AUGUSTA, Georgia. – Bryson DeChambeau was going to obliterate Augusta National last fall. He came from a convincing 6-stroke win at the United States Open, winning the famous Pé Alado. He arrived at Masters with a plan to do the same.
But a funny thing happened on the way to a green jacket.
DeChambeau hit Augusta far, but to the side. The underrated short game that also helped him in Winged Foot disappointed him. He made 18 birdies and an eagle in the week – 20 under par, which was Dustin Johnson’s record 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. “Everything took its toll. It was a combination of some things that made my brain bigger.”
And now he is back, a little thinner, with a better understanding and appreciation both for the diet he did to gain weight and distance and for the need for precision around a golf course that requires it.
But that doesn’t mean he’ll tiptoe through the dogwoods and azaleas at the Masters this week, sailing carefully through Augusta National.
Bryson DeChambeau again plans to try to destroy the place.
“I had to look back and see what went wrong, what happened, which did not allow me to play at the highest level that I did at the United States Open,” said DeChambeau this spring, while also trying to adjust his body. “My direction was not the longest in the United States Open, but I had an incredible shot, I fit in amazingly. My iron game was incredible and I drove very well.”
This, however, did not happen after he drove down Magnolia Lane.
“I look at Augusta … there were many opportunities that I missed with the wedge game, placement and iron,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it was necessarily the driver that got me in trouble for the most part, but there were definitely times when my club and wedges and my iron set caused it.”
DeChambeau has a simple solution: Keep working on it. Keep trying to increase the clubhead speed. Keep trying to add distance.
Even though it didn’t work the first time he brought his scientific methods to Augusta National, DeChambeau left while still gaining some ground in the field.
He has others thinking about him and looking at his own games. While he improves and follows his plan, others have tried to imitate him and have lost their way.
Rory McIlroy provided the best example. Although the four-time main champion would never become a voracious eater and try to gain about 50 pounds, as DeChambeau did, he certainly saw the benefits of trying to get more speed in his swing in an effort to hit the ball more.
“I would be lying if I said it has nothing to do with what Bryson did at the US Open,” said McIlroy after missing the cut in the Players Championship. “I think a lot of people saw this and thought: wow, if that’s how they are going to set up golf courses in the future, [distance] help. It really helps. “
Since mid-February, McIlroy missed two missed cuts and was eliminated earlier from the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play after his worst loss in a decade. He has two first 10s, but even those came with warning signs – he hit 72-76 over the weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and closed with 71 at the WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession. Both times he had a chance to win. Both times he faltered over the weekend.
“I thought being able to get a little more speed is a good thing, and maybe – at the expense of a little bit of my swing,” said McIlroy. “I got there, but I just need to control it a little bit.”
McIlroy is not alone.
“You would be stupid to say what [DeChambeau is] doing on the golf courses doesn’t make things any easier, “said Justin Thomas.” I think it is extremely underestimated and I haven’t talked enough about how straight he gets to swing at 135 mph. I can hit it pretty crookedly at 116 or 117 mph. He hits it straight at 135. And he hits it very well.
“For me, it is being able to find those 10, 15 or 20 extras [yards] if I need or can do it. I would love to fly 330 every time. Without wanting to offend Bryson, I’m not going to put on 40 pounds. I have no constitution or stature for that. I’ve always tried to get the most out of what I can. “
DeChambeau has been very dedicated to this over the past two years or so. He didn’t just start drinking protein shakes and lifting heavy weights one day. Under coach Greg Roskopf, who also works with the NFL’s Denver Broncos, he began putting a plan into practice more than two years before embarking in the fall of 2019.
The results were quick. An initial weight gain of 25 pounds. He added the length of the tee that now sees him leading the PGA Tour at a distance of 320.8 yards. (For the record, McIlroy is third in 319.1).
DeChambeau admits he may have gone too far with all the meat, potatoes, eggs and other foods he was consuming. Her daily quota reached 6,000 calories. The realization that it was time to adjust his diet came at the Masters.
In November, DeChambeau said during the tournament and again weeks later that he just didn’t feel well. He was having some balance problems. He even wondered if he had contracted the coronavirus; he did a COVID-19 test before the third round. The result was negative.
“In fact, I went to several doctors, several people, trying to find out what it was,” he said. “I did some MRI scans. I went to a doctor with an inner ear, eye exams, eye pressure, hearing pressure, I even had an ultrasound on my heart, an ultrasound on my neck to see the blood flow and how things were moving in different areas of the my body. Everything came back very, very well. “
DeChambeau also explained that he saw some very significant changes in his stomach, specifically inflammation. He started working on what he called “gut health” to alleviate problems.
That meant changing your food intake a little. Then he returns to Augusta National a little thinner, but still carrying the same distance and the same plan of attack. The preparation, this time, is different.
Before the event in November, he took a month off the PGA Tour and focused only on the Masters. He considered using a 48-inch driver to try to gain even more distance to try to shorten the Augusta National even further.
While he is still focused on distance, this time he will have worked extensively on other parts of his game. It will also come with positive results. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and was in contention in the final stretch of the Players Championship.
Distance is an advantage at Augusta National. DeChambeau knows this. However, it is not mandatory to be at the top of the leaderboard by early Sunday night. Recent winners like Patrick Reed (287.4 yards off the tee, 182nd on the tour) or Danny Willett (292.9, 129th) prove that you don’t need extra length to take home a green jacket. But it is a great help to be able to drive the bunker on the first hole, or drive the green on the third par 4, or to have short irons on holes 13 and 15 of par 5. At Augusta National, all parts need to be working.
Consider this: DeChambeau played 63-year-old Bernhard Langer in the final round in November. Langer won his two masters before DeChambeau, 27, was born. When they were put together, Langer was 80 yards behind DeChambeau at the tee. Langer shot 71; DeChambeau fired 73.
“I was amazed just watching how they rocked and how hard they hit, and every now and then I had to tell myself, go ahead, stop watching and play your game and find out what you have to do”, said Langer, who also played with McIlroy during the third round.
DeChambeau apparently spends every waking moment doing the same thing. This is certainly what it looks like when he is in a golf tournament, often under the spotlight on the driving range, looking for the right combination of axes, lofts, swing speed and whatever else is needed to launch the ball into orbit.
And now comes another chance against Masters with his success plan still in place.
“I’m just trying to win tournaments,” he said. “I really don’t care much about what people think. It’s just if I can do that. Look, if I fail, I’ll do my best to find out why I failed. So if skeptics are proven wrong, I’m not concerned about that. I thank the skeptics, the ones that really make me think more about – is that right? – and make me dive even deeper into the rabbit hole. “