AUGUSTA, Ga. Bryson DeChambeau was to wipe out Augusta National last fall. He achieved a convincing victory with 6 strokes during the US Open, and overwhelmed the famous Winged Foot. He arrived at the Masters with a plan to do the same.
But a funny thing happened on the way to a green jacket.
DeChambeau beat it far at Augusta, but wide. The underrated short game that also helped him at Winged Foot let him down. He made 18 birdies and an eagle in the week – that’s 20 under par, which was Dustin Johnson’s record score. But … DeChambeau also made 11 arcs, two doubles and a triple series.
“The tension of the tournament, just the spotlight, the whole thing,” he said. “It all took a toll. It was a combination of a few things that made my brain escalate. ‘
And now he is a little leaner again, with a better understanding and appreciation for the diet he has undertaken to gain weight and distance and the need for precision around a golf course that requires it.
But that does not mean he will turn on his toes between the pretzels and azaleas at the Masters this week, and carefully navigate his way through Augusta National.
Bryson DeChambeau again plans to try and blow the place.
“I had to look back on what went wrong, what happened, that did not allow me to perform at the highest level I did during the US Open,” DeChambeau said this spring while also trying to refine his body. . “My driving was not the longest during the US Open, but I sat incredibly, I tightened it incredibly. My iron game was incredible and I managed it pretty well.”
However, that did not happen after he drove down Magnolia Lane.
“I look at Augusta … there were a lot of opportunities I missed with wedge, pit and iron play,” he said. “I would not say that it was necessarily the driver who got me into trouble most of the time, but there were definitely times when my putter and my wedges and my iron game did.”
DeChambeau has a simple solution: keep working on it. Keep increasing the speed of the club head. Keep adding distance.
Though it does not work the first time he brought his scientific methods to Augusta National, DeChambeau walked away and still won field.
He made others think of him and watch their own games. While he was getting better and following his plan, others tried to follow it and lost their way.
Rory McIlroy presented the best example. While the four-time grand champion would never become a greedy eater and like DeChambeau an attempt to gain about 40 kilograms, he certainly saw the benefits of trying to get more speed in his turn in an attempt to hit the ball further.
“I would be lying if I said it had nothing to do with what Bryson did during the US Open,” McIlroy said after missing the win at the Players’ Championship. ‘I think a lot of people have seen it and been like who, if that’s the way they’ll set up golf courses in the future, [distance] help. It really helps. ‘
Since mid-February, McIlroy has missed two tracks and jumped early from the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play after his worst loss in a decade. He did have two top-10s, but even those came with warning signs – he shot 72-76 at the Arnold Palmer invitation over the weekend and finished with 71 at the WGC Workday Championship at The Concession. Both times he had the chance to win. Both times he faltered over the weekend.
“I thought it’s a good thing to be able to get more speed, and I can just – until a little damage to my swing,” McIlroy said. “I got there, but I might just have to re-fit it a little bit.”
McIlroy is not alone.
‘You’ll be stupid if you say that [DeChambeau is] to do to golf courses does not make it easier, “said Justin Thomas. I think it is extremely underestimated and there is not enough talk about how straight he hits it to swing at 135 km / h. I can hit it pretty damn wrong at 116 or 117 km / h. He hits it really straight at 135. And he sets it up really well.
‘For me it’s able to find that extra 10 or 15 or 20 [yards] if I need it or if I can do it. I would love to fly it 330 every time. No offense to Bryson, I’m not going to put on 40 pounds. I do not have the build or size for it. I have always been trying to bring out the best I can. ‘
DeChambeau has been thinking about it and putting in more effort over the past two years. Not only did he start drinking protein shakes one day and lifting heavy weights. Led by coach Greg Roskopf, who also works with the Denver Broncos of the NFL, he began implementing a plan for more than two years before embarking on it in the fall of 2019.
The results were fast. An initial weight gain of 25 pounds. Additional length of tee that now makes him ride the PGA Tour at 320.8 meters. (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 food he consumed. His daily allowance reached 6000 calories. The realization that it was time to refine his diet comes to the Masters.
In November, DeChambeau said during the tournament and again weeks later that he just did not feel right. He had some balance issues. He even wondered if he had contracted the coronavirus; he took a COVID-19 test before the third round. It came back negative.
“I actually went to several doctors, several people, to try to find out what it was,” he said. “I had some MRIs. Going to an in-ear doctor, eye tests, eye pressure, ear pressure, even did ultrasound on my heart, ultrasound on my neck to see the blood flow and how things are going through the different parts of the “Land is moving. My body. Everything came back really well.”
DeChambeau also explained that he had seen some significant changes in his stomach, especially inflammation. He started working on what he calls ‘gut health’ to alleviate the problems.
This meant that he had to change his food intake a bit. So he returns a little leaner to Augusta National, but still carries the same distance and the same plan to attack. However, the preparation is different.
Prior to the event in November, he took a month off from the PGA Tour and focused only on the Masters. He considered using a 48-inch driver to try to get even more distance to shorten Augusta National even further.
While still focused on distance, this time he will have worked a lot on other parts of his game. He will also come in with positive results. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and was in contention at the Players Championship.
Distance is an advantage at Augusta National. DeChambeau knows this. However, it is not essential to be at the top of the standings early Sunday night. Recent winners such as Patrick Reed (287.4 meters from the tee, 182nd on tour) or Danny Willett (292.9, 129th) prove that you do not need extra length to take home a green jacket. But it is a great help to be able to drive the bunker at the first hole, or to drive the green on the par-4 third, or to have short irons in the par-5 13th and 15th holes. At Augusta National, all parts must work.
Consider this: DeChambeau played 63-year-old Bernhard Langer in the final round in November. Langer won both of his Masters before DeChambeau, 27, was born. When they got together, Langer was 80 yards behind DeChambeau from the tee. Langer shot 71; DeChambeau shot 73.
“I was just terribly just watching them swing and how hard they hit it, and every now and then I had to say to myself, go ahead, stop watching and play your game and find out what you need to do,” he said. Langer said. , who also played with McIlroy during the third round.
DeChambeau apparently spends every waking moment doing the same thing. This is definitely what it looks like when he is at a golf tournament, often under floodlights on the practice course, looking for the right combination of shafts, cages, swing speed and everything else needed to turn the ball into a course.
And now another shot at the Masters with his plan for plan still in place.
“I’m just trying to win tournaments,” he said. “I do not really care too much what people think. It’s just about whether I can do it. Look, if I fail, I’m going to do my hardest work to find out why I failed. So whether the skeptics are proven wrong “I’m not worried about that. I appreciate the skeptics, the ones who actually make me think more – is that right? – and let me go even deeper into the rabbit hole.”