Bulked Up Bryson (DeChambeau) And Jittery Jordy (Spieth) — Two To Watch At RSM

Bryson DeChambeau and Jordan Spieth — neither won last week at Colonial but they are the two most talked-about players coming into this week’s RSM Classic at Harbour Town Golf Links.

DeChambeau first.

Bryson showed up at Colonial looking like a total mini-beast — bigger arms and chest, thicker neck — you get the picture.  Dude has gained something like 30 pounds.

His game plan was pretty simple at the Charles Schwab Challenge — hit it as hard as you can and find it, hit more wedges, hope you make some putts.

His average drive looked to be about 330-yards with some as long as 350-360.  He had so many wedges into the par fours at stately Colonial.  There’s only one problem — you still have to make putts.  Remember — golf, on all levels, boils down to a putting contest.

Bryson lamented after missing a putt from 12 1/2-feet at the 72nd hole that would have earned him a spot in the playoff.  He  said afterward that if he had putted better he would have “run away with it.”

We took a quick look at his Sunday final round to see if he missed many putts.

He missed a birdie putt at the fourth from inside 11 feet.  At the fifth, he missed another birdie attempt from inside eight feet.  At the seventh, he made birdie, holing one from just inside 24 feet, he made another birdie putt from just inside 21 feet a the ninth.  All-in-all, things pretty much averaged out, missed two he might expect to make, made two that were low percentage birdie attempts.

At the 10th hole he made birdie from inside six feet then from two-feet at 14.  At the 15th he made birdie from just outside 15-feet then there was the miss at 18.

Overall, nothing to complain about there.

His 14-under total tied him for third and those bomber drives of his caught the attention of one Colin Montgomerie — who wasn’t very happy.

Which led Monty to make the following observation/complaint:

“Bryson played with Dustin Johnson the first two days and he was giving him 25 yards off the tee – and Dustin is no slouch — extraordinary. He (DeChambeau) is huge.  It’s great to see athleticism in the game, but to see him carrying 330 yards in the air and with the bounce you are up to 350, 360? This is getting unreal, something we haven’t seen before, a whole new game we are beginning to witness.  Something has to be done or these classic courses cannot be used.”

Monty pointed out that during Friday’s second round at Colonial, Bryson had 10 holes on which he was within 100 yards of the green for his approach. And if you include the four par threes that means there were only four holes on which Bryson was more than 100 yards away for his approach.

“The game has changed dramatically. It’s now brute force and a sand wedge,” Monty continued.  “I’m an advocate of what Jack Nicklaus proposes – a tournament ball for professionals, that goes only 80-85% as far.  “The time has come, because we can’t be building courses at 10,000 yards.”

Monty’s not all that wrong.

Now for Jordan Spieth, who remains winless since 2017.

After 36 holes, Spieth had rounds of 65-65 in the books and was a shot behind halfway leader Harold Varner III.

On Saturday, Spieth was a mess on the front nine.  He was all over the place, nine putts over nine holes kept him above water and by day’s end he was two-under, 12-under for the tournament — right in the hunt.

The talking heads were declaring that “Spieth is back!”

Not so fast folks.

On Sunday Jordy reverted to his evil ways — wayward shots, missed short putts — a three-putt from 27 feet and a wild, out-of-bounds tee shot at the 14th.  Up until that point, he was in the mix, 13-under par through 13 holes.

By day’s end, his 71 left him tied for 10th at 11-under.

To listen to Spieth, you’d think he never missed from two-feet, didn’t four-putt from 27 feet, didn’t hit all varieties of wild shots.

“I knew coming in I didn’t have all the tools, didn’t have all my weapons yet. But I certainly gained more this week, gained a lot of confidence,” Spieth said.

“I’m making those putts from mid-to-long range and I’m driving the ball in good position.  It’s really just cleaning up the wedges and stuff that I’m normally really sharp with that certainly had a bit of rust on it. I feel really good going into the next couple of weeks for sure.  I had one today where I just necked it and the wind picked up, and it took a big bounce and went out of bounds. It wasn’t really that bad of a shot.  But for the entire week I drove the ball, I felt, really well, put myself in position to make a lot of birdies.  I’vee just got to get sharper with kind of my in-between numbers, the stuff that when you’re used to just kind of hitting balls on the range and not playing tournament golf and you’re not really practicing them as much, so that will be what I work on.”

Which brings us to this week and the tree-lined fairways of the Harbour Town Golf Links.

Can Bryson DeChambeau cut the corners with massive drives?

Can Jordan Spieth cure what cost him last week?

Two compelling players, two guys to watch — and a sweet course to navigate.