ORLANDO, Fla. Arnold Palmer may have given Bryson DeChambeau some weird looks. He might have wondered about DeChambeau’s one-time irons and the wild diet and all the talk about science. He would surely have driven the joke with the Ben Hogan cap.
But the late namesake of the tournament that DeChambeau won Sunday at Palmer’s beloved Bay Hill Club would undoubtedly have signed his signature on the way the reigning U.S. Open champion is going to play the game.
Palmer would have liked the bravado. He would have liked the crook. He would have liked the brutality.
DeChambeau paved his way to victory on Sunday, shooting down the first significant gallery of the pandemic era by shooting into orbit. Then he went and found them. And he made enough holes to hold off 47-year-old Lee Westwood at the Arnold Palmer Invitational for his eighth PGA Tour event.
Palmer, the seven-time grand champion who has made Bay Hill his home since falling in love with the place in the 1960s, was known for breaking a time or two. He loved the showdown and expressed those who thought he should fix it. He was the first to admit that a few tournaments got away because his boldness got the best of him. But he never apologized.
Now, here’s DeChambeau driving a par 5 over water – Arnie might have moved the teasers back – and the golf world continues to enchant him with how he has changed his game and his body over the past 18 months.
“It’s great to watch,” said Westwood, who turns 48 next month and is 20 years older than DeChambeau. ‘I like that. You can see the shape of him. He worked hard in the gym and worked on his technique to achieve it a lot. It’s not easy to hit it so straight when he hits it as far as he hits it. So people have benefits – and that’s long overdue, of course. He can overwhelm a golf course. It’s fun to watch. ‘
Westwood, who has 24 wins on the European Tour and more than 40 professional wins, could only stand out on the sixth hole, a 555-meter par-five designed to play a big lake.
DeChambeau has been talking for weeks about trying to drive the green, a shot that requires a support of 330 yards or more. On Saturday, DeChambeau celebrated as if he had won the tournament when he cleared the water. No matter, he missed the green about 70 yards to the right. His ball went 370 yards out.
On Sunday, the ride went 377 meters into a bunker. Both days, DeChambeau made a birdie.
When it was Westwood’s turn, the television cameras were not set up to follow his drive; he is directed too far to the right, as the intention is to play the hole. Westwood celebrated a mockery after finding the highway.
“Do you just have a little fun with it, you know?” Said Westwood. ‘I think I was about 310 out there – just 70 or 80 behind him, right?
DeChambeau’s 1-under-71 was one of just two under-70s in the top 70 on a brilliant, cool day. It helped him win a tournament he had hoped for since meeting Palmer here when DeChambeau was still an amateur.
That was during the meeting when Palmer DeChambeau gave advice: sign a signature legible so people can read it.
“It has stayed with me and I have done it ever since,” he said.
Palmer, who drove the first green in the final round of the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills and made birdies for his only win at that major championship, would have truly revered DeChambeau’s six-stroke victory at Winged Foot in September.
After the big breakthrough, however, DeChambeau struggled. He entered the Masters in November as one of the favorites; he was never a factor and was tied for 34th place. It was not an outlier. He has not really competed since the US Open victory over Winged Foot. Last week, during the WGC Workday Championship at The Concession, he opened with 77.
But the search continues. DeChambeau experimented with more drive shafts, optimal turning speeds and launch angles. Although the goal was to add weight, he believed he had become too fussy; therefore, he tried to reduce 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. Closer to the green has its advantages. Getting the ball in the hole from there is the key to success.
In his early days when he played the Masters, Palmer was told that his low ball flight would not succeed. He remained stubborn and played his game. He won four green jackets. Palmer would not back down just because someone said he should.
This week, DeChambeau had a conversation with the grandson of Palmer and Sam Saunders, the Korn Ferry Tour pro. The discussion led DeChambeau to believe that The King would approve of his approach.
“I sometimes get in trouble with the length I hit it and where I hit it,” DeChambeau said. ‘But I would say that Mr. Palmer probably would have wanted that. Sam talked to me quite a bit about how he thought Mr. Palmer will love what I do. ‘