ORLANDO, Fla. Arnold Palmer may have given Bryson DeChambeau some questioning looks. He might have wondered about DeChambeau’s single irons and the wild diet and all the talk of science. He would certainly have ridiculed Ben Hogan’s hat.
But the late namesake of the tournament DeChambeau won Sunday at Palmer’s beloved Bay Hill Club would no doubt have signed his thumbs up for the way the reigning US Open champion plays the game.
Palmer would have loved the bravado. He would have loved the muscle power. He would have loved the rashness.
DeChambeau made his way to victory on Sunday, opening the first major gallery of the pandemic era by launching tee shots into orbit. Then he went and found them. And he made enough putts to keep 47-year-old Lee Westwood off the Arnold Palmer Invitational for his eighth PGA Tour victory.
Palmer, the seven-time great champion who has made Bay Hill his home since falling in love with the place in the 1960s, was known to be broke a few times. He loved the power game and scoffed at those who thought he needed to curb it. He was the first to admit that a few tournaments got away because his courage got the best of him. But he never apologized.
Now, here’s DeChambeau trying to ride a par 5 over water – Arnie may have pushed those tees back – and continues to mesmerize the golf world with how he’s transformed his game and his body over the past 18 months.
“It’s great to see,” said Westwood, who turns 48 next month and is 20 years older than DeChambeau. “I like it. You can see the shape of him. He’s worked hard in the gym, and he’s worked on his technique to get it far. It’s not easy to hit it as straight as he made it this far. “Hits when he hits it. So people are going to have advantages – and he’s obviously of height. He can overwhelm a golf course. It’s fun to watch.”
Westwood, who has racked up 24 European Tour wins and more than 40 professional wins, could only fool himself on the sixth hole, a 555-meter par-five designed to play around a massive lake.
DeChambeau has been talking for weeks about trying to drive through the green, a shot that would require a 330 yard carry or something like that. On Saturday, DeChambeau celebrated as if he won the tournament when he cleared the water. It doesn’t matter that he missed the green about 70 yards to the right. His ball traveled 370 meters.
Sunday the driveway went 377 meters into a bunker. DeChambeau made a birdie on both days.
When it was Westwood’s turn to strike, the television cameras weren’t set to track his drive; it was aimed too far to the right, as the hole is intended to be played. Westwood had a sham party after his drive found the fairway.
“Just having a little fun with it, you know?” Westwood said. ‘I think I was about 310 there – just 70 or 80 behind him, right?
DeChambeau’s 1-under 71 was one of only two scores below the top 70 on a stormy, cool day. It helped him win a tournament he had wanted to conquer since meeting Palmer here when DeChambeau was still an amateur.
It was at that meeting that Palmer DeChambeau gave some advice: Draw a signature legible for people to read.
“That’s something that has stayed with me, and I’ve been doing it ever since,” he said.
Palmer, who famously rode the first green in the final round of the 1960 US Open at Cherry Hills and birdied for his only win at that major championship, is said to have been impressed by DeChambeau’s six-shot win over Winged Foot in September.
After that big breakthrough, DeChambeau is struggling. He competed in the Masters in November as one of the favorites; he was never a factor, finishing in 34th place. That was no outlier. He hasn’t really fought since the US Open win at Winged Foot. Last week, he opened at the WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession with 77.
But the search continues. DeChambeau has experimented with more drive shafts, optimal spin speeds and launch angles. Although the goal was to add weight, he felt he was getting too fat; so he tried to cut back on the amount of food and eat a little healthier.
Still, he plans to take the same approach at Augusta National next month: Swing hard, hit it far. Being closer to the green has its advantages. Getting the ball into the hole from there is the key to success.
In his early days playing the Masters, Palmer was told that his low ball flight would not succeed. He remained stubborn and played his game. He won four green coats. Palmer wouldn’t flinch just because someone told him to.
This week, DeChambeau had a chat with Palmer’s grandson and Korn Ferry Tour pro Sam Saunders. That discussion led DeChambeau to believe that The King would have approved his approach.
“I sometimes get myself into trouble with the length of the stroke and where I hit it,” DeChambeau said. “But I’d say Mr. Palmer would probably like it. Sam talked to me about how he thought Mr. Palmer would love what I did. ‘