Bryson DeChambeau’s initials are: BAD.
He lived up, or rather down to them during Thursday’s first round at the 85th playing of The Masters after opening with a four-over par 76.
DeChambeau was once again the center of pre-tournament hype as he blasted huge drive after huge drive at the expansive Augusta National practice facility on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Bryson unveiled a new driver with just 4.5 degrees of loft, a calculated risk, seeing as he had never used it in actual competition. The experiment backfired as DeChambeau struggled from the get-go on opening day.
He missed fairway after fairway, starting at the first hole where he pulled his tee shot left into the woods and pine straw. Earlier he boasted that he could launch driver over the trees on the right side of the fairway and have just a short pitch into the green. Wasn’t the case. He was lucky to make par there.
At the par five second, he yanked another tee shot left, had no shot at the green, hit a layup and settled for par. He said he would drive the third hole, a 351-yard cutie but all he could muster there was a par after ending up below the green left.
Things began to fall apart for The Mad Scientist at the par three fourth. His tee shot sailed long, and that would become a recurring nightmare for him with his irons. He barely got his second out of the bushes, scraped his third on the green and two-putted for double-bogey.
There would be no birdies the rest of the way on the front nine and the par five eighth, another hole he could easily reach in two, didn’t work out well and he suffered bogey six there. He made the turn in 40 and found that missing fairways and going long on the greens is a formula for disaster.
The final nine was more of the same, just not as bad. He made a couple of pars then hit his tee shot at the iconic, 155-yard 12th long, into some flower bushes on the hill. Luckily his ball backed out of that mess and finished just over the green. He used putter, struck it poorly, left it on the fringe and made four.
His only birdie came at the 15th, where he finally dissected the fairway, hit a nice iron shot to the right fringe and two-putted for his only birdie of the round.
After his round, DeChambeau admitted that the slopes and lies that players encounter at Augusta National confounded him:
“I need to understand how the ball flies off of downhill slopes into uphill greens, and conversely uphill slopes into downhill greens, and all of the above,” DeChambeau said. “We just can’t calculate and adjust the numbers very well, and the wind is pretty tricky out here. The greens are bouncing pretty hard, and that’s what happened.”
Bryson’s and put him in a tie for 60th. The low 50 an ties make it to the weekend.
Rory Was Rotten As Well:
Expectations for Rory McIlroy this week were pretty low and he lived down to them on his way to a first-round 76 that tied him for 60th with DeChambeau and other big names, including 2017 champion Sergio Garcia.
McIlroy was tip-toeing his way around Augusta National to start his day with four straight pars. Then he climbed on the bogey-train, making three-straight at five, six and seven. At the par four seventh, he suffered the indignity of of hitting his approach long and bounced his ball off the leg of his father, Gerry, who was watching from behind the green. “I think I should get an autograph,” his dad quipped.
Rory made the turn in 39 shots, managing just a single birdie at the par five eighth. Over the final nine, Rory managed just one birdie and that came at the par five 15th where he hit the green in two and two-putted for birdie.
It was Rory’s worst-ever opening round of the championship.
Chip-In At 15th Saves Day For Spieth:
Jordan Spieth, the 2015 Masters champion, was looking good at one-under par when he reached the ninth tee. He then made the mistake of hitting a devil-ball tee-shot that sailed 40 yards right. He was deep in the trees and found more trouble when his second caught another tree. He punched out for his third and by time he walked off the ninth green, he suffered a triple-bogey seven and made the turn two-over.
But Jordy dug in, made a bounce-back birdie at the 10th to get back to one-over and stayed there until he came to the 15th. After a nice drive, his second finished over the green and it was then that Spieth produced his shot-of-the-day and got the break of the day. He hit his chip too hard but on a perfect line. It struck the pin squarely and went into the hole for an eagle three. Had it not hit the pin, the ball was destined to roll off the green into he pond fronting the green.
That took him to one-under and it was where he finished. His 71 put him squarely in contention, he was tied for eighth and one of only a dozen players who managed to break par with the difficult scoring conditions.
Spieth said afterwards: “The course played the way I like it.”
Tommy Fleetwood’s Ace:
There were roars again at the 85th Masters. The first came when Dustin Johnson pitched in for birdie at the 11th hole Thursday afternoon. The second big roar came later when Tommy Fleetwood scored a hole-in-one on the famous 16th.
Click on this link to see Tommy’s ace along with the other highlights from Thursday:
