ORLANDO, Fla. Everyone loves the long ball.
In every sport. The 80-meter touchdown pass in football. The tape measure is running home in baseball. The half court jumps in basketball. And of course the long rides in golf.
Years ago, John Daly drew so many eyes to his game because he hit it farther than anyone else in the game. Then Tiger Woods came by and was taller than anyone.
Today’s fascination with golf is Bryson DeChambeau, who caught a lot of attention last year for accumulating and going crazy for a long time.
All week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Bay Hill, DeChambeau had plagued everyone with his intention to drive the green across a large lake on the sixth hole of 555 meter par-5.
In his Wednesday practice round, he tried twice and came up against the wind too short. The wind didn’t help enough in the first two rounds to make it a try on Thursday and Friday, despite heavy pressure from the spectator every time he got to the sixth tee.
However, on Saturday’s third round, DeChambeau gave the crowd what it wanted, taking an aggressive line across the lake and landing his tee shot to the right of the green, a tee shot that covered an ungodly 370 yards.
As soon as the ball left his driver’s face, DeChambeau knew he had hit it and raised his arms in victory.
The spectators, those bananas were going to shoot the DeChambeau. But they were not the only interested observers.
Jordan Spieth, who played the first two rounds with DeChambeau and said publicly that it disappointed him that DeChambeau didn’t do what he did on Thursday or Friday, played No. 7 just ahead of DeChambeau, stopping on his walk to the green to get to the tee looking, pointing to his caddy, Michael Greller, where the ball landed.
Rory McIlroy, who played a hole behind DeChambeau, stopped and watched the shot.
As it turned out, DeChambeau hit the tee so well that he could have taken an even more aggressive line on the green and run on the green. His tee shot landed to the right of the green, chip to the front of the green and two-putted for a birdie to take the lead at that point.