AUGUSTA, Georgia – Bryson DeChambeau was set to destroy Augusta National last fall. He took a convincing six-shot victory at the US Open, overpowering the famous Winged Foot. He joined the Masters with a plan to do the same.
But a funny thing happened on the way to a green jacket.
DeChambeau hit it far at Augusta, but wide. The underrated short play that had also helped him at Winged Foot let him down. He made 18 birdies and an eagle this week – that’s 20 under par, which was Dustin Johnson’s record-breaking winning score. But … DeChambeau also made 11 bogeys, two doubles and a triple.
“The stress of the tournament, just the spotlight, the whole thing,” he said. It all took its toll. It was a combination of a few things that escalated my brain. ‘
And now he’s back again, a little leaner, with a better understanding and appreciation for both the diet he’s started to gain weight and distance, and the need for precision around a golf course that requires it.
But that doesn’t mean he’ll be tiptoeing among the dogwoods and azaleas at the Masters this week as he carefully makes his way through Augusta National.
Bryson DeChambeau once again plans to try and blow the spot.
“I had to look back on what went wrong, what happened that prevented me from performing at the highest level I did at the US Open,” DeChambeau said this spring while also trying to refine his body. “I didn’t ride the longest at the US Open, but I did great putting, I clamped it great. My iron game was incredible and I rode it pretty well.”
However, that didn’t happen after he drove through Magnolia Lane.
“I’m looking at Augusta… there were a lot of opportunities I missed with wedges, putting and iron play,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it was necessarily the driver who got me in trouble for the most part, but there were definitely times when my putter and my wedges and my iron game did that.”
DeChambeau has a simple solution: keep working on it. Keep trying to increase clubhead speed. Keep trying to add distance.
Even if it didn’t work out the first time he brought his scientific methods to Augusta National, DeChambeau walked away with still gaining ground on the field.
He makes others think of him and watch their own games. As he gets better and follows his plan, others have tried to mimic it and got lost.
Rory McIlroy presented the best example. While the four-time great champion would never become a gluttonous eater and would try to gain about 40 pounds like DeChambeau did, he certainly saw the benefits of trying to get more speed in his swing in an attempt to hit the ball. further.
“I’d be lying if I said it had nothing to do with what Bryson did at the US Open,” McIlroy said after missing the Players Championship cut. “I think a lot of people saw that and thought, hey, if this is the way they are going to set up golf courses in the future, [distance] helps. It really helps. “
Since mid-February, McIlroy has missed two cuts and was brought out of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play after his worst loss in ten years. He does have two top 10s, but even those came with warning signs – he shot 72-76 over the weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and finished 71 at the WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession. Both times he had the chance to win. Both times he hesitated over the weekend.
“I thought it was a good thing to get a little more speed, and maybe I’ll just do it – at the expense of my swing,” said McIlroy. “I’m here, but I may have to keep it in check a bit.”
McIlroy isn’t alone.
‘You would be stupid if you said anything [DeChambeau is] Going to golf courses doesn’t make it any easier, ”said Justin Thomas. I think it’s extremely underrated and hasn’t talked enough about how straight he hits it for a 135mph crank. I can hit it pretty damn skewed at 116 or 117 mph. He really hits it right on 135. And he puts it really well.
“For me it is that I can find that extra 10, 15 or 20 [yards] if I need it or if I can. I would like to fly 330 with it every time. No offense to Bryson, I’m not going to put on 40 pounds. I don’t have the build or build for that. I’ve always done everything I can to get the most out of what I can. “
DeChambeau has paid a lot of attention to this in the past two years. He didn’t just start drinking protein shakes and lifting heavy weights one day. Under the guidance of trainer Greg Roskopf, who also works at the Denver Broncos, he began drafting a plan more than two years before starting it in the fall of 2019.
The results were quick. An initial weight gain of 25 pounds. Extra length from the tee that now leads the PGA Tour within 320.8m driving distance. (For the record, McIlroy is third at 319.1).
DeChambeau admits he may have gone too far with all the meat, potatoes, eggs, and other foods he ate. His daily allowance was 6,000 calories. The realization that it was time to adjust his diet came to the Masters.
In November, during the tournament and for weeks afterward, DeChambeau said again that he just wasn’t feeling well. He had some balance problems. He even wondered if he had contracted the coronavirus; he did a COVID-19 test prior to the third round. It came back negative.
“I actually went to several doctors, several people, to find out what this was,” he said. “I have a few MRIs. Went to an inner ear doctor, eye tests, eye pressure, ear pressure, even did ultrasounds on my heart, ultrasounds on my neck to see the blood flow and how things got through the different areas of my body. good back. “
DeChambeau also explained that he saw some pretty significant changes in his stomach, most notably inflammation. He started working on what he called ‘gut health’ to help alleviate the problems.
That meant he had to change his food intake a bit. So he returns to Augusta National a little leaner, but with the same distance and plan of attack. However, the preparation is different this time.
For the November event, he took a month off from the PGA Tour and focused only on the Masters. He considered using a 48-inch driver to go even more distance to try to shorten Augusta National even more.
While he’s still focused on distance, this time around he will have worked extensively on other parts of his game. He will also come up with positive results. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and competed for the Players Championship.
Distance is an advantage at Augusta National. DeChambeau knows that. However, it is not necessary to be on the scoreboard early on Sunday evening. Recent winners like Patrick Reed (287.4m from the tee, 182nd on tour) or Danny Willett (292.9, 129th) prove that you don’t need extra height to take home a green jacket. But being able to control the bunker on the first hole, or ride the green on the par 4 third, or have short irons in the par 5 13th and 15th holes, is a great help. At Augusta National, all parts must work.
Consider this: DeChambeau played with 63-year-old Bernhard Langer in the final round in November. Langer won both his Masters before DeChambeau, 27, was born. When they were linked, Langer was 80 yards behind DeChambeau off the tee. Longer shot 71; DeChambeau shot 73.
“I was in awe of how they swinged and how hard they hit them, and every now and then I had to tell myself go on, stop watching and play your game and think about what to do,” said Langer. , who also played with McIlroy during the third round.
Apparently every moment he is awake DeChambeau spends the same thing. That’s certainly what it looks like at a golf tournament, often under spotlights on the driving range, looking for the right combination of shafts, lofts, swing speed and anything else it takes to get the ball into orbit. to throw.
And now another shot at the Masters comes with his go-for-it plan still in place.
“I’m just trying to win tournaments,” he said. “I don’t really care what people think. It’s just whether I can do it. See, if I fail, I’m going to do my very best to find out why I failed. So if the skeptics proved wrong,” I’m not worried about it. I appreciate the skeptics, the ones who really make me think more – is this really right? – and who take me even deeper down the rabbit hole. “