Suffice to say it was no surprise Thursday when Bryson DeChambeau basically dismantled the TPC Summerlin with a nine-under par 62.
It came as no surprise considering he shot 59 in Wednesday’s Pro-Am action.
On day one at the Shriners Hospitals For Children Open, DeChambeau let loose with an assortment of mind-boggling drives. He drove the 381-yard par four seventh, he drove the green again at the 317-yard par four 15th — no challenge. He was hitting short irons into the par fives — he birdied them all, easily, and was unlucky not to make some eagles out there on day one.
What he produced was nine birdies, nine pars and a whole lot of long ball. He played the back nine first and made five straight birdies starting at the 15th. In a turn of events, he went on a drought and made five straight pars after the birdie at one but finished with birdies on two of the final three for The Mad Scientist of the PGA Tour.
Bryson hinted before the tournament began that he might have his way with this golf course. “Four par-fours figure to get a crack, and the iron distances are befitting the desert air and elevation,”: DeChambeau predicted. “There will be holes where I’m going to try and drive them, get it up as close to the green as possible. It’s just fun having a seven-iron go 220. That’s unique. And four-iron, 265. There will be holes where I had to hit three-wood and now I’m hitting 4-iron off the tees.”
After hitting 16 greens for the day, DeChambeau turned in his low round on the PGA Tour. “Yes, I’ll take a 62 any time. I didn’t hit it my best but I put it in the right spots. I heeled some three-woods off the tee but they still went straight. There was very little wind when I went out. It was a go-get-’em day. Keep making birdies, keep making birdies.”
DeChambeau was paired with two more of the tour’s longest hitters — Cameron Champ and Matt Wolff. But it takes more than the long ball as Champ shot a four-under par 67 and Wolff turned in a three-under par 68. Good scores but they looked anemic compared to Bryson’s nine-under effort.
As good as Bryson’s day was, he had just a one-shot lead over five players — Austin Cook, Harold Varner III, Scott Harrington, Nate Lashley and Patrick Cantlay, who finished runnerup last year, losing in a playoff to Kevin Na, who opened with a five-under par 66.
This one was your typical PGA Tour birdie festival with 77 players shooting three-under par 68 or better.
Shriners Hospitals Scoreboard:
Brooks Koepka Coming Back At CJ Cup:
The last time anyone saw Brooks Koepka playing on the PGA Tour, he was missing the Friday cut at the Wyndham Championship.
After that, he withdrew from the first FedEx Cup playoff event, The Northern Trust, and ended his 2019-2020 season. He’s been back home in Palm Beach County rehabbing a knee injury that ended up affecting his hip.
Koepka will start his 2020-21 season next week at the CJ Cup, a tournament he won in 2018. This year’s event was moved from Jeju Island off the coast of South Korea to ritzy Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, the layout that hosted the $9 million match between Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods.
“Excited to get back out there at next week’s CJ Cup,” Koepka tweeted this week. “It’s been a challenging but productive two months of rehabbing my injury.
