeChambeau conquered Winged Foot. In business, DeChambeau would be called “a disrupter.” In golf, well, he’s no less than a total “game changer.”
From the day he added 30 pounds to his frame and decided to basically try and pound courses into submission, there’s been skepticism at every turn. But after going six-under at Winged Foot, DeChambeau has turned his critics into believers.
Hard to argue with the way he performed around the greens and on the greens. He tied for fifth in Greens In Regulation last week and was third in Strokes Gained on approach shots. He was second in Strokes Gained with his short game as well.
So what’s next?
“I gotta keep figuring out enough variables,” DeChambeau said late after his win. ” Unconventional? That’s my whole life.” Looking back, when he decided to play with all his irons the same length, even his father was a doubter. Bryson recalled that his dad told him: “No that’s not going to work..”
After contending at the PGA, DeChambeau crossed the major championship threshold at the toughest venue last week.
Now the Masters is on his radar and he’s already tinkering with a possible switch to a 48-inch shaft in his driver to hit it even farther. He’s not afraid to make equipment tweaks. He made one before the final round at Winged Foot. Bryson carries two drivers and four spare driver heads. The driver he used the first three rounds had loft of 5.5 degrees and that’s stunning for purists as it’s less than the six-degrees loft on his putter.
After total dissatisfaction with his driving performance on Saturday, he was on the range after dark when everyone else was gone. He made the decision to switch to his other driver — the one with just 5.25 degrees of loft. Right decision.
With no spectators on site, the televison mics picked up DeChambeau going through his calculations before each approach shot. Now we know why he’s slow — those take time. All variables are considered, which follows his quote about “gotta keep figuring out enough variables.”
Which brings us to the ultimate “variables” course — Augusta National Golf Club.
Imagine the advantage he’ll have at The Masters. He can blow it over the huge bunkers to the right at the first and probably have a flip wedge in. If he draws it around the corner at two, the downhill par five, he might have nine-iron or wedge in there. He can reach the short par four third with a three-wood or long iron.
The par fives might play as simple par fours for him. Reaching eight is no problem. If he can drive it over the corner on 13, he might have wedge in there and same at 15 — big fairway, straightaway hole.
With little to no rough on the golf course, it seems almost indefensible against his power. You’d think the greens might give him fits but that was before seeing the way he took on the Winged Foot complexes.
Most of the par fours won’t challenge him.
Perhaps only the par threes could be troublesome.
So if you’re Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley, you’ve got to be wondering if there’s any way to “Bryson-Proof” the golf course?
The way it looks now, that seems futile at best.
But give DeChambeau credit. He’s out-worked everyone on the PGA Tour and he’s now risen to fifth in the world.
So what’s next? Well, Bryson has a simple answer for that:
“The target is,” he said, “every day — get better.”
6 Comments
baxter cepeda
The putter is a huge factor for Bryson. Make him not anchor (up the forearm) and Augusta Nationals greens can still control brysons scoring; even if he has wedge all day.
Something is really off if a putter has more loft than a driver. Something is really off….
mike Davis is smart to leave the usga to pursue golf course design. I wish I could leave to do golf course design. But for mike —with all the issues continuing to boil up—it’s smart to get out with his reputation in tact when he did.
Augusta has been preparing for this. What they did at 5 is incredible. It’s a completely new hole that looks like the old 5 but walking you know it’s not the exact same hole. That’s definitely not a hole Bryson will overpower too much now. Little by little they will do something like 5 to all the holes, but it’s still a shame. They shouldn’t have to do all that.
The drastically changed holes look the same but they are not the same, which takes away from the history; knowing the greats of the past played the same holes is a beautiful thing. That’s already not true for various holes at Augusta, sooner or later every hole will change to something past generations would recognize but know it’s not what they competed on.
I do love the evolution of drivers and power —but it’s also such a shame today’s powers in golf render courses from challenging top players .
Unlike even a Winged Foot, luckily Augusta can work to defend itself over time. Surely they have something up their sleeves to control the scoring this year…hopefully.
Tom Edrington
Grow some rough; I still think he can blow it over the new bunker complex on the left at five……This will be fascination to watch…..I guess the oddsmakers will make him the favorite…by the way, did you catch Tiger doing the “left heel lift” on the range at Big Cedar Lodge before the opening exhibition on Tuesday?
baxter cepeda
No I didn’t see tiger lifting the left heel ala Wolf but I very much enjoyed that event from start to finish. Zinger alone sold America with his reactions on the place.
About 5, maybe he can. They also significantly softened the slope at 5 green. It looks like a much easier surface now.
I actually prefer if Augusta got rid of the rough and Pinch in more pine straw and/or make the fairway slopes take more balls to awful places. Phil has addressed how rough has actually made Augusta less dangerous because balls run away less. Some courses rely most on the ball running away and Augusta really seems like one of them.
Gotta wonder if there has been some major changes, specifically 13. We saw those aerial pictures a while back and They have had this unique extra 8 months of time to surprise the world with something.
Tom Edrington
We’ll know in about seven weeks…
RM
Haven’t loved some of his bickering and antics on the course, but have to give him credit where due. It was impressive to see not only the raw distance, but also his mastery of the short game this past weekend.Also, reboots of a good game are often unproductive, but the guy has been eerily successful with the major changes he has made over his career.
Masters should be fascinating.
Tom Edrington
I think someone on his management team had a little talk with him regarding inappropriate deportment with rules officials, camera crews, etc. Not sure he’s very popular with fellow players, only Zach Johnson was around to congratulate him at Winged Foot. Can’t argue with his work ethic and his skill level last week was incredible. Kudos to BAD.